RESEARCH PAPER

Charmaine Rodgers

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In the United States the issue of third party political parties has caused issues from time
to time for Democrats and republicans none as much as the controversial figure of Ross Perot in
the 1992 United States Presidential Elections. Because of Americas winner take all system third
party groups can cause much disruption to either side of the two major parties. Many times the
main two parties take ideas from a third party candidate that has got the attention of the public.
From the start of the American political system there has been two opposing sides which began
with the Federalist and the Democratic/Republicans. The first third party group was AntiMasonic Party in 1832 which was able to receive about 8 percent of the vote. Between 1852 and
1992 the United States held thirty-six presidential elections. The Democrats won fifteen, the
Republicans won the other twenty-one. This duopoly has been threatened from time to time, and
Perots 1992 challenge was remarkably successful in winning popular votes. But no third-party
or independent candidate has come close to winning the presidency, largely because the electoral
rules in the United States create barriers that third parties and independent candidates have been
unable to surmount. (Abramson)1
We focus on the 1992 presidential election since it is the one election in recent U.S. history in
which a third-party candidate garnered more votes than the margin between the first and secondplace candidates, and since much debate has focused on the impact of Ross Perot on the 1992
election. (Lacy)2 Ross Perot was a businessman who ran under the independent candidate
format in 1992. Ross was and continues to be quite the businessman by being named one of the
1 Abramson, Paul R. & Aldrich. "Third-Party And Independent Candidates In American
Politics: Wallace, Anderson and Perot." Political Science Quarterly (1995): 349. Web.

2 Lacy, Dean and Barry C. Burden. "The Vote-Stealing and Turnout Effects of Ross Perot in
the 1992 U.S. Presidential Election." American Jopurnal of Political Science (1999): 233. Web.

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richest person in America in 2012. Ross focused his campaign on issues such opposing gun
control, fixing the federal budget and stopping the practice of outsourcing America jobs to
foreign counterparts. One of the issue of Ross push was his ability to get volunteers to help him
it may seem that Ross activated his own version of social media in 1992. One of the most
remarkable aspects of the 1992 Perot movement was its ability to mobilize thousands of activist
volunteers. (McCann)3 Perot was considered a serious threat because of the amount of money
he was able to send on info commercials and using the majority of his own money to campaign.
Most candidates need big money in the background to push their agenda Ross was able to push
himself. His tactics seem to work because Ross lead the polls several times and eventually won
19 percent of the votes in the election which no independent had done since the times of the great
Theodore Roosevelt in the early 1900's. one of the keys to Perots success was its ability to touch
on the public at large concerns instead of money supporters issue like the bigger candidates who
had to answer to the people they received their funding from. Finally another key issue of Ross
Perot was he took votes from the other main candidates. At first, Perot, by focusing his attack
on George H. W. Bush, helped Clinton win the 1992 election with just 43 percent of the popular
vote. (Kuttner)4
In conclusion, the third party system has been around from the beginning of American politics
but it takes a person who can mobilize supporters and has a large amount of money to push
agenda on the masses. Some think third parties are used as decoys to take vote from more serious

3 McCann, James A., and Ronald B. Rapoport. "Heeding the Call: An Assessment of
Mobilzation with H. Ross Perot's 1992 Presidential Campaign." America Journal of Political
Science 43.1 (1999): 1. Web.

4 Kuttner, Robert. "Elephant In The Voting Booth." The American Prospect 4 (2006): 37. Web.

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candidates but whatever the issues some have with system Ross Perot was able to work the
system better than the average.

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Bibliography
Abramson, Paul R. & Aldrich. "Third-Party And Independent Candidates In American
Politics: Wallace, Anderson and Perot." Political Science Quarterly (1995): 349.
Web.
Kuttner, Robert. "Elephant In The Voting Booth." The American Prospect 4 (2006):
37. Web.
Lacy, Dean and Barry C. Burden. "The Vote-Stealing and Turnout Effects of Ross
Perot in the 1992 U.S. Presidential Election." American Jopurnal of Political
Science (1999): 233. Web.
McCann, James A., and Ronald B. Rapoport. "Heeding the Call: An Assessment of
Mobilzation with H. Ross Perot's 1992 Presidential Campaign." America
Journal of Political Science 43.1 (1999): 1. Web.