So a few weeks ago I and fellow Lace ‘Em Up writer Griffin Kaye wrote some articles talking about all the failed major party candidates in presidential elections; And after working on this topic for so long, I came to realize that some of these ‘failures’ actually managed to do something more significant and that’s change the direction of their political parties for years to come.

While history might be written by the victors more times than not, it turns out that ‘the losers’ can have a much bigger impact than anyone could’ve imagined.

Whether they failed to win the presidency or came up short in winning their party’s nomination, these politicians ended up changing their party’s ideology for better or worse.

#5. William Jennings Bryan

If there was a Mount Rushmore of failed presidential candidates William Jennings Bryan would certainly be up there.

As mentioned in seperate articles focused on the elections of 1896, 1900 and 1908, Bryan was a capitivating speaker who made his opinions on progressive reforms to the economy, labor rights, the weakening of monopolies and less intervention overseas well known to the public.

Yet despite his losing efforts in three different races, Bryan’s hold over the party was cemmented following his first bid for the presidency as calls for better working conditions, growing wealth inequality and the rise of investigative journalism would see the rise of the Progressive Era.

Thanks to presidents Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson and (to a certain degree) William Taft, the early 20th century would see a bigger focus on environmental rights, regulating corperate power, the creation of the Federal Trade Commission and signing child labor laws.

So although Bryan failed to win the presidency during his lifetime many of his policies would come to form in the following years, plus the Democratic Party itself would also begin it’s first step in becoming a party centered around progressive legislation.

#4. Al Smith

The 1920’s (or Roaring Twenties) would see the Republican Party dominating in three straight presidential elections with their biggest win occurring in 1928.

That year saw businessman and GOP nominee Herbert Hoover easily defeat New York Governor Al Smith to win 40 out of 48 states including states that usually voted for the Democrats like Florida, Texas and Virginia.

But while Smith may have been soundily beaten by Hoover at the ballot box, it turns out that the governor’s efforts on the campaign trail would benefit his party in the no-so-distance future. For starters, he won the state of Massachusetts which hadn’t voted for a Democrat since 1912 and he only lost his homestate of New York by just 2% which is closer than some probably expected.

More importantly, Smith increased the number of Democratic voters in numerous city states that usually would’ve gone for the Republicans, And this along with Smith’s reform minded policies which attracted catholics, urbanites, women and immigrants which would see the beginning of coalition building for the Democrats.

By the next election, Franklin Roosevelt would further build on this support as he courted liberals, labor unions, African Americans, Jewish voters, White Southerners and political party bosses all of whom would help him get elected by November of 1932.

This gave rise to the New Deal Coalition and what ensued was the Democrats taking control of the presidency, the House and the Senate for much of the 20th Century…While any Democrat was bound to win in 1932, it’s possible that there outreach to various voting blocs would’ve been much harder had Al Smith not put in the ground work with his doomed 1928 run.

#3. Barry Goldwater

The only Republican to make it onto this list, Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater had lost interest in running for president in 1964 following the assassination of his friend and Democratic President John F. Kennedy.

That was until a growing movement of conservatives pushed him to run which saw Goldwater not only win the nomination, but it forced the Liberal wing of the Republican Party to throw their support behind President Lyndon B. Johnson.

Once it became clear that Johnson would defeat Goldwater in a landslide come election day, many could’ve seen this as a natural consequence for choosing a candidate whose rhetoric and policy proposals were too radical for mainstream America, but the exact opposite happened.

See the fact that a candidate as right wing as Barry Goldwater managed to get as far as he did was a major shock to the party’s liberal base and in return it fired up the conservative movement which only grew stronger when Southern Democrats began joining the Republicans in 1966 and eventually saw the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980.

#2. Gary Hart

You may not know the name Gary Hart, but if your someone doesn’t like the current state of leadership within the Democratic Party then you can somewhat thank this former Colorado Senator and the movement he began back in the mid 80’s.

After spearheading George McGovern’s 1972 election campaign, Gary Hart would become Senator of Colorado in 1974 and about a decade later he would be one of several Democrats to run for his party’s presidential nomination.

Hart stood out from the rest of his fellow Democrats because at 48 years old he was young, charismatic and his views was a stark contrast to the policies the party was known for since the days of FDR. His vagueness when talking about policies, made Gary Hart the first in a long line of Democrats who favored supply-side economics (aka Reaganomics), free trade with other countries and leaning a bit more conservative on other issues.

After names like John Glenn and George McGovern began losing traction, Hart soon skyrocketed in the polls but came up short to former VP Walter Mondale when it came the nomination. By 1988 Hart was seen as the frontrunner until his career would get derailed when he was found having an extra-martial affair with a woman name Donna Rice Hart never again came close to the presidency.

Hart’s run in 1984 and the creation of centrist themed organizations like the Democratic Leadership Council and the New Democrat Network would see many of these politicians take over the party’s leadership for next several decades. On top of this, names like Michael Dukakis, Hillary Clinton, Al Gore, John Kerry and Kamala Harris all running for the presidency with the most successful being Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

#1. Bernie Sanders

The 2016 race for the nomination looked like a shoo-in for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton given her name recoginition and being the wife of a popular former president, but nobody expected Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders to be the one to disrupt those plans.

Despite his long and tenured political career, Sanders was not well known to mainstream Americans, so when he announced his bid for president and the fact he switched from being an independent to Democrat, left many in the media and those in Washington to not take Sanders seriously.

As the primary season began, it soon became clear that Sanders was going to be a challenge for Clinton as Bernie’s push for Universal Healthcare, being against trade deals that shipped U.S. jobs overseas and ending America’s involvement in most of the wars endeared greatly to younger voters.

Unfortunately due to superdelegates flocking to Hillary, a struggle to connect with certain voter groups and some shadiness between the DNC and the Clinton Campaign saw Sander losing the nomination. He ran again in 2020 with even more support but many Centrists within Democratic leadership refused to have Sanders become their nominee never mind president and allegedly convinced other candidates in the race to drop out and endorse Joe Biden, who would go on to defeat Trump in the general election.

Given his loss in capturing the nomination twice and his advanced age, the party’s establishment thought they ended any chance of a return to progressive governest back within the Democratic Party, but like many of the men we talked about already, this defeat would begin a resurgance that soon spread throughout the party.

In the years after Sanders’ two presidential bids, Progressives and Democratic Socialists like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, IIhan Omar, Ro Khanna and Zohran Mamdani all would go on to win their elections in the state and local level, with much attention centering on their outspoken nature and policy solutions like a Green New Deal.

While it’s still to soon to see how far this movement will go, the recent trends in the 2026 midterms show that the Democrats might be heading back to days of progressivism albeit with much resistance from the party’s establishment.

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