Debs Seidel Socialist Candidates 1912

Portraits of Eugene V. Debs on the left and Emil Seidel on the right set against a red background with text on the top and bottom

In the 1912 United States presidential election, the Socialist Party of America nominated Eugene V. Debs as their nominee for President. Having already run in the same election in 1900, 1904, and 1908, Debs was hailed as a leading figure of socialist ideals and values within the United States. For the election, Debs selected Milwaukee's mayor at the time, Emil Seidel, be his running mate. Holding the distinction of being the first Socialist mayor of a major city in the United States, Seidel was seen as a logical and popular choice for the role of Vice President. The election would see Debs and Seidel face off against Woodrow Wilson of the Democratic party, William Howard Taft of the Republican Party, and also former President, Theodore Roosevelt, who after failing to receive the Republican nomination called for his own convention and created the Progressive Party, for which he was the nominee. In the end, Wilson emerged as the winner of the election. Debs, meanwhile, received 6% of the popular vote, his highest ever as a candidate. He would go on to run once more in the 1920 election, where he campaigned from prison as a result of his vocal opposition to the United States role in World War I.