Independence Party (United States)

After its second-place finish in a race for Governor of Massachusetts in 1907, the party set its sights on the Presidency, and held a national convention to nominate a ticket in 1908.

In 1905, millionaire newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst made a high-profile run for Mayor of New York City under the banner of the Municipal Ownership League.

Hearst ran on a reform ticket in opposition to incumbent Tammany Hall Democrat George B. McClellan, Jr. and Republican William Mills Ivins, Sr.[1] Hearst narrowly missed election, losing to the Democrat by fewer than 3,500 votes out of nearly 600,000 cast between the three candidates, with the New York Supreme Court ultimately deciding the matter in favor of Tammany Hall on June 30 amidst charges of electoral fraud.

In 1906, Hearst again ran for political office, this time being defeated in the race for Governor of New York on a Democratic–Independence League fusion ticket.

The first person nominated was former Congressman Milford W. Howard of Fort Payne, Alabama, placed into consideration by a long-winded speech which drew catcalls.

[4] An attempt by a Kansas delegate to put the name of Democratic Party standard bearer William Jennings Bryan into nomination was met with raucous jeering which briefly prevented the speaker from continuing.

"The hall broke into a wild uproar, a dozen delegates vainly struggling in the main aisle in an attempt to reach Mr. Sheppard.

[4] Sheppard walked from the rostrum under protection of the convention's two sergeants of arms, but was still swung at with a cane by a New York delegate as he passed down the aisle, with the New Yorker forcibly restrained.