William Howard Taft lost much of his support from progressiv…
William Howard Taft lost much of his support from progressives and effectively split the Republican Party in half when he fired the popular chief of the forestry service: . The firing of the forestry chief angered many progressive Republicans (including Taft’s predecessor: Theodore Roosevelt). While Taft managed to receive the Republican nomination for president in 1912, Roosevelt ran against him as part of a third party (the Bull Moose Party), thus splitting the vote among Republicans and allowing Democratic challenger Woodrow Wilson to earn the presidency.