The election of 1912 took place in the middle of the Progressive Era, and was one of the most hotly contended in American history, and certainly one of the most progressive. It was a rare one, where three candidates were running pretty close to each other, and all of them promoted progressive ideas. This was the first year of the existence of the Progressive Party, too. The Progressive Party’s first candidate was Teddy Roosevelt, one-time liberal Republican who abandoned his old party and set out to start something new. He’d been bucking the Republican Party on a lot of policy issues regarding corporate regulation and labor—issues where the Democrats of the day were much stronger—ever since his early days in New York state politics in the 1880s.. Roosevelt had an aggressive, take-no-prisoners style, and was very good at—and very impatient about—getting his agenda enacted. The Republican Party, then a very conservative and business-friendly party, had mixed feelings about him. Ro