United States
In the United States are often known as third parties. Minor parties in the U.S. include the Libertarian Party, the Green Party, Constitution Party, and others that have less in influence than the major parties, which since the American Civil War (1861–1865) have been the Republican Party and the Democratic Party. Since 1860, six presidential candidates other than Republicans and Democrats have received over 10% of the popular vote, although one of them was a former president, Theodore Roosevelt.
| Third-Party Presidential Candidates, 1832-1996 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Third-party candidates who received more than the historical average of 5.6 percent of the popular vote are listed below, three of which were former presidents (follow links for more information on their time as president). | |||||
| Year | Candidate | Popular Vote % | Electoral Votes | Outcome in Next Election | |
| 1996 | Reform | H. Ross Perot | 8.4 | 0 | Did not run; endorsed Republican candidate George W. Bush |
| 1992 | Independent | H. Ross Perot | 18.9 | 0 | Ran as Reform Party candidate |
| 1980 | Independent | John B. Anderson | 6.6 | 0 | Did not run |
| 1968 | American Independent | George C. Wallace | 13.5 | 46 | Won 1.4 percent of the popular vote |
| 1924 | Progressive | Robert M. La Follette | 16.6 | 13 | Returned to Republican Party |
| 1912 | Progressive ("Bull Moose") | Theodore Roosevelt | 27.4 | 88 | Returned to Republican Party |
| 1912 | Socialist | Eugene V. Debs | 6 | 0 | Won 3.2 percent of the popular vote |
| 1892 | Populist | James B. Weaver | 8.5 | 22 | Endorsed Democratic candidate |
| 1860 | Constitutional Union | John Bell | 12.6 | 39 | Party dissolved |
| 1860 | Southern Democrats | John C. Breckinridge | 18.1 | 72 | Party dissolved |
| 1856 | American ("Know-Nothing") | Millard Fillmore | 21.5 | 8 | Party dissolved |
| 1848 | Free Soil | Martin Van Buren | 10.1 | 0 | Won 4.9 percent of the vote |
| 1832 | Anti-Masonic | William Wirt | 7.7 | 7 | Endorsed Whig candidate |
| Percentages in bold are those over 10% in elections since 1860. | |||||
Read more about this topic: Minor Party
Famous quotes related to united states:
“Television is an excellent system when one has nothing to lose, as is the case with a nomadic and rootless country like the United States, but in Europe the affect of television is that of a bulldozer which reduces culture to the lowest possible denominator.”
—Marc Fumaroli (b. 1932)
“You may consider me presumptuous, gentlemen, but I claim to be a citizen of the United States, with all the qualifications of a voter. I can read the Constitution, I am possessed of two hundred and fifty dollars, and the last time I looked in the old family Bible I found I was over twenty-one years of age.”
—Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1816–1902)
“In the United States there is more space where nobody is is than where anybody is.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
“... while one-half of the people of the United States are robbed of their inherent right of personal representation in this freest country on the face of the globe, it is idle for us to expect that the men who thus rob women will not rob each other as individuals, corporations and Government.”
—Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906)
“I thought it altogether proper that I should take a brief furlough from official duties at Washington to mingle with you here to-day as a comrade, because every President of the United States must realize that the strength of the Government, its defence in war, the army that is to muster under its banner when our Nation is assailed, is to be found here in the masses of our people.”
—Benjamin Harrison (1833–1901)