Third Party Elections
The following are election years in which a third party candidate walked away with any amount of electoral votes.
1912
Candidate: Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt
Party: Progressive
Popular Vote: 4,119,207 (27.4%)
Electoral Votes: 88
States: Michigan, Minnesota, South Dakota, Washington, Pennsylvania, California (split)
*A former president, Roosevelt in fact defeated Republican nominee William Howard Taft in the electoral vote; Taft received only 8 votes nationwide
1924
Candidate: Robert Marion LaFollette
Party: Progressive
Popular Vote: 4,822,856 (16.6%)
Electoral Votes: 13
States: Wisconsin
1948
Candidate: Strom Thurmond
Party: Dixiecrat
Popular Vote: 1,176,125 (2.4%)
Electoral Votes: 39
States: Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee (split)
1960
Candidate: Henry Flood Byrd
Party: Democrat
Popular Vote: 116,248 (0.2%)
Electoral Votes: 15
States: Mississippi, Alabama (split), Oklahoma (split)
1968
Candidate: George Corley Wallace
Party: American Independent
Popular Vote: 9,446,167 (12.9%)
Electoral Votes: 46
States: Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina (split)
1956, 1972, 1976, 1988, 2004
*In each of these elections, a candidate other than the major party presidential earned one (1) electoral vote:
Walter Burgwyn Jones in 1956
John Hospers in 1972
Ronald Reagan in 1976
Lloyd Bentsen, Jr. in 1988 (Democratic vice-presidential nominee)
John Edwards in 2004 (Democratic vice-presidential nominee)