The Democratic and Republican Parties have been the two most dominant political groups within the United States as both sides have done everything in their power to ensure that they are the only options the American people have when comes to presidential elections. However, they have been a number of 3rd Party Presidential Candidates who’s made an attempt to run as most of these candidates tend to focus on important issues ignored by the two major parties.
Whilst many of these candidates don’t stand much of a chance of winning the election, they do end up shocking people by winning not only some of the popular vote but also a few electoral votes as well and in this list, I will be mentioning those 3rd Party Presidential Candidate who did far better than most would have expected.
I’m excluding George Washington from this list because he ran in elections where he was the only candidate, this list will focus on those who ran against multiple challengers in a presidential election.
Honorable Mentions
- Gary Johnson (2016)
- Eugene V. Debs (1900, 1904, 1908, 1912 & 1920)
- Martin Van Buren (1848)
- John B. Anderson (1980)
- John Floyd (1832)
- Henry A. Wallace (1948)
- Allen L. Benson (1916)
- John P. Hale (1852)
- William Lemke (1936)
- Harry Byrd (1960)
#10. William Wirt: Anti-Masonic Party (1832)
Seems appropriate with kick things off by talking about the very first person to represent the first major third party in U.S. political history.
The story of the Anti-Masonic Party is something I plan on talking about in depth in a future article, but for the sake of this entry all you need to know is that this group formed under the basis of opposing the rich and elite in American who they believe are secretly controlling the government behind the scenes.
This ragtag group of people that made up the Anti-Masons had enough clout to run a candidate for president in 1832 and they went with one of the most well known and respected Attorney General’s in American History at the time, William Wirt as their nominee for president.
Even though, Wirt himself was actually a Mason not to mention the fact that he was hoping this whole thing would lead to him getting an endorsement by the National Republican Party, he still went along with it although a historian by the name of William Preston Vaughn described Wirt in the 1832 election as:
“Possibly the most reluctant and most unwilling presidential candidate ever nominated by an American Party.”
Nonetheless, Wirt finished the election with 7 electoral votes which all from the state of Vermont, and received 7.8% of the popular vote…Not great but things would improve for third party candidates in the decades that followed.
#9. Millard Fillmore: The American/Know Nothing Party (1856)
The late 1840 into the early 1860’s saw a number of third party candidates run for president but perhaps one of the more attention grabbing would have be the American Party better known as The Know Nothing Party since the group was so secretive with their meetings many members didn’t know anything.
While the party failed to make an impression in 1852, their fortune would turn around come the next election when they nominated former Vice President turn 13th President of the United States, Millard Fillmore.
Back in 1852, Fillmore came up short when he tried to capture the Whig Party’s nomination, but it wouldn’t be until four years later when the former president unenthusiastically became the head of the ticket for the mostly nativist and xenophobic Know-Nothing Party.
Similar to William Wirt and the Anti-Masonic Party, Millard Fillmore wasn’t a member of the Know Nothing Party and was in fact out of the country when he got the nomination, but decide to run with it because…Reasons.
Fillmore ended up getting all of Maryland’s 8 electoral votes and won 21.5% of the popular vote.
#8. Strom Thurmond- States Right’s Democratic Party (1948)
Since their inception back in mid to late 1820’s, the Democratic Party was a party whose key support mainly came from the South and any candidate running as a Democrat refused to support the prospect of racial equality, least they plan on losing the majority of their voters.
Fast forward to the election of 1948 and incumbent Democratic President, Harry S. Truman is in favor a platform that calls for desegregating the military and this lead to many southern Democrats or Dixiecrats leaving the convention in protest.
These Dixiecrats would go on to create their own party called The States Rights Democratic Party with aim of preventing Truman and the GOP’s nominee for president, Thomas Dewey from getting enough electoral votes to win the election resulting in the two major parties having to make deals with that would satisfy the Dixiecrats and then they would support the candidacy of either Truman or Dewey.
Strom Thurmond, a South Carolina Governor whose known for giving the longest filibuster speech in American History was chosen to represent the party and it’s Jim Crow policies on the campaign trail, but the Dixiecrats’ plan to deadlock the election failed as Harry Truman won a decisive victory in the electoral vote, leaving Thurmond to rack up 2.4% of the popular vote and 39 electoral votes from the states of South Carolina (naturally), Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and one faithless electoral vote from Tennessee.
#6. John Bell: Constitutional Union Party (1860)
After a number of disappointing presidents and a host of decisions that only furthered the possibility of an American Civil War, the 1860 presidential election would be the turning point with four different candidates running for highest office in the land.
Whilst the Republicans ran with Abraham Lincoln as their candidate, the Democrats were divided so much that two different people ran for president with one representing the North and the other representing the South. Not long afterwards, a new political party which saw the remains of the Whig Party and the Know Nothing Party come together to create the Constitutional Union Party with the goal of preserving the country as seen with it’s slogan:
“The Union as it is, The Constitutional as it is.”
The party saw number of influencial politicians being considered for the nomination before it ultimately fell onto John Bell, who was a former Senator from Tennessee. With the country in such a divide, some candidates weren’t on the ballot in every state with Bell and Southern Democratic Party candidate, John C. Breckinridge only getting votes in the deep South and upper southern states.
By the end of it, Bell came out of this election with 39 electoral votes (which put him in third place behind Lincoln and Breckinridge) as he won the states of Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia; However Bell came in fourth place in the popular vote with just 12.6%.
#5. Ross Perot:
Independent & Reform Party (1992 & 1996)
Texas billionaire and businessman, Henry Ross Perot appeared on Larry King Live in February of 1992 and announced his decision to run as an independent candidate in the upcoming 1992 election provided the American people could be able to get his name on the ballot in all 50 states.
