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:
“The real charm of the United States is that it is the only comic country ever heard of.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)
“In the United States there’s a Puritan ethic and a mythology of success. He who is successful is good. In Latin countries, in Catholic countries, a successful person is a sinner.”
—Umberto Eco (b. 1932)
“Scarcely any political question arises in the United States that is not resolved, sooner or later, into a judicial question.”
—Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–1859)
“So here they are, the dog-faced soldiers, the regulars, the fifty-cents-a-day professionals riding the outposts of the nation, from Fort Reno to Fort Apache, from Sheridan to Stark. They were all the same. Men in dirty-shirt blue and only a cold page in the history books to mark their passing. But wherever they rode and whatever they fought for, that place became the United States.”
—Frank S. Nugent (1908–1965)
“Places where he might live and die and never hear of the United States, which make such a noise in the world,—never hear of America, so called from the name of a European gentleman.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)