Key Takeaways
EveryU.S. presidentelected to place since 1852 has belonged to one of twopolitical parties : Republicans and Democrats . But polling information suggest that many people are n’t quenched with that either - or scenario in the voting booth . In 2018 , a Gallup survey found that 57 percent of Americans supported the thought of a third party . Only 38 per centum trust the current two - party system of rules was doing an adequate job [ source : Reinhart ] . Nevertheless , the odds of that pass off are slim , judging by third parties ' corporate bequest as fanfare in the genus Pan that glimmer every four age or so and apace fade out .
Perhaps one of the best - known quotes about political third parties comes from deceased Columbia University prof and popular historian Richard Hofstadter : " Third parties are like bees . Once they have bite , they die " [ generator : Douthat ] . Often functioning to highlight hot - button issues that major parties might not give care to approach , third parties have successfully steered political discourse and legislating , yet mostly have n’t stuck around long enough to get their own candidates into berth , peculiarly in the case of presidential elections . Nevertheless , a number of those who have attempt to reach the White House on third party tickets have hang in in public memory because , though ultimately abortive , they attracted noteworthy proportions of pop vote . Not only that , the most successful third - company campaigner in U.S. account is also largely responsible for the prospicient - time sovereignty of America ’s two - party political anatomical structure .
10: Ron Paul (2008)
Percent of the Popular Vote : 0.03
In the 2008 presidential election , Republican Congressman Ron Paul only won 0.03 percent of the popular vote , plopping him in 9th place [ author : Federal Election Commission ] . Despite the slight returns , the Texas legislator has been credited with spark the Tea Party , a wide advertise conservative third company that emerged in 2009 [ source : Reeve ] . Paul ’s vocal stance on minimizing the function of politics to the point of fade out the Federal Reserve and returning to the gilded criterion , as well as back out military forces in foreign frontier settlement , also re - energized the Libertarian Party , the oldest third party in the U.S. [ beginning : Sanneh ] .
desire to score the Republican nomination for president in 2012 , Paul slay the hunting expedition trail again and spread his shrink - the - government content to larger crowds . But in May 2012 , with former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney in an insurmountable delegate lead , Paul threw in the towel , having won no primaries or caucuses .
9: Strom Thurmond (1948)
Percent of Popular Vote : 2.4
Though he left behind one of the most vituperate political legacy in U.S. account , former South Carolina governor Strom Thurmond managed to win 2.4 percent of the popular vote when he ran for President of the United States in 1948 . Running on a pro - segregation platform , Thurmond was the leader of the third - party States ' Rights Democratic Party , better roll in the hay as the Dixiecrats , which sliver from the Democratic Party when the latter endorsed racial integration of the military machine at its 1948national convention[source : Modern Encyclopedia of Georgia ] . Appealing to Department of State in the Deep South , Thurmond and the Dixiecrats won Alabama , Mississippi , South Carolina and Louisiana [ source : Woolley and Peters ] . But the segregationist position did n’t attract all-embracing financial support in thepre - Civil Rights political climate , and the company thaw after the election . As Democratic opponent Harry S. Truman then entered his 2d presidential term , Thurmond , meanwhile , go on to have a 47 - year vocation as a U.S. senator for South Carolina , and turned 100 years one-time while still in position in 2002 [ reference : Biographical Directory of the United States Congress ] .
8: Ralph Nader (2000)
pct of the Popular Vote : 2.74
When Green Party candidate Ralph Nader announced that he wasrunning for presidentin 2004 , the response from the broad end of the political spectrum was n’t needs celebratory . Four old age earlier , Democratic leaders had promote Nader to throw out of the raceway to prevent the Green Party from potentially deflect elector from their candidate , formerVice PresidentAl Gore . When Gore lost to Republican candidate George W. Bush by few than 1 million votes , some Democrats automatically blamed Nader for rape the election [ germ : Moore ] .
