A perennial candidate is one who runs for public office with a record of success that is infrequent, if existent at all. Perennial candidates are often either members of non-major political parties or have political opinions that are not mainstream. They may run without any serious hope of gaining office, but in order to promote their views or themselves instead. They may also overestimate their chances for election or have little in the way of campaigning skill or voter appeal. John C. Turmel is, according to the Guinness Book of Records, the most persistent perennial candidate, having run 77 and lost in 76 elections (the other being a by-election that was cancelled by a general election call).
Famous quotes containing the words perennial and/or candidate:
“In old persons, when thus fully expressed, we often observe a fair, plump, perennial waxen complexion, which indicates that all the ferment of earlier days has subsided into serenity of thought and behavior.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Hear, then, a mortal Muse thy praise rehearse,
In no ignoble verse;
But such as thy own voice did practise here,
When thy first-fruits of Poesy were given,
To make thyself a welcome inmate there;
While yet a young probationer,
And candidate of Heaven.”
—John Dryden (1631–1700)