Socialist candidates:
Eugene V. Debs, former State Senator from Indiana
Emil Seidel, Mayor of Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Charles Edward Russell, journalist from Iowa
The Socialist Party of America was a highly factionalized coalition of local parties based in industrial cities and rooted in ethnic, especially German and Finnish, communities.
It had some support in formerly Populist rural and mining areas in the West, especially Oklahoma.
By 1912, the party claimed more than a thousand locally elected officials in 33 states and 160 cities, especially the Midwest.
Eugene V. Debs had run for president in 1900, 1904, and 1908, primarily to encourage the local effort, and he did so again in 1912 with little challenge to his nomination.

The party was divided into two main factions.
The conservative faction led by Congressman Victor L. Berger of Milwaukee promoted pragmatic democratic reform, fought corruption, and opposed immigration as both a wage suppressant and drain on public resources.
The radical faction sought to overthrow capitalism, tried to infiltrate labor unions, and sought to cooperate with the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW or "Wobblies").
It supported immigration as a means to increase ranks for the war on capitalism.
With few exceptions, the party had weak or nonexistent links to local labor unions.

Many of these issues had been debated at the First National Congress of the Socialist Party in 1910 and again at the 1912 national convention in Indianapolis.
At the convention, the radicals won an early test by seating IWW leader Bill Haywood on the Executive Committee and passed a resolution favoring industrial unionism.
Conservatives responded by amending the party constitution to expel any who favored industrial sabotage or syndicalism (both being positions of the IWW) and who refused to participate in American elections.
The convention adopted a conservative platform calling for cooperative organization of prisons, a national bureau of health, and abolition of the Senate and of the presidential veto.

Debs did not attend.
He saw his mission as keeping the disparate units together in the hope that someday a common goal would be found.
Socialist candidates:
Eugene V. Debs, former State Senator from Indiana
Emil Seidel, Mayor of Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Charles Edward Russell, journalist from Iowa
The Socialist Party of America was a highly factionalized coalition of local parties based in industrial cities and rooted in ethnic, especially German and Finnish, communities. It had some support in formerly Populist rural and mining areas in the West, especially Oklahoma. By 1912, the party claimed more than a thousand locally elected officials in 33 states and 160 cities, especially the Midwest. Eugene V. Debs had run for president in 1900, 1904, and 1908, primarily to encourage the local effort, and he did so again in 1912 with little challenge to his nomination.
The party was divided into two main factions. The conservative faction led by Congressman Victor L. Berger of Milwaukee promoted pragmatic democratic reform, fought corruption, and opposed immigration as both a wage suppressant and drain on public resources. The radical faction sought to overthrow capitalism, tried to infiltrate labor unions, and sought to cooperate with the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW or "Wobblies"). It supported immigration as a means to increase ranks for the war on capitalism. With few exceptions, the party had weak or nonexistent links to local labor unions.
Many of these issues had been debated at the First National Congress of the Socialist Party in 1910 and again at the 1912 national convention in Indianapolis. At the convention, the radicals won an early test by seating IWW leader Bill Haywood on the Executive Committee and passed a resolution favoring industrial unionism. Conservatives responded by amending the party constitution to expel any who favored industrial sabotage or syndicalism (both being positions of the IWW) and who refused to participate in American elections. The convention adopted a conservative platform calling for cooperative organization of prisons, a national bureau of health, and abolition of the Senate and of the presidential veto.
Debs did not attend. He saw his mission as keeping the disparate units together in the hope that someday a common goal would be found.
1912 United States presidential election