Party Like it’s 1912
The election of 1912 has always fascinated me. It was when Teddy Roosevelt broke from the Republican megalith to form a new political party.
Roosevelt didn’t like the direction that his successor, William Howard Taft, was taking the GOP. Teddy felt that his legacy of progressive economic and social policies was being undone by a party increasingly entrenched with big industry and business.
When it became clear that the Republican Party did not want the reform-minded Roosevelt to return, ol’ TR donned his bifocals, twisted his walrus mustache, and created his own path.
He called it the Progressive Party, but history remembers it by another name. “I’m as fit as a bull moose,” he bellowed when a reporter inquired about his health, and the name stuck.
The Bull Moose Party platform called for business regulations and tariff reductions, increased workers’ rights, conservation efforts, aid to the poor, and women’s suffrage. Roosevelt’s Square Deal policies aimed to “give a fair shot to everyone.”
A war hero and carrier of a big stick, Roosevelt could also walk softly. He was self-effacing, could admit when he was wrong, could learn from a mistake, and showed the capacity to unite across party lines.
Roosevelt gave speech after speech. Americans saw that the Bull Moose offered them another option. The movement gained steam. Election day arrived. And for the only time in American history, an independent party received more votes than a major party.
Alas, though, the third-party curse of split votes reared its head and hamstrung the moose. While Taft’s 21% of the popular vote only garnered him eight electoral votes compared to Teddy’s 88, it was more than enough to allow Democrat Woodrow Wilson a landslide electoral college victory.
That’s just how it is, right? Ever since the squabbles between Federalists and Anti-Federalists in the earliest days of our American Experiment, we’ve been a two-party land, any independent momentum fleeting and bound for relegation.
Perhaps not forever.
A Gallup Poll released earlier this year shows that a record 45% of Americans now identify as independents. And with GenZ and Millennial voters polling at roughly 55% independent, the trend away from Republican and Democrat alignment may only grow.
The nation, it seems, is seeking a different direction, something more than the rock-and-a-hard-place option so often doled out by the two major parties.
Which brings us to the upcoming election.
The 2026 midterms will see sharp increases in independent candidates nationwide, with 129 of the 435 House district races and 24 of the 35 Senate races featuring a candidate other than a Democrat or Republican. A strong signal of the times and trends, no doubt. But without major party backing, the path to independent candidates actually winning races remains an uphill battle.
Currently, there are only two Independents in the Senate, Angus King of Maine and Bernie Sanders of Vermont, and both caucus with the Democrats. In the house, the lone independent is Kevin Kiley, who represented California’s 3rd district since 2022 as a Republican before becoming an Independent last March.
To retain his seat as chairman of the House Education & Workforce Subcommittee, however, Kiley was forced to continue to caucus with Republicans, a practice, he has said, that adds to the “polarization and dysfunction that prevails in this building.”
Kiley is on the ballot as an Independent for California’s newly redistricted District 6. If elected, he has stated that he will not continue to caucus with Republicans, sticking to his independent bent even if it means exclusion from committees.
Kiley gave further teeth to his stance, when, on Sept. 15, he broke with his old party’s talking points regarding the Supreme Court’s decision against presidential attempts to block mail-in ballots.
“I support the right of Californians to vote by mail and am grateful for the Supreme Court’s decision,” Kiley stated in a release. “Election policy should result from a thoughtful and deliberative legislative process, not from executive orders issued on the eve of voting.”
Whether Kiley’s shift to independent status proves as mere politicking or an actual change that reflects America’s mode, we shall see. Whether America’s growing desire to move beyond the dysfunction of party-line politics will, or even can, be met, we shall see.
It was Roosevelt leading his Rough Riders charge up San Juan Hill in Cuba that catapulted him to the forefront of the American political sphere. In doing so, he was one of the last great leaders to truly lead from the front. Perhaps this election season we’ll see someone else, with independence, who can too.
