page_title: James S. Sherman
section_title: Re-nomination, illness, and death
hierarchical_section_title: James S. Sherman / Re-nomination, illness, and death
caption_attribution_description: English: Bust, marble, of James S. Sherman by Bessie Potter Vonnoh, 1911; United States Senate Collection, Washington, D.C.; modeled 1910, carved 1911. Sculptor's full name: Bessie Onahotema Potter Vonnoh (1872-1955).
context_page_description: James Schoolcraft Sherman was an American politician who was a United States representative from New York from 1887 to 1891 and 1893 to 1909, and the 27th vice president of the United States from 1909 until his death. He was a member of the interrelated Baldwin, Hoar, and Sherman families, prominent lawyers and politicians of New England and New York.
  Although not a high-powered administrator, he made a natural congressional committee chairman, and his genial personality eased the workings of the House, so that he was known as 'Sunny Jim'. He was the first vice president to fly in a plane, and also the first to throw out the ceremonial first pitch at a baseball game.
  Sherman is the most recent vice president to have died in office.
context_section_description: From 1910, Taft had experienced several disagreements with ex-President Theodore Roosevelt, who presently walked out and formed his own Bull Moose party. This made re-election for the Republicans almost impossible, but they campaigned on the same ticket in the 1912 contest, with New Yorkers once again supporting Sherman's nomination  –  the first time that a sitting vice president had been re-nominated since John C. Calhoun in 1828.
  
  Diagnosed with Bright's disease in 1904, Sherman's health was failing by the time of the 1912 campaign. Less than a week before the election, he died at home in Utica, six days after his 57th birthday, and President Taft was left with no running mate, although Nicholas Murray Butler was designated to receive the electoral votes that Sherman would have received. Taft and Butler came in third place in the election, carrying only eight electoral votes from Utah and Vermont. Democratic candidate Woodrow Wilson and his running mate Thomas R. Marshall won the election while Progressive candidate Theodore Roosevelt and his running mate Hiram Johnson came in second place. The vice presidency remained vacant until Marshall's inauguration on March 4, 1913.
caption: Bust of Sherman by Bessie Potter Vonnoh, 1911
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