Aperennial candidate is a political candidate who frequently runs for public office without a reasonable chance of winning. The term is the opposite of an incumbent politician who repeatedly defends their seat successfully. In the U.S., perennial candidates are often affiliated with third party politics.
Generally speaking, candidates are considered perennial if they seek a specific elected office or general high office (such as president, governor, congresspersonormayor) more than three times without success.[1][2][3]
William Bryk, New Hampshire retired attorney, won 2018 election to the Antrim Town Planning Board and 2023 election to the Contoocook Valley School District Board, formerly resident in New York, has run for multiple offices, including running for the U.S. Senate in 4 states simultaneously in 2014.
Guy Carbone, a Massachusetts Democrat turned Republican, has run unsuccessfully for Northern District District Attorney in 1978 and 1982, Governor of Massachusetts in 1986, Massachusetts Attorney General in 1990, 1994, and 2010, the U.S. House of Representatives in 1996, the Massachusetts Senate in 1998, and most recently Selectman, Town of Belmont, Massachusetts. He also ran for governor in 1982 and 1990 before dropping out to pursue another office.
Peter Diamondstone ran in many elections in Vermont from 1970 until 2016; he died in 2017. He usually ran under the Liberty Union Party, but occasionally ran in Democratic and Republican primaries.
Greg Fischer, has run, unsuccessfully, for elected office in New York 16 times. He has run for United States Congress (2020), New York State Comptroller (2014), New York State Senate (2008, 2010, 2016, 2018), Suffolk County Executive (2019), Riverhead Town Supervisor (2011), Riverhead Town Council (2007), Riverhead Town Tax Assessor (2013, 2015), and Riverhead School Board (2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018). He generally ran as a Democrat, but at times ran on the Working Families, Riverhead First, and The Rent is Too Damn High lines.[citation needed]
Lyndon LaRouche, a fringe political figure, ran for president of the United States in eight elections, beginning in 1976. He ran once as a U.S. Labor Party candidate and seven times as a Democrat. In 1992, he campaigned while in federal prison. Many of his followers have also run for office repeatedly, including Sheila Jones and Elliott Greenspan, both of whom made eight campaigns for a variety of offices.
Andy Martin (also known as Anthony Martin-Trigona), a journalist and self-described consumer advocate has run for several local, state and federal offices dating back to at least 1977, including two runs for president and six runs for Senate. He has run as a Democrat, a Republican, and as an independent.
Sam Sloan, a polymath with interests in board games, obscure foreign languages, and over-the-counter stock trading, has run for Governor of New York in every election since 2006, for the U.S. Presidency in 2012 and 2016, New York City Mayor in 2009 and 2013, New York's 15th congressional district in 2014 and New York's 13th congressional district in 2016. He has run as a Democrat, a Libertarian, and under various third parties.
Norman Thomas was the Socialist Party's candidate for President of the United States on six occasions from 1928 to 1948 inclusive. He also ran for Governor of New Yorkin1924, for Mayor of New York in 1925, for New York State Senate in 1926, for Alderman in 1927, for Mayor of New York again in 1929, and for the US Senate in New York in 1934. Unlike most other perennial candidates, Thomas influenced American politics to a considerable degree with many of his policies being appropriated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal.
Mike Causey, a North Carolina Republican, has run for state Insurance Commissioner five times between 1992 and 2016, losing each of the first four times in 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2012. In his 2016 campaign, his fifth campaign for the same office, he knocked off incumbent Wayne Goodwin in what was considered to be an upset, given his previous track record and Goodwin's incumbency. In addition to losing all of those statewide races for the same office, Causey has run and lost races for Congress and the state legislature. He's been described as the "Harold Stassen of North Carolina" regarding his continuous statewide losses for the same Council of State office.
David Duke, American white supremacist, activist, antisemitic conspiracy theorist, Holocaust denier, a convicted felon, and former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. A former Republican Louisiana State Representative, Duke was a candidate in the Democratic presidential primaries in 1988 and the Republican presidential primaries in 1992. Duke also ran unsuccessfully for the Louisiana State Senate, United States Senate, United States House of Representatives, and for Governor of Louisiana.
Jack Fellure ran for the Republican Party nomination in every presidential election from 1988 to 2016, and declared that he will run in 2020. In the 2012 campaign, he withdrew from the Republican nomination race, and become the presidential nominee of the Prohibition Party.
Robin Ficker, a Maryland attorney who served one term in the Maryland House of Delegates and has run for office 21 times, including runs for Governor, Senate and 6 campaigns for U.S. House [11]
Ben Frasier, a South Carolina perennial candidate for Congress
Gatewood Galbraith, a politician known for his outspoken advocacy of civil liberties and legalization of marijuana, ran unsuccessfully for state and federal offices in his home state of Kentucky no fewer than nine times. He ran twice for the U.S. House, once for state agriculture commissioner, once for the state attorney general, and five times for governor. His final run for governor ended less than two months before his death in January 2012.
