Although some primaries were established earlier, their first real test came in 1912. All the candidates that year - New Jersey Gov. Woodrow Wilson and House Speaker James Beauchamp Clark of Missouri on the Democratic side; President William Howard Taft, former President Theodore Roosevelt, and Wisconsin Sen. Robert M. La Follette on the Republican side - claimed to be Progressives, except, of course, when the new primary system didn't favor them.
Wilson, for example, owed his 1910 election as New Jersey's governor to the Democratic machine, but he spouted Progressive rhetoric in running for his party's presidential nod. A former Princeton University president and political science professor, Wilson was academic and stiff. His major opponent, Clark, was folksy, and known by his nicknames "Champ" and "Ol' Hound Dawg."
Early failures
Clark won nine state primaries, Wilson five. Although Clark went into the convention with a sizable psychological lead over the relatively unknown Wilson, it was not enough to garner the two-thirds of delegates required. During the convention, thinking Clark would nevertheless be the nominee, New York's Tammany Hall bosses put their support behind him. Notwithstanding that, the new primary system seemed to be working as the Progressives intended, because Clark, the leader in primary wins, also gained delegates from non-primary states who were impressed by his lead.
Then William Jennings Bryan, an elder statesman who was expected to remain neutral, came out for Wilson. Wilson finally reached the required two-thirds after 46 ballots; in return, he later made Bryan his secretary of state.
