Despite incumbent president William Howard Taft winning the national Republican nomination, the South Dakota Republican Party, under the control of progressives and heavily influenced by senator Coe I. Crawford, instead nominated electors pledged to Theodore Roosevelt, with the Progressive Party not appearing on the ballot.

[1] This selection proved controversial with conservative Taft supporting Republicans who unsuccessfully attempted to overturn the decision in court.

[2] As a result, South Dakota was the only state in the 1912 election not to have president Taft either on the ballot or as a write in option (as in California).

[3] Despite this Roosevelt carried the state albeit with a much reduced margin from Taft's victory in 1908.

[4] This was the only non-former Confederate state to give any candidate an absolute majority of the vote.