Alan Grayson, a Democrat, is a former U.S. Representative from the state of Florida. He represented Florida's 8th Congressional District from 2009 to 2011 and Florida's 9th Congressional District from 2013 until 2017. Grayson then started an unsuccessfully streak of running for various federal positions from the state of Florida. He lost the Democratic Primaries for U.S. Senate in 2016, the 9th District in 2018, and for the 10th Congressional Districtin2022. Grayson also withdrew his bid for U.S Senate in 2022 in order to run in the 10th District. Recently, Grayson withdrew his bid for U.S. Senate in 2024 and declared his candidacy for State Senate for the 25th District.
Calvin H. Gurley, an accountant who has run for elected office in the District of Columbia in thirteen different elections between 1986 and 2020
John Jay Hooker, a Tennessee Democrat, ran for several Tennessee offices, in later years mainly to gain standing for lawsuits against more serious candidates on the grounds of campaign finance violations.
E.W. Jackson, a minister from Virginia that has run twice for U.S. Senate, once for Lieutenant Governor and is a long-shot presidential candidate in 2024.
George P. Mahoney, a building contractor who undoubtedly with his candidacies led to the creation of a future Vice President. Mahoney, a conservative Democrat from Maryland who ran for U.S. Senate in 1952, 1956, 1958, 1968, and 1970 and for Governor of Maryland as a Democrat in 1950, 1954, 1962, and 1966. Mahoney won the Democratic nomination for governor in 1966 with just 30% of the vote. U.S. Representative Carlton R. Sickles (30%) and Attorney General of Maryland Thomas B. Finan (27%) split the vote and allowed Mahoney, who ran on a segregationist and anti-open housing campaign to triumph. In the general election, Mahoney's slogan, "Your home is your castle; protect it", as well as his stance on many civil rights issues, prompted Baltimore City Comptroller Hyman A. Pressman to enter the race as an Independent candidate. Mahoney's controversial stances caused many liberals in the Maryland Democratic Party to split their support between Spiro Agnew, due to his pro-civil rights, socially moderate views, and Pressman. This split helped Agnew to win the election with a plurality, taking 70% of the black vote. Agnew in 1969 became Vice President of the United States under Richard Nixon.[13]
James D. Martin, one of the first Republican politicians to make an electoral impact in the once solid-Democratic state of Alabama, ran for the U.S. Senate three times and governor of Alabama once in the 1960s and 1970s, and also unsuccessfully sought the office of state treasurer in 1994. By the time of Martin's 1978 Senate campaign, his opponent had already acknowledged him as the "Harold Stassen of Alabama."
John Randolph Neal Jr. unsuccessfully ran for U.S. Senator 18 times, for Governor of Tennessee 9 times, and for the U.S. House of Representatives variously as a Democrat and Independent.
Jim Rogers, an Oklahoma Democrat notorious for his secrecy and almost complete lack of campaigning, ran for the state's two U.S. Senate seats every election from 2002 to 2014, serving as the Democratic nominee in the 2010 U.S. Senate election. He died less than two weeks after his last race in 2012; Rogers also ran in the 2012 Oklahoma Democratic presidential primary, finishing in third place with 15% of the vote.
Annette Taddeo is a Democratic politician in South Florida who has run for numerous positions in the national, state, and local governments. She has unsuccessfully run for the U.S. House of Representativesin2008, 2016, and 2022; She won the Democratic nominations in both 2008 and 2022 but not in 2016, losing to Joe Garcia, who himself lost to Republican Carlos Curbelo in the general election. In 2010, after losing to Republican U.S. Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, she ran for the Miami-Dade County Commission. She placed third in the nonpartisan primary. In 2014, she was the Democratic nominee for Lieutenant Governor, with former Governor Charlie Crist as her running mate. They were defeated by incumbent Republicans Rick Scott and Carlos Lopez-Cantera. Her only successful elections thus far were the 2017 special election for the Florida Senate in District 40, and her re-election to the position the following year in 2018. She had initially run for Governor of Floridain2022 but withdrew and chose to run for Congress instead, losing to incumbent Republican Maria Elvira Salazar in the general election. She is currently running for Miami-Dade County Clerk and Comptroller.[17]
Randall Terry is an anti-abortion activist who has run for numerous positions in the national and state governments, including for the presidency. He is notorious for getting glitterbombed by candidate Vermin Supreme at the 2012 lesser-known Democratic presidential debate.
