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Third party (United States)

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Third parties in the United States are political parties other than the two major parties that participate in national and state elections, although there may actually be more than three parties. Historically, the U.S. has a two-party system. Following Duverger's law, the Electoral College with its "winner take all" award of electors in presidential elections has, over time, created the two-party system. Another contributing factor is the division of the government into three separate branches which differs from the parliamentary system.

Although third parties rarely win elections, they play an important role in democratic government. Third parties draw attention to issues that may be ignored by the majority parties. If the issue finds resonance with the voters, one or more of the major parties may adopt the issue into its own party platform. Also a third party may be used by the voter to cast a protest vote as if in a referendum on an important issue. Third parties do help voter turnout bringing more people to the polls.^{[citation needed]} Currently 75% of the U.S. electorate consists of registered Democrats (42.5%) and registered Republicans (32.5%), with "independents" and those belonging to other parties consitituting 24.9% of the electorate.^[1]

Listed below are all presidential elections in which a third-party or independent candidate won an electoral vote or won at least 1% of the popular vote.

The Anti-Masonic Party, seeking the eradication of the Freemasons and other secret societies from the United States, nominated former U.S. Attorney General William Wirt for President. Wirt, a former Mason, received seven U.S. electoral college votes from the state of Vermont and 8% of the national popular vote.

John Floyd received no popular votes but won 11 electoral votes when the state of South Carolina, where the state legislature cast electoral votes, voted to support Floyd. President Andrew Jackson won re-election while Henry Clay finished second.

James G. Birney, running as the candidate of the anti-slavery Liberty Party, won 2.3% of the national popular vote. Birney's candidacy may have been decisive in swinging the election to winner James K. Polk. Democrat Polk beat Whig Henry Clay 170-105 in the Electoral College, but in New York, which had 36 electoral votes, Polk edged out Clay by 5,000 votes, 48.90% to 47.85%. Birney won nearly 16,000 votes in New York, a quarter of his national total and good for 3.25% in that state. If Birney had not ran the majority of his votes would have gone to the Whigs rather than the pro-slavery Democrats, but whether or not Clay would have netted five thousand more votes is unknown.

The Free Soil Party, another anti-slavery party and a precursor of the Republicans, nominated former President Martin Van Buren as its presidential candidate. Van Buren won 10% of the nationwide popular vote but did not carry a state. Zachary Taylor, the Whig Party candidate, won the election.

For the third election in a row, an anti-slavery party made a significant showing, as John P. Hale of the Free Soil Party received 5% of the nationwide popular vote. Democrat Franklin Pierce won the election.

1856 began a transitional period in American politics. The Whig Party, which had been one-half of the two-party system since 1832 and had won the presidency in 1840 and 1848, disintegrated, fatally split by dissention over slavery. Southern Whigs and a minority of northern Whigs coalesced around the anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic American Party, better known as the "Know Nothing" movement. Their candidate was former President Millard Filmore. Northern, anti-slavery Whigs formed the new Republican Party and nominated explorer John C. Fremont. Which was the "third party", Republican or American, is a matter of perception. In the Northern, free states, Fillmore ran a distant third. However, in the Southern, slave states, the Republicans received almost no support, not even appearing on the ballot in any of the 11 states that later formed the Confederacy, not appearing on the ballot in the border slave states of Missouri or Kentucky, and receiving tiny shares of the vote in the border slave states of Delaware and Maryland. Democrat James Buchanan won the election with 45% of the popular vote and 174 electoral votes, Fremont received 33% and 114 electoral votes, while Fillmore won 22% but carried only one state, Maryland, thus winning 8 electoral votes.

By 1860 the two-party system had fallen apart. The election featured four candidates, including the breakaway Southern Democratic Party, which nominated Vice President John C. Breckenridge as its candidate, and the Constitutional Union Party, which nominated John Bell. Republican Abraham Lincoln did not appear on the ballot in any of the 11 states that seceded after the election to form the Confederacy. Breckinridge, the southern pro-slavery candidate, carried most of the slave states, but had little support in the North outside of Pennsylvania and did not appear on the ballot in three northern states. Bell and the Consitutional Union party, neutral on the slavery issue, drew most of their support from the southern former Whigs that had voted for Fillmore three years before. Stephen Douglas, the northern Democratic candidate, had the broadest support geographically but lost most of the Democratic votes in the South to Breckinridge.

