Trying to Meet in the Middle: Third Party Candidates

In the history of presidential elections, there have been many people who have decided the "mainstream" candidates were not good enough, and a third party was needed. In the early days of our history, candidates often represented a local region, so you may have four or five men on the ballot, but they may have all been from the same party. An excellent example of this is the 1836 election, in which William H. Harrison received the most votes of the Whig supporters, but there were also three other Whig candidates on the ballot besides Harrison, so it's a stretch to consider the candidates as third party. In the 1844 election between Whig Henry Clay and Democrat James K. Polk, a man by the name of James G. Birney ran for the Liberty Party, and managed to win several thousand votes, enough to tip New York in favor of Polk over Clay, thereby changing the outcome of the election. Polk only won New York by a few thousand votes, and many assume that if Birney had not run, most of his votes would have gone to Clay, and therefore he would have been elected instead of Clay. By the Civil War era, former presidents had decided to run as third party candidates. The first was Martin Van Buren, who ran in 1848 under the Free Soil Party, but did not muster the support he had hoped for. Having been a Democrat, Van Buren took precious votes away from the nominee that year, Lewis Cass, handing the election to Whig Zachary Taylor. Just a few years later, Millard Fillmore would run as the American Party candidate, also referred to as the "Know-Nothings." This was in 1856, on the eve of Civil War, and this time, the candidate most likely took votes away from the newly formed Republican Party, who elected John C. Fremont to run against James Buchanan. In the 1860 election, there would again be a third party to throw a wrench into the equation, along with a split Democratic Party. Abraham Lincoln was nominated by the Republican Party, John C. Breckinridge was the southern Democrat's choice, Stephen Douglas ran as the northern Democrat, and John Bell ran for the Constitution Party. Lincoln only carried 40% of the popular vote, but with the other three splitting votes, Lincoln won the most electoral votes. Third parties remained quite for the next couple decades, with Republicans squaring off against Democrats, with the occasional third party attempt that went no where. In the 1884 election, former Union general Benjamin Butler ran with the Greenback Party against Grover Cleveland and James Blaine, but did not win enough votes to change the outcome of the election. The next major third party challenge was in 1912, and was the most successful to date. Former president Theodore Roosevelt had grown angry with William H. Taft's policies, and running under the Progressive, or Bull Moose Party, Roosevelt would face off against Taft and Democrat Woodrow Wilson in the election. With Republican support divided between Taft and Roosevelt, Wilson won the election. Roosevelt actually won several states, the best showing by a third party candidate. Taft finished a distant third, the worst ever performance by an incumbent president. Running in this era was Socialist Party candidate Eugene Debs, who ran in four elections, but never managed to carry a state, although he did win almost 1 million votes in the 1920 election. The progressive era produced another third party candidate in the 1924 election, when Robert LaFollette ran against Calvin Coolidge and Democrat John Davis, managing to win about 17% of the popular vote, he also won a state, Wisconsin in the election. Things were pretty quiet again for third parties through the Roosevelt era and WWII. By 1948 though, the issue of segregation and rights for blacks had become a hot bed issue, especially in the south. Tired of the policies of many northern Democrats, Strom Thurmond ran as a "Dixie-Crat" and actually managed to win a few southern states. This was also a very close election between Harry Truman and Thomas Dewey, but in theory most of Thurmond's votes would have gone to Truman if he had not run, so in the end the election was not determined by Thurmond's run. Along the lines of integration and segregation in the south, Alabama Governor George Wallace rose in 1968 to run as an independent, also managing to win some southern states. This most likely helped Richard Nixon, who won by a comfortable but not large margin over Hubert Humphrey. Wallace had a strong showing in 1968 for a third party, and decided to try again in 1972, but was shot in an assassination attempt while campaigning. In 1980, John Anderson ran against Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan as an independent, but with Reagan winning very big, Anderson's vote total did not alter the election. In the 1990's, billionaire Ross Perot would try his hand at running as a third party, and may have altered the 1992 election between George Bush and Bill Clinton. Perot possibly took a lot of votes from Bush, resulting in Clinton's election, but it's normally not assumed that all Perot voters would have supported Bush, so it may have also hurt Clinton's total. Ralph Nader has also run several times, but has not managed to win more than a few percent of the popular vote. Overall, third parties have been an option to voting for Whigs, Democrats, or Republicans, but have never won an election. A few have changed an election, and maybe one day a third party will replace Republicans or Democrats, but it's hard to see that happening in the near future.