Perot may have been a conservative but he ran on a mostly populist agenda which included things like opposing NAFTA and the outsourcing of U.S. jobs overseas, balancing the federal budget, gun control and the implementation of what is now referred to as Digital/E-Democracy in town halls.
At one point Perot was polling around 39% of the vote compared to Bill Clinton and George HW Bush who had 29% and 31% respectively, but in July Perot made the unexpected decision to withdraw from the race over the belief that the Bush administration would release doctored photos that would ruin his daughter’s soon-to-be wedding.
However, Perot got back into the race in October just a month after getting his name of the ballot in all 50 states and he would became the first and only third party candidate to participate in the Presidential Debates alongside his Democratic and Republican opponents and by the end of the 1992 election, Perot didn’t get any electoral votes but did pull a tremendously large amount of the popular vote getting 18.9%.
Perot would run again in 1996 as the first candidate for the newly created Reform Party but due to ballot laws being changed to stack the deck against the third party candidates, his support wasn’t as strong as before but he did get 8.4% of the popular vote which is still high for someone not running as a Democrat or Republican.
#4. Robert La Follette- Progressive Party (1924)
A legendary figure of the progressive movement and American politics, Robert La Follette Senior spent the majority of his career fighting against the special interest in Washington while also fighting for the common people who’ve been disillusioned by the ideals of the Democrats and the Republicans in previous years.
Much like third party candidates, La Follette failed to get the nomination of his party going into the 1924 election so he and a legion of his supporters created the Progressive Party which supported plans to regulate monopiles and the railroad industries, passing child labor laws, reducing political corruption and making the rich pay more in taxes.
La Follette’s message and political record was so strong that even other third parties like the Socialist Party of America and the American Federation of Labor endorsed him, by election day however La Follette won 13 electoral votes from his home state of Wisconsin and 16.6% of the popular vote.
#3. James B. Weaver:
People’s Party/Populist (1892)
Back in 1880, a politician and Union soldier in the Civil War by the name of James B. Weaver ran with the Greenback Party but pulled in 3.4% of the popular vote and no electoral votes.
While Weaver and the Greenback Party lost the election, their ideas as well as other populist policies like the direct election of U.S. Senators, an income tax and unlimited amount sliver being used to create inflation would carry for years to come.
By 1891, a new political party had formed called the People’s Party or better known as the Populists who went on to win several local elections before nominating James Weaver as their candidate in the 1892 presidential election against former Democratic president, Grover Cleveland and incumbent Republican president, Benjamin Harrison.
By the end of the election, Weaver did far better in his second outing getting 8.5% of the popular vote and won 22 electoral votes in the states of Nevada, Idaho, North Dakota, Colorado, Kansas and a faithless electoral vote from Oregon…This made Weaver and the People’s Party the only third party to get electoral votes between 1860 and 1912.
#2. George C. Wallace: American Independence Party (1968)
Before Donald Trump officially ran for president, there was another race-baiting, populist sounding candidate running for office and his name was George Wallace, who much like Strom Thurmond before him was too not pleased with the idea of ending segregation especially in the South; After doing well in the primaries in 1964, the former Governor of Alabama decided to leave the Democrats and began running under a third party.
Wallace got the nomination for the newly created American Independence Part’ and ran against Richard Nixon and Hubert Humphrey in the chaotic election of 1968; While the former southern governor continued to fan the flames of racial tensions with his speeches and many rallies on the campaign trail, he also appealed to many blue-collar workers who were getting sick and tired of having their problems tossed aside by the two major parties…That sounds familiar?
When the dust settled, George Wallace ended up with 13.5% of the popular vote whilst getting 46 electoral votes from some of the places that had voted for Thurmond in 1948 while also getting votes from the states of Georgia and Arkansas.
Since the election of 1968, no third party has been able to receive any electoral votes in a presidential election making George Wallace the last third party candidate to achieve this feat!
#1. Theodore Roosevelt:
Progressive Party/Bull Moose Party (1912)
While many of the names I’ve mentioned on this list many have done well for themselves either from a popular or electoral vote perspective, the undisputed gold standard of a successful third party candidate running for presidential has to be former president Theodore Roosevelt in the election of 1912.
Following his decision not to seek another term, the former POTUS chose his protégé and the Secretary of War, William Howard Taft to continue his progressive ideals following Taft’s decisive victory in 1908 unfortunately many progressives and Roosevelt himself were disheartened by Taft’s more conservative ways of leading the nation which lead to Roosevelt challenging Taft in the 1912 Republican Primaries.
Despite winning more primaries and getting more of the delegates, the GOP establishment at the time controlled the convention so much that it was seemingly obvious that Taft would get the party’s nomination; This led to Roosevelt and his supporters to create the first ever Progressive Party also known as ‘The Bull Moose Party’ after a response Roosevelt gave to the newspapers claiming he felt as strong as a Bull Moose.
Roosevelt and his progressive Bull Moose Party went up against not only President Taft but also Democratic candidate, Woodrow Wilson and Socialist Party nominee, Eugene Debs in an exciting four-way race for the presidency.
While Roosevelt didn’t win the election, his performance set a record that will never be broken in the history of presidential elections as Roosevelt came in second place with 27.4 % of the popular vote and winning 88 electoral votes in the states of California, Washington, South Dakota, Minnesota, Michigan and Pennsylvania.
This makes Roosevelt the only third party candidate to ever come in second place in a presidential election and his performance in the 1912 election can be seen as one of the greatest for any third party candidare running for president and as such. Theodore Roosevelt easily takes the top spot on this list.
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