Lincoln won the election with 39.8% of the overall popular vote but 180 electoral votes due to his votes being concentrated in the northern free states. Douglas finished second in the popular vote with 29.5%, but, with his votes scattered all over the country, carried only Missouri and New Jersey and won 12 electoral votes. Breckinridge, the quasi-"third party" candidate of southern Democrats, got 18.2% but won 72 electoral votes due to most of his votes being concentrated in the South. Bell, a true "third party" candidate, finished last in the popular vote with 12.6% but carried Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee to win 39 electoral votes, due to the Democratic vote in those states being split between Douglas and Breckinridge.

After this election, the two-party system coalesced around the Democratic and Republican parties.

Peter Cooper of the Greenback Labor Party, which advocated the printing of paper money, won 1% of the popular vote.

James B. Weaver of the Greenback Labor Party won 3.3% of the popular vote.

The Greenback Labor Party changed its name to the Greenback Party. Ben Butler, running as the joint candidate of the Greenback Party and the new Anti-Monopoly Party, won 1.3% of the popular vote. Neither the Greenback nor the Anti-Monopoly parties lasted past the 1884 election, but other progressive and populist parties would succeed them.

Also in 1884, the Prohibition Party made its first significant showing, with John Pierce St. John of Kansas winning 1.5% of the popular vote.

The Prohibition Party, with nominee Clinton B. Fisk, improved on its showing from four years before, increasing to 2.2% of the popular vote. Alson J. Streeter of the short-lived Union Labor Party won 1.3%.

James B. Weaver, the Greenback Labor nominee in 1880, ran as presidential candidate for the Populist Party. The Populist Party won 22 electoral votes and 8.6 percent of the popular vote. Weaver became the first third-party candidate to win a state since John Bell in the transitional election of 1860. The Democratic Party eventually adopted many Populist Party positions after this election, notably the Populist call for the free coinage of silver, making this contest a prominent example of a delayed vote for change.

John Bidwell, running on the Prohibition ticket, won 2.2% of the popular vote.

The Populist Party supported Democratic nominee William Jennings Bryan after Bryan and the Democrats came out for support of Free Silver. This led to a splinter Democratic group, the National Democrats, which supported the gold standard. National Democrat nominee John M. Palmer received the support of outgoing President Grover Cleveland but won only 1% of the popular vote. Democrat/Populist Bryan won 47% of the vote and 171 electoral votes, losing to Republican William McKinley.

John G. Woolley of the Prohibition Party won 1.5% of the popular vote.

Eugene Debs, Socialist Party candidate, won 3% of the popular vote. Debs and the Socialists would be factors in Presidential elections for several more cycles.

Silas C. Swallow of the Prohibition Party received that party's usual 2% share of the popular vote.

Debs, running again for the Socialists, got 2.8% of the vote. Eugene W. Chafin of the Prohibition party got 1.7%.

Republican Theodore Roosevelt ran as the "Bull Moose Party" (Progressive Party) nominee in the 1912 election. Roosevelt won 27.4% of the popular vote and carried six states totaling 88 electoral votes. If the transitional elections of 1856 and 1860, when there was no clear two-party structure, are excluded, Roosevelt's was the most successful third-party candidacy in American history. It was also the only third-party effort to finish higher than third. Republican incumbent William Howard Taft became the first (and to date, only) incumbent President seeking reelection to finish third, taking only 23% of the popular vote and 8 electoral votes. The split in the Republican vote gave Democrat Woodrow Wilson victory with 42% of the popular vote, but 435 electoral votes.

Debs, running in his fourth consecutive Presidential election as the Socialist Party candidate, won 6% of the vote, an all-time high for the Socialists. The elections of 1860 and 1912 are the only two times that four candidates each cleared 5% of the popular vote in a Presidential election.

