Woodrow Wilson Greatly Expanded the Powers of the Presidency
EmpowerU Virtual Class
www.EmpowerUAmerica.org
Tuesday, April 29, 2025
7:00 pm - 8:15 pm
Required Reading: Columbus Experiments with Basic Universal Income–Columbus Dispatch–Click Here
What would the presidency look like in 2025 if Woodrow Wilson had never been #28?
Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, serving from 1913 to 1921. He was the only Democrat who served as president during the Progressive Era. He changed our economic policy, foreign policy, and greatly expanded the power of the presidency.
In the 1912 election, Wilson defeated incumbent Republican William Howard Taft and third-party nominee Theodore Roosevelt, becoming the first Southerner to win the presidency since the 1848 election. During his first year as president, Wilson authorized the widespread imposition of segregation inside the federal bureaucracy and his opposition to women’s suffrage drew protests.
For one year and five months, Edith Wilson, oversaw her husband’s presidential affairs while he recovered from his illness. Woodrow Wilson had suffered a severe stroke in 1919 that left him incapacitated until the end of his presidency. Unofficially, she was called by many as the “First Lady President”.
Woodrow Wilson and Edith Wilson
Many Americans today believe that the Presidency is the most important office in our Constitutional system. In this class we will discuss how Woodrow Wilson – both as an academic and a politician – transformed the office of President from a relatively limited role to being the most powerful office in the land.