American Third Party Presidential Candidates Quiz

Answer: Prohibition Party

Its best showing was the 2.5 percent it received in 1892. In recent years its vote totals have been miniscule.

Answer: Anti-Mason

Masonry suffered a setback with the mysterious disappearance of William Morgan in 1826, as he was on the verge of exposing the organization's secrets. The Anti-Mason Party was then formed as the first third party in New York in 1828. The party met in Baltimore on September 26, 1831, thereby becoming the first party to hold a nominating convention and the first to announce a platform.

It received Vermont's 7 electoral votes in 1832, but it declined after the 1836 election and was eventually absorbed into the Whig Party.

Answer: Ross Perot in 1992

Perot's 19 percent vote in 1992, is the best showing ever by a third-party candidate who is not himself an ex-President. However, Perot won no States, and only finished second in two States, nosing out Bush in Maine by 316 votes, and beating Clinton in Utah by about 20,000 votes.

Answer: Libertarian Party

The Libertarian Party was founded in 1971 in Colorado and has fielded candidates since 1972, and by 1980 it was on the ballot in all 50 states.

Answer: Socialist

Debs was the Socialist Party candidate in 1900, 1904, 1908, 1912, and 1920. His highest vote total was in 1920, when he received 919,801 votes despite spending the campaign in prison.

Answer: railroad

His American Railway Union was the country's largest union at the time. However, it was destroyed in the violent Pullman strike of 1894, and Debs himself was jailed for six months for contempt of a court injunction during the strike. Debs became a socialist during his stay in jail.

Answer: in prison

Debs was convicted in 1918 for violation of the Espionage Act for his opposition to U.S. involvment in World War I, and was sentenced to ten years in prison. He ran for President in 1920 while an inmate at the Atlanta penitentiary, and polled 3.5 percent of the vote. To his credit, the winner of that 1920 election, Warren G. Harding, commuted Debs' sentence in 1921, and invited Debs to the White House.

Answer: James B. Weaver

The Populist Party advocated free silver and other measures to help farmers. Weaver polled over a million votes and won the rural States of Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Nevada, and North Dakota. In 1896, the Democrats nominated William Jennings Bryan, who espoused populist ideas, so the Populist Party supported Bryan in lieu of nominating their own candidate. Outgoing Democrat President Grover Cleveland, on the other hand, repudiated the Democratic platform and supported the Republican William McKinley.

The 1896 realignment shows how a third party can have an important influence on American politics, even if it doesn't win an election.

Answer: Martin Van Buren

The Free Soil Party was organized at a convention of anti-slavery forces meeting in Buffalo in 1848, as a reaction to the failure of Congress to pass the Wilmot Proviso, which would have banned slavery in the territory acquired as a result of the Mexican War. Ex-President Van Buren was chosen as the 1848 Free Soil nominee, and polled just over 10% of the vote.

The party was absorbed into the new Republican Party in 1854.

Answer: 18

1824, 1844, 1848, 1856, 1860, 1876-1892, 1912, 1916, 1948, 1960, 1968, 1992, 1996, and 2000.

Answer: Bull Moose

Denied the Republican nomination because of Taft's control of the party machinery, Teddy ran as a third-party candidate and beat Taft, but could not beat the Democrat Woodrow Wilson. The irony of that whole 1912 scenario is that the unfair convention rules in question were actually put into place by Roosevelt himself in 1908, to ensure the selection of his hand-picked successor Taft!

Answer: Wisconsin

LaFollette was a powerful force in Wisconsin politics from his first elective office in 1880, to his death in 1925. He was a 3-term Governor and 4-term United States Senator. In 1924, he ran for President as a Progressive, after the major parties both nominated conservatives.

He polled a respectable 17 percent of the vote, winning his home state of Wisconsin. After his death, the following year, his sons Robert and Philip carried on his work, with Robert serving 21 years in the Senate, and Philip serving 3 terms as Governor.

In 1957, the Senate voted LaFollette one of the 5 outstanding Senators of all time.

Answer: 4

Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina. The other third party candidate, the Progressive Henry Wallace, won no states although he received about the same number of popular votes as Thurmond, just over 2 per cent each. Thurmond's support was concentrated in the South, where his racist message played well in that era.

Answer: 5

Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Georgia. Wallace ran an energetic and populist-sounding campaign, and received about 10 million votes out of a total of about 73 million votes cast in that pivotal election.

Answer: Green Party

John Hagelin was the Natural Law Party candidate, Howard Phillips the Constitution Party candidate, and Harry Browne the Libertarian Party candidate. Many Democrats feel that Nader's presence cost Al Gore the election.