None of the Above

The first presidential candidate of a third party in American history was William Wirt, a former United States Attorney General and biographer of Patrick Henry, who received the nomination of the Anti-Masonic Party for the election of 1832. A diffident man, Wirt informed his supporters that he saw nothing wrong with Masonry, and that if his views disturbed them, he would willingly step aside. But the Anti-Masons ignored the demurral, and Wirt and his running-mate, Amos Ellmaker, swept the state of Vermont.

That inauspicious beginning belies the significance of third parties in the American political system. Even while losing, they can decide who the winner will be: Eugene McCarthy’s independent campaign in 1976 took more votes in several states (notably Oregon) than Ford’s margin over Carter, and if the Democrats had not succeeded in keeping McCarthy’s name off the ballot in New York, Ford might be in the White House now. Third parties are even more important to the campaigns of ideas. Abolition, homesteading, government-owned railroads, progressive income taxes, the Eighteenth Amendment—all began as the nostrums of parties which never polled more than 10 per cent of the vote. Ideas and the response they generate in turn affect future elections. The major parties are still jockeying for clear control of the voters George Wallace flushed out into the open in 1968.

About the Author

Richard Brookhiser

Historian Richard Brookhiser is a senior editor of National Review and a senior fellow at the National Review Institute.

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Presidential Election

The first presidential candidate of a third party in American history was William Wirt, a former United States Attorney General and biographer of Patrick Henry, who received the nomination of the Anti-Masonic Party for the election of 1832. A diffident man, Wirt informed his supporters that he saw nothing wrong with Masonry, and that if his views disturbed them, he would willingly step aside. But the Anti-Masons ignored the demurral, and Wirt and his running-mate, Amos Ellmaker, swept the state of Vermont.

That inauspicious beginning belies the significance of third parties in the American political system. Even while losing, they can decide who the winner will be: Eugene McCarthy’s independent campaign in 1976 took more votes in several states (notably Oregon) than Ford’s margin over Carter, and if the Democrats had not succeeded in keeping McCarthy’s name off the ballot in New York, Ford might be in the White House now. Third parties are even more important to the campaigns of ideas. Abolition, homesteading, government-owned railroads, progressive income taxes, the Eighteenth Amendment—all began as the nostrums of parties which never polled more than 10 per cent of the vote. Ideas and the response they generate in turn affect future elections. The major parties are still jockeying for clear control of the voters George Wallace flushed out into the open in 1968.