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Trivia answer
Which third party candidate received the highest share of the popular vote?
a. George Wallace
b. Robert LaFollette
c. Theodore Roosevelt
d. Ross Perot
In the 1912 presidential election, former President Theodore Roosevelt won 27.39% of the popular vote on the Progressive Party ticket after unsuccessfully challenging incumbent William Howard Taft (R) for the Republican nomination. Roosevelt first succeeded to the presidency in 1901 and won election to a full term in 1904. Roosevelt bested Taft, becoming the only third-party candidate to place second in the Electoral College or in the popular vote. However, Gov. Woodrow Wilson (D) won the election with 41.8% of the popular vote.[1]
Since the popular vote was first recorded in 1824, there have been 11 third-party or independent candidates who won more than five percent. Roosevelt's Progressive Party was the only third party with two such candidates; Sen. Robert LaFollette won 16.62% of the vote on the Progressive ticket in the 1924 presidential election. The only candidate besides Roosevelt to receive more than 20% of the vote was former President Millard Fillmore, who ran on the Whig-American ticket in 1856.
The only third-party presidential candidate in U.S. history to receive more than five percent of the vote twice was Ross Perot. Perot won 18.91% of the vote as an independent in 1992. He then received 8.40% of the vote on the Reform Party ticket in 1996.
| Third-party candidates receiving more than five percent of the popular vote, 1824-2016 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Candidate | Party | Popular vote share | |
| 1832 | William Wirt | Anti-Masonic Party | 7.78% | |
| 1848 | Martin Van Buren | Free Soil Party | 10.13% | |
| 1856 | Millard Fillmore | Whig-American Party | 21.54% | |
| 1860 | John Bell | Constitutional Union Party | 12.62% | |
| 1892 | James Weaver | Populist Party | 8.51% | |
| 1912 | Theodore Roosevelt | Progressive Party | 27.39% | |
| 1912 | Eugene Debs | Socialist Party | 5.99% | |
| 1924 | Robert LaFollette | Progressive Party | 16.62% | |
| 1968 | George Wallace | American Independent Party | 13.53% | |
| 1980 | John Anderson | Independent | 6.61% | |
| 1992 | Ross Perot | Independent | 18.91% | |
| 1996 | Ross Perot | Reform Party | 8.40% | |
Footnotes