Eugene Chafin, running again as the Prohibition candidate, got 1.4% of the popular vote.

Allan L. Benson, taking over as the Socialist Party candidate from Eugene Debs, received 3.2% of the vote. Prohibition candidate J. Franklin Hanly won 1.2%.

Eugene V. Debs went to prison in 1919 for violating the Espionage Act of 1917 by giving a speech opposing American involvement in World War I. Despite being incarcerated in Federal prison, Debs ran as the Socialist Party candidate again in 1920, his fifth and last campaign. Debs received 3.4% of the vote.

Parley P. Christensen, running as the candidate of the newly formed Farmer-Labor Party, received 265,411 votes for 1.0% of the total vote despite being on the ballot in only 19 states. (The Farmer-Labor Party continues to exist today in the state of Minnesota, where it merged with the Democratic party to form the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party.

Erstwhile Republican Robert M. La Follette ran as a Progressive. After the Democrats nominated conservative John W. Davis, many liberal Democrats turned to La Follette. He received 4,831,706 votes for 16.6% of the popular vote and won his home state of Wisconsin receiving 13 electoral votes.

Norman Thomas running as the Socialist Party candidate received 884,885 for 2.2% of the total vote.

William Lemke running for the short-lived Union Party received 892,378 votes for 2.0% of the total vote.

Democrat Strom Thurmond ran on the segregationist States' Rights ("Dixiecrat") Party ticket in protest of the civil rights. Former Vice President and Cabinet Member Henry Wallace also sought Democratic votes by running for the Progressive Party ticket, opposing racial discrimination and calling for closer relations with the Soviet Union. Thus the Democratic vote was split three ways between Thurmond on the racist right, Wallace on the liberal left, and incumbent President Harry S. Truman in the center. Thurmond received 1,175,930 votes (2.4%) and 39 votes in the electoral college from Southern states. Wallace receiving 1,157,328 votes for an identical 2.4% of the popular vote, but no votes in the Electoral College due to his support being mostly concentrated in the more populous states of New York and California. Despite both challenges Democratic incumbent Truman still defeated Thurmond, Wallace, and Republican Thomas Dewey in what was widely regarded at the time as an upset.

Former Democratic Governor of Alabama George Wallace of the American Independent Party ran in the 1968 election. Wallace received 9,901,118 votes for 13.5% of the popular vote, receiving 45 electoral votes in the South and many votes in the North. No other third party candidate has won any states in the Electoral College since. Republican Richard Nixon won the election with 43% of the popular vote and 301 electoral votes.

Republican Roger MacBride cast his electoral vote for John Hospers and Toni Nathan of the newly formed Libertarian Party who received 3,674 votes. This is the first electoral vote received by a woman. John G. Schmitz, the American Independent Party candidate won 1.4% of the vote, or 1.1 million votes.

Congressman John B. Anderson received 5,719,850 votes, for 6.6% of the vote, as an independent candidate for President. Libertarian Party candidate Ed Clark won 921,128 votes, or 1.1% of the total. No other Libertarian candidate has ever gotten more than 0.5% in a presidential election.

Ross Perot, an independent, won 18.9% of the popular vote (but no electoral votes). His was the second-best popular vote showing ever for a third-party candidate, trailing only Theodore Roosevelt in 1912.

Ross Perot ran for president again, this time as the candidate of the newly formed Reform Party. He won 8% of the popular vote.

Green Party candidate Ralph Nader, running as a left-wing candidate and charging that there was little difference between Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore, received 2.8 million votes, 2.7% of the total. His votes would prove crucial in tipping the election to Bush. Bush carried New Hampshire by 7,211 votes, a 1.27% margin. Nader recieved over 22,000 votes in New Hampshire, 3.90% of the total. The result in Florida was razor-thin. After a disputed recount that was eventually terminated by order of the United States Supreme Court, Bush was declared the winner in Florida by only 537 votes out of 5.96 million cast, a margin of 0.01%. Nader got 97,488 votes in Florida, 1.6% of the total. Given that the Green Party's support in 2000 came mostly from liberals who otherwise would have been likely to vote Democratic, it seems certain that Nader cost Gore Florida and likely that he cost Gore New Hampshire. Bush beat Gore in the Electoral College by a vote of 271 to 266 (with one Gore elector abstaining); if either Florida or New Hampshire had gone for Gore then he would have won the Presidency.

