The presidential election of 1912 was an unusual moment in American history.

It featured an embattled incumbent president facing criticism from his former allies.

It offered voters a choice between the sitting president and his predecessor.

And when it was all done, the two men who had previously won the presidency

found themselves bested by a college professor

with just a few years of political experience. Why did the predecessor, Teddy Roosevelt,

become so critical of his hand-picked successor William Howard Taft that he decided to break

away from the Republican Party to run against him? Why did the Democrats pick relative newcomer Woodrow Wilson

to be their presidential candidate? And is 1912 an example of how a third-party candidate can

spoil an entire election? Let's find out. Welcome to the Road to Now's third-party election

series. Today, part three, the election of 1912 with Michael Culliname.

I'm Bob Crawford. I'm Ben Sawyer. And this is the Road to Now. It is. And now, Bob, is the year

24, which is a election year for the presidency. And as you all know, we've been doing a series on

also-Rands, third-party candidates. Since there's been some discussion of that in this year's

election, third-party candidates, fourth-party candidates, fifth fifth party candidates, no party candidates.

And so there's been a lot of talk as the media tends to do of apocalyptic scenarios in

which one person running will throw the entire election to the person that I don't want to win

no matter what. And so today we're as a part of this series, we're going back and we are asking

is that true? Has there been a case

in the past where a third party candidate has really shaken things up? And I try to get to the

bottom of it. And even if it has or hasn't, the central question here is how do third, fourth party

candidates, how do they impact the election itself? How do they impact this outcome? And then hopefully try to understand better how those election years have shaped the country moving forward.

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