Big Sky Chronicles: Presidential campaigns

Montana's political landscape has been influenced by many significant events in the state's history. In this week’s Big Sky Chronicles, Beartooth NBC looks at how presidential campaigns in Montana have changed and stayed the same throughout the years.

In the 1912 presidential election there were four competing candidates in Montana Woodrow Wilson, Teddy Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and Eugene Debs.

"Politics today seem to be extremely contentious and we have a tendency just to focus in on what's going on for us and when we take a look back 100 years ago we actually see that politics in 1912 were extremely contentious then," says Archivist/Oral Historian, Rich Aarstad.

Back then the campaign trail was traveled by rail, and many speeches were given from train cars.

"The people would come out for these events and it's their chance to see the candidates, so they'd come from far and wide to see them at the railroad station and along the route," says Government Records Archivist, Jeff Malcomson.

The Montana Historical Society has material from a plethora of presidential campaigns over the years.

"It is an interesting snapshot at Montana politics and we have it in various formats.  The buttons that you see here are from the museum collection, the inaugural pamphlet is from the collection up in the library, the photographs are from the photograph archive," says Aarstad.

While looking back may reveal similarities to today's races, the growth of communication and transportation technology has changed the face of elections.

"Television and having elections carried on that way rather than actually meeting candidates, seeing them.  They don't often come to the state very often as much as they probably did in back in pre-World War II days,” says Malcomson.

"I think that's probably the biggest change that you see is we don't have that corridor of travel across Montana anymore.  They fly over at 30 thousand feet and we end up missing out," says Aarstad.

Wilson beat out his opponents in 1912 to become Commander-in-Chief, and just like today, it was headline news.

The Montana Historical Society collects new election material as it becomes available, knowing one day it will give a glimpse into the past.

Story by Kaelyn Kelly, Beartooth NBC.
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