7: George Wallace (1968)
Percent of the Popular Vote : 13.5
The year 1968 was a raucous enough , even without apresidential election . backwash riotserupted in major U.S. cities , including Detroit , Baltimore and Chicago , and Martin Luther King , Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy were assassinated in April and June , respectively . During that time , Alabama Governor George Wallace ’s wife also died from cancer in the thick of his run for the White House [ informant : PBS ] .
Having splendidly declared " sequestration now , segregation tomorrow , segregation forever , " Wallace was running forpresidenton the American Independent Party ticket , which staunchly opposed integrating and onanism from the Vietnam War [ source : Pearson ] . Harping on racist veneration of integration , Wallace performed well below theMason - Dixon Lineand triumphed in five Southern states , capture a sizeable 13.5 percent of the countrywide pop right to vote [ informant : Woolley and Peters ] . But as Civil Rights tension gradually eased , Wallace ’s anti - minority ornateness lost its entreaty in his successive presidential attempts in 1972 and 1976 [ author : Pearson ] .
6: Robert La Follette (1924)
Percent of the Popular Vote : 16.6
While serve as a Wisconsin district lawyer in 1890 , Robert " Fighting Bob " La Follette was offered a bribe by a Republican state of matter drawing card in exchange for La Follette cease a court case from indicting a group of fellow legislator [ source : Wisconsin Historical Society ] . assault by the display of political corruption , La Follette get down a public career of verbalise out againstcorporate and political dishonestyand leapfrog from the governorship of Wisconsin in 1900 to the U.S. Senate six years by and by , a post he would bear for the rest of his life . Having earned a national reputation as a reform drawing card and an frank opponent of American involvement in World War I , La Follette ran forpresidentin 1924 on the Progressive Party ticket . With 16.6 percent of the popular vote , La Follette nevertheless came in third to Democrat John W. Davis and the winning Republican Calvin Coolidge , who fetch in 54 percentage of the right to vote . La Follette pop off the next year .
5: Ross Perot (1992)
pct of the Popular Vote : 18.6
Independentpresidential candidateand billionaire Ross Perot suspend his 1992 safari for three month from July to October , re-start it barely one month before Americans headed to the poll to plunk among him , George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton [ source : Holmes ] . The pop voting results indicate that the happy chance from ambo speeches and baby - kissing was n’t all that prejudicious either .
Having bankrolled his own bid for the White House , the wealthy Texan courted voters with promises of a balanced federal budget and a halt to shortfall spending . In replication , Perot romance 18.6 percent of the vote . stupefied pundits note that the conservative - slant Perot had become one of the most successful third party candidates to date , but his 2nd presidential audition in 1996 on the Reform Party ticket was n’t so rose-cheeked . Up against Bill Clinton once again , Perot end up with only 8 percent of the votes [ source : Woolley and Peters ] .
4: Millard Fillmore (1856)
Percent of the Popular Vote : 21.6
Just as race relations oblige anti - desegregation pol Strom Thurmond ( 1948 ) and George Wallace ( 1968 ) to run forpresidenton third - party tickets , the rights of black citizens was also the pivotal issue a century prior in the 1856 election . At the same fourth dimension , the political landscape was undergoing a major transition . The formerly rife Whig Party had begun dissolving , and a newfangled , pro - abolition chemical group call up the Republican Party was on the rise to dispute the established Democratic Party , which opt to bequeath slavery up to res publica to decide [ source : Ernst and Sabato ] . With that topsy - turvy political backcloth , the halfway - ground American Party name former President Millard Fillmore , who calibrate fromvice presidentto the executive seat after Zachary Taylor die in office in 1850 , to campaign on its anti - immigration political platform . Fillmore and his nicknamed " Know Nothings " – a moniker that referred to the secret way in which the political party was organized – did n’t hold much appeal to striver - take Southerners but divert enough electoral vote out from the Republicans to deliver the presidentship to Democrat James Buchanan [ source : Heidler , Heidler and Coles ] . Maryland was the only land that side with Fillmore and the Know Nothings .
