The 1912 presidential campaign featured a current president a former president, and an academic who had entered politics only two years earlier. The election's outcome determined the path of the Progressive movement. Picking the Candidates Believing that President William Howard Taft had failed to live up to progressive ideals, Theodore Roosevelt informed seven state governors that he was willing to accept the Republican nomination My hat the ring!" he declared. "The fight is on The struggle for control of the Republican Party reached its climax at the national convention in Chicago in June 1912. Conservatives rallied behind Taft. Most progressives supported Roosevelt. When it became clear that Taft's delegates controlled the nomination, Roosevelt decided to leave the party and campaign as an independent. Declaring himself "fit as a bull moose," Roosevelt became the presidential candidate for the newly formed Progressive Party which quickly became known as the Bull Moose Party. Because Taft had alienated so many groups, the election of 1912 became a contest between two progressives: Roosevelt and the Democratic candidate Woodrow Wilson After a university teaching career that culminated in his becoming the president o Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson entered politics as a firm progressive. As the governor of New Jersey, he pushed through many progressive reforms.