Vivian M. Lewis

Who was Vivian M. Lewis?

Vivian M. Lewis was an American jurist and politician who was the Republican nominee for Governor of New Jersey in 1910 against Woodrow Wilson.

Lewis was born in Paterson, New Jersey in 1869 to Isaac Arriston and Hanna Lewis. He attended local schools in Paterson. As was the custom of the time, he studied law with private tutors and was admitted to the bar in 1892. During this time he also wrote for New York newspapers.

In 1897 he was elected as a Republican to the New Jersey General Assembly. He was re-elected in 1899 and 1900, serving as majority leader in the Assembly during his last term.

In 1904 Lewis was elected City Counsel of Paterson. He resigned this position when Governor Franklin Murphy appointed him Clerk in Chancery. Lewis filled the vacancy left by Edward C. Stokes, who resigned upon his inauguration as Governor. He was renominated by Stokes for a full term in 1905. Lewis left the position of Clerk in Chancery in 1909 when he was appointed by Governor John Franklin Fort to be the State Commissioner of Banking and Insurance.

In 1910 Lewis was nominated to be the Republican candidate for Governor of New Jersey, facing off against Democrat Woodrow Wilson, then President of Princeton University. Wilson ran a spirited campaign declaring his independence from machine politics, promising that party bosses would not control the state if he was elected. Lewis could reply only that he agreed with Wilson's position. Wilson soundly defeated Lewis in the general election by a margin of more than 49,000 votes, despite the fact that Republican William Howard Taft had carried New Jersey in the 1908 presidential election by more than 80,000 votes.