3: William Jennings Bryan (1896)
Percent of the Popular Vote : 45.8
In 1896 , former Nebraska Congressman William Jennings Bryan received nominations to run for forpresidentfrom not one , but three , party : Democrats , Populists and Free Silver [ source : Encyclopædia Britannica ] . Having traveled around speak publically on reform-minded number for the late two age , Bryan wow the audience at the 1896 Democratic National Convention with his famous speech , " Cross of Gold , " which argue for broadening U.S. currency beyondgold . By stump for high-flown silver neologism , which would have been a fiscal boon to debt - strapped farmers , the nickname " Boy Orator " held the most solicitation for rural and agrarian voters , while the Republicans ' William McKinley delineate in the urban electorate [ reference : USHistory.org ] .
In the end , the support of three political company , including the Democrats , was n’t enough to flog the Republicans . Bryan gave McKinley a comely run for his money and move on to draw as the popular campaigner for president two more times , serve as Woodrow Wilson ’s Secretary of State and pursue John Thomas Scopes for teaching evolution in the turning point Scopes Monkey Trial . Meanwhile , the 1896 loss also signalise the disbanding of the Populist Party .
2: Theodore Roosevelt (1912)
Percent of the Popular Vote : 29
When Rough Rider Teddy Roosevelt first galloped into the White House as William McKinley’svice presidentin 1900 , he did so as a Republican . But when he take to the woods for office for the third time in 1912 , the splintered Republicans side with Roosevelt ’s 1908 presidential replacement , William Howard Taft . Incensed , Roosevelt and his dance band of allies quickly formed a third political party , the National Progressives , best know as the Bull Moose Party [ source : Garber ] .
Up against reform-minded Democrat Woodrow Wilson , Roosevelt campaigned sharply until a few weeks before the election , when he narrowly survived an character assassination attempt . Roosevelt was shot in the pectus outside a Milwaukee hotel by a local saloon owner , and the ex - president ’s metaleyeglasscase in his breast pocket and 50 - page speech he clutched against himself cease the bullet train from making fatal contact [ source : Garber ] . In true Rough Rider vogue , Roosevelt rescue his speech as planned that good afternoon with the fastball still in his trunk [ author : Glass ] . That firebrand of bravado could n’t make up for the rift within the Republican Party that break open votes between Roosevelt and Taft , thus surrendering the electoral reward – and the administration – to Woodrow Wilson .
1: Abraham Lincoln (1860)
Percent of the Popular Vote : 39.8
Believe it or not , whenAbraham Lincolnran forpresidentin 1860 , the Republican Party had n’t emerged yet as a major force in American politics [ source : PBS ] . It had only been around for six years and was started by anti - slavery chemical group . In 1856 , Republican Party prospect John C. Fremont came in second out of three , stupefy out the previously muscular Whig Party . Four years afterward , Abraham Lincoln compete for the presidency against three others , which meant the somewhat slim 39.8 percent of the ballot he earned , mostly concentrate among Northern component , was enough to push him and the Republicans over the victory line .
Although Lincoln did n’t found the Republican Party as some people erroneously claim , the " Great Emancipator " was responsible for for cementing its stance as a major political party in the United States . Therefore , not only did a third - party nominee gain the presidency , but it also catapulted American politics toward its long - standing two - party system .
Frequently Asked Questions
Lots More Information
Even though no third party candidate has acquire the White House since the 1850s , repeated calls for a third party that could shake up the electoral condition quo in a metre of dwindle presidential approval ratings and a less - than - exciting Republican candidate have come from conservatives and liberal alike . That ’s because , even though it does n’t necessarily show in the issue polls , American political science roll in the hay third political party and their unique brand name of refocus political conversations and disputation away from the two - company platform . Understanding how the 10 Most Successful Third Party Candidates did just that also offer eccentric study throughout American account of why these fleeting political mathematical group should n’t be written off as uneffective . Just because third party have a tough time getting their candidates into position , does n’t mean they do n’t serve a valuable governmental purpose .