In winner-take-all (or plurality-take-all), the candidate with the largest number of votes wins, even if the margin of victory is extremely narrow or the proportion of votes received is not a majority. Unlike in proportional representation, runners-up do not gain representation in a first-past-the-post system. In the United States, systems of proportional representation are uncommon, especially above the local level, and are entirely absent at the national level.

American legislators have traditionally had wide discretion to vote as they or their constituents please. A Democrat representing a rural area can be pro-life and anti-gun control; a Republican representing a suburban district can be pro-choice and pro-environment. Thus, even though there are only two parties represented in most American legislatures, there are different shades of opinion.

In America, if an interest group is at odds with its traditional party, it has the option of running sympathetic candidates in primaries. If the candidate fails in the primary and believes he has a chance to win in the general election he may form or join a third party.

Aside from the mechanics of winner-take-all, the Electoral College, and the use of primaries, third parties are hampered by restrictive ballot access laws that force them to spend the bulk of their resources just to get on the ballot. Such obstacles include the requirement in several states that third party candidates obtain thousands of signatures of registered voters in order to get their candidates listed on the ballot. If they manage to get on the ballot, third party candidates are often not allowed. Socialist Party leader Morris Hillquit said in 1910 that America's presidential system has a role in hurting third party chances even further down the ticket:

"In the United States the ticket handed to the voter contains the names not only of candidates for state legislature or congress, but also for all local and state officers and even for President of the United States. And since the new party rarely seems to have the chance or prospect of electing its candidate for governor of a state or president of the country, the voter is inclined in advance to consider its entire ticket as hopeless. The fear of 'throwing away' the vote is thus a peculiar product of American politics, and it requires a voter of exceptional strength of conviction to overcome." (Ibid 202)

Because of the difficulties third parties face in gaining any representation, third parties tend to exist to promote a specific issue or personality, often an issue which either or both of the major parties may eventually end up co-opting. As a counterexample, H. Ross Perot eventually founded a third party, the Reform Party, but he apparently intended it to exist solely as a vehicle to support himself and his agenda and never intended it to field any Congressional or Governatorial candidates. In 1912, Theodore Roosevelt made a spirited run for the presidency on the Progressive Party ticket, but he never made any efforts to help Progressive congressional candidates in 1914, and in the 1916 election, he supported the Republicans. The next third party candidate to win a major portion of the popular vote was independent Ross Perot, who won 18.87% of the popular vote in the 1992 Presidential election.

There have been few third party governors in the past few decades. The last was Jesse Ventura, a member of the Reform Party and later the Minnesota Independence Party, who governed Minnesota from 1999-2003.

One way in which third parties can influence elections in certain jurisdictions in the United States (notably New York state) is through electoral fusion.

Ballot access laws can be a challenge to third party candidacies. While the Democratic and Republican parties are usually entitled to ballot access in all fifty states in every election, third parties often need to meet extra criteria for ballot access, such as registration fees or, in many states, petition requirements in which a certain number of voters must sign a petition for a third party or independent candidate to gain ballot access. In recent presidential elections, Ross Perot appeared on all 50 state ballots as an independent in 1992 and the candidate of the Reform Party in 1996. (Perot, a multimillionaire, was able to provide significant funds for his campaigns.) Patrick Buchanan appeared on all 50 state ballots in the 2000 election,^[2] largely on the basis of Perot's performance as the Reform Party's candidate four years prior. The Libertarian Party has appeared on the ballot in at least 46 states in every election since 1980, except for 1984 when David Bergland gained access in only 36 states. The Green Party gained access to 44 state ballots in 2000 but only 27 in 2004. The Constitution Party appeared on 42 state ballots in 2004.^[3] Ralph Nader, running as an independent in 2004, appeared on 34 state ballots. For more information see ballot access laws.

