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

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1924

Candidate: Robert Marion LaFollette

Party: Progressive

Popular Vote: 4,822,856 (16.6%)

Electoral Votes: 13

States: Wisconsin

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1948

Candidate: Strom Thurmond

Party: Dixiecrat

Popular Vote: 1,176,125 (2.4%)

Electoral Votes: 39

States: Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee (split)

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1960

Candidate: Henry Flood Byrd

Party: Democrat

Popular Vote: 116,248 (0.2%)

Electoral Votes: 15

States: Mississippi, Alabama (split), Oklahoma (split)

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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)

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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)

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