Third Parties in American History

Although unforeseen by the Framers, our two-party system has endured for more than two centuries. Still, it has faced powerful challenges from time to time. These challenges have sometimes resulted in the demise of one party system and the rise of its successor, as when the Whigs disintegrated over the issue of slavery and the Republican Party arose in the 1850s.

In our own century, third party challengers have never won the White House, but they have played an important role in shaping American politics. These parties have arisen when a significant number of voters become dissatisfied with the positions of the two major parties. In addition to the most well-known third parties, many smaller parties appear on the ballot in presidential elections. Following are the most influential third party efforts in the U.S. since the 1890s.

In the 1880s, a group of farmers' alliances arose in the South and in portions of the Middle West and West. These alliances sought to aid farmers by engaging in collective purchasing and selling, so that farmers could buy supplies and sell their crops more advantageously. These alliances soon grew into a full-fledged populist movement, which denounced the domination of the American economy by railroads and other large corporations and advocated the interests of farmers and workers. In 1892 populists created the People's Party, which nominated Iowan James B. Weaver for President. In 1896, the People's Party decided to support the Democratic Party's nominee, William Jennings Bryan(pictured above), for president. Many historians believe that its decision to compromise with the Democrats deprived the People's Party of much of its reason for existence as a reform party. Bryan was defeated by Republican William McKinley, and the People's Party, like the populist movement in general, soon disappeared as a force in American politics.