Debates between the nominees of the two major parties first occurred in 1960, then after three cycles without debates, took place again in 1976 and have happened in every election since. Third party or independent candidates have been included in these debates in only two cycles. Ronald Reagan and John Anderson debated in 1980, but incumbent President Carter refused to appear with Anderson, and Anderson was excluded from the subsequent debate between Reagan and Carter.^[4] Independent Ross Perot was included in all three of the debates with Republican George H. W. Bush and Democrat Bill Clinton in 1992, largely at the behest of the Bush campaign. His participation helped Perot climb from 7% before the debates to 19% on Election Day.^[5]

Perot was excluded from the 1996 debates despite his strong showing four years prior.^[6] In 2000 revised debate access rules made it even harder for third party candidates to gain access by stipulating that, besides being on enough state ballots to win an Electoral College majority, debate participants must clear 15% in pre-debate opinion polls. This rule remained in place for 2004^[7]^[8], when as many as 62 million people watched the debates,^[9] and is still in effect for 2008.^[10]^[11] The 15% criterion, had it been in place, would have prevented Anderson and Perot from participating in the debates they appeared in.

Debates often exclude Independent and third party candidates, and the Supreme Court has upheld such tactics in several cases.

The United States House of Representatives currently holds no third party members. The United States Senate holds two. Joe Lieberman, formerly a Democrat, won reelection to his Senate seat in 2006 on the "Connecticut for Lieberman" party line after being defeated by businessman Ned Lamont in the Democratic primary. Lieberman currently identifies himself as an "Independent Democrat".^[12] Bernie Sanders, a self-described "democratic Socialist"^[13] but official independent, won election to the Senate in 2006 after serving sixteen years as an indepentent Congressman from Vermont.^[14] Both Sanders and Lieberman caucus with the Democrats.

Rick Jore, of the Constitution Party of Montana was elected to the Montana House of Representatives in 2006.^[15]

Bob Kiss, three term Vermont State Representative from the Vermont Progressive Party, was elected Mayor of Burlington in April 2006. Along with Kiss Six Progressives are serve in the Vermont House of Representatives, one of whom David Zuckerman serves as chair of the House Agriculture committee [[1]].

Gayle McLaughlin, member of the Green Party, is mayor of Richmond, California. With a population of 103,000, Richmond is the largest city in the United States to have a Green Party mayor.^[16]

Main article: United States third party presidential candidates, 2008

While neither has declared candidacy, Michael Bloomberg (Independent Mayor of New York City) and Chuck Hagel (Republican Senator from Nebraska) are both receiving a notable amount of press as to a possible third-party run. [2] [3] [4] [5]
Bloomberg has repeatedly denied that he has plans to run; throughout 2007, however, he has been taking on national issues such as illegal guns, the environment, national energy reforms, and immigration.
Senator Hagel said on Face the Nation on May 13, 2007: "I am not happy with the Republican party today. It's been hijacked by a group of single-minded almost isolationist, insulationist power-brokers." When asked if he and Bloomberg might run together on the same independent ticket, Hagel said, "We didn't make any deals but I think Mayor Bloomberg is the kind of individual who should seriously think about this." [6]
In response to increasing speculation that Rudy Giuliani, a pro-choice moderate, may win the Republican nomination, there have been discussion among socially conservative church groups about possibly running a conservative pro-life third party candidate in the Presidential Election, although it unclear who the candidate would be if that were to happen.[7]
A draft movement has formed to convince Ralph Nader, a candidate in the previous four presidential elections, to run as a Green Party or Independent candidate. Nader has not confirmed this, but has hinted that he may do so if Hillary Clinton wins the Democratic nomination.[8]
A draft movement has formed to convince Cynthia Mckinney, to run as a Green Party candidate. In the previous presidential election, a similar Green Party effort was made. [9]