One national exit poll found that Clinton would have beaten Bush by a half-million more votes had Perot not been on the ballot. According to an analysis of the second choices of Perot supporters conducted by Voter Research & Surveys for major news organizations, Perot’s third-party run did not alter the outcome of the election.
However, in a one-on-one contest, Clinton consistently led Bush in public polling from the summer of 1992 onwards. Some Bush campaign officials believed Perot spoiled Bush’s re-election by drawing more votes from Republicans than Democrats. With his folksy manner and half-hour infomercials on broadcast networks, Perot received 19 percent of the vote, compared to 43 percent for Clinton and 37 percent for Bush. The independent candidate’s poll numbers remained high enough to permit his inclusion in the presidential debates with Bush and Clinton. Weeks before Election Day, Perot made the equally surprising announcement that he was resuming his campaign. He later said the decision was based on his belief that the Bush campaign planned to spread rumors about his daughter and sabotage her impending wedding. Bush.ĭespite his support, Perot made the sudden decision to drop out of the race in July 1992, saying that he no longer believed he could win the presidency with the improving performance of Democratic nominee Bill Clinton.
Advocating for a balanced federal budget, campaign finance reform and congressional term limits, Perot capitalized on low public support for President George H.W. Ross Perot surged to the top of the polls in the spring of 1992. Independent Ross Perot throws his hat into the ring, takes it back and then throws it again.Īfter supporters gathered enough signatures to place him on the ballot in every state, Texas billionaire H. (Credit: Shelly Katz/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images) Texas billionaire Ross Perot surrounded by a sign-waving crowd of supporters at his presidential campaign rally. The Socialist Party nominee received nearly one million votes in the fourth of his five bids for the White House. Taft was a distant third followed by another third-party candidate, Eugene V. Roosevelt finished in second after winning six states and 27 percent of the popular vote. Roosevelt and Taft ended up splitting the Republican vote, which led to an easy victory by Democratic nominee Woodrow Wilson. senators, women’s suffrage, tariff reductions and social reforms. A bitter Roosevelt broke with the GOP to form the Progressive Party, nicknamed the “Bull Moose Party” because Roosevelt often declared himself “fit as a bull moose.” The party advocated the direct election of U.S. But, when Roosevelt’s close friend and hand-picked successor, William Howard Taft, failed to advance his reform-minded agenda during his first term, Roosevelt challenged the sitting president for the 1912 Republican Party nomination.Īlthough Roosevelt overwhelmingly won the most votes during the primaries, the Republican National Convention nominated the more conservative Taft to stand for re-election.
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The title for highest share of votes ever earned by a third-party candidate in American history is still held by Theodore Roosevelt during the election of 1912.Īfter serving nearly two full terms in the White House, President Theodore Roosevelt opted not to break tradition and run for a third term in 1908. Theodore Roosevelt challenges the sitting president and creates the Progressive Party. That doesn’t mean, however, that third-party candidates haven’t altered the outcomes of presidential elections over the course of American history. Since 1920, in fact, only four third-party candidates-Robert La Follette in 1924, Strom Thurmond in 1948, George Wallace in 1968 and John Hospers in 1972-have been able to win even a single electoral vote. America’s two-party political system makes it difficult for candidates from outside the Republican and Democratic parties to win presidential elections.
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