Jacob Coxey best known for his 1894 March on Washington DC, Coxey ran 3 times for US Senate for Ohio, and twice as the People's Party nominee for Governor of Ohio in 1895 and 1897. Coxey also was the Mayor of Massilon, OH from 1931 to 1933 in addition to losing numerous congressional races.
Eugene V. Debs was a presidential candidate for the Social Democratic Party in 1900 and thereafter for the Socialist Party in four more elections: 1904, 1908, 1912, and 1920. In the 1920 election, while in federal prison for violating the Espionage Act of 1917 with a speech opposing the draft, he received 913,664 votes, the most ever for a Socialist Party presidential candidate.
Alan Keyes, former assistant secretary of state and conservative activist, ran for President of the United States in 1996, 2000, and 2008. He was the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate in Maryland against Paul Sarbanes in 1988 and Barbara Mikulski in 1992, as well as in Illinois against Barack Obama in 2004. Keyes lost all three elections by wide margins.
Jim Oberweis, a dairy magnate, has run for office in Illinois multiple times. He lost in the Republican primaries for the U.S. Senate in 2002, 2004 and Governor in 2006, and was the unsuccessful Republican nominee for the special and regular elections in Illinois's 14th congressional district in 2008 and 2020 and the U.S. Senate in 2014. However, he was elected to the Illinois Senate in 2012 and reelected in 2016.
Claude R. Porter unsuccessfully ran as a Democrat three times for Iowa governor and six times for U.S. senator.
Roland Riemers, a North Dakotan who has run for state house twice, congress twice (1972, 2020), U.S. Senate twice (1976, 2006), Governor twice (2004, 2012), North Dakota Secretary of State (2014), and North Dakota State Auditor (2016). He is most notable for winning the 1996 North Dakota Democratic presidential primary when President Clinton did not appear on the ballot due to a dispute between the state and national Democratic parties.
Harold Stassen is one of the most famous and distinguished perennial presidential candidates in U.S. history, along with Ralph Nader. A one-time governor of Minnesota and former president of the University of Pennsylvania, he ran for the Republican nomination for president nine times between 1944 and 1992. While Stassen was considered a serious candidate in 1944, 1948, and 1952, his persistent attempts were increasingly met with derision and then amusement as the decades progressed. He also ran in 10 other races for lower offices.
Leonard Steinman, a native of Jefferson City, Missouri who ran for president, U.S. Senate, twice for Governor, 3 times for U.S. House, 1 time for State House, twice for mayor and twice for city council, never winning.
Paul Vallas, a school administrator, has never been elected to a public office in Illinois (although he has been appointed to several educational positions), or in his home city of Chicago. Vallas first ran for the Democratic nomination for the governorship in 2002, narrowly losing the primary to Rod Blagojevich. In 2014, Vallas would serve as running mate of incumbent governor Pat Quinn, ultimately losing to Republican Bruce Rauner in the general. Finally, in 2019 and 2023, Vallas would unsuccessfully run for mayor, losing in the first round in the former, and losing in the runoff to Brandon Johnson in the latter.
Bob Vander Plaats ran unsuccessfully for Governor of Iowa in 2002, 2006, and 2010 and lost as nominee for Lieutenant Governor of Iowa in 2006.
Willie Wilson, a businessman from Chicago, has unsuccessfully run three times for mayor of his home city. He also ran in the Democratic primary for president in 2016 and as a third-party candidate for United States Senate in 2020.
Edgar Blatchford served as mayor of Seward, Alaska from 1999 through 2003, and has run unsuccessful campaigns for U.S. Senate in Alaska in 2016, 2020 and 2022 as well as for Lieutenant Governor in 2018.
Earl Dodge, a long-time activist in the temperance movement, was the Prohibition Party's presidential candidate in six consecutive elections, from 1984 to 2004. He was also that party's vice-presidential candidate in 1976 and 1980. He ran for Governor of Colorado on five occasions (1970, 1974, 1982, 1986, and 1994) as well. He also ran for senator of Kansas in 1966.
Rocky De La Fuente has unsuccessfully run for President of the United States on multiple tickets, for senate in nine different states in the same election and for the Mayor of New York, and has never been elected to any office.
Goodspaceguy, who legally changed his name from Michael George Nelson, has run for local, state, and federal office in Washington state more than a dozen times.
Eddie Hamilton, a Nevada Republican, runs on an almost yearly basis. He has run for Nevada's 1st Congressional District in 2008,[20]Governor of Nevada in 2014,[21]Henderson City Council in 2011[22] and 2015, US Senate in 2006, 2010 (as a Democrat),[23] 2012 and 2016, Mayor of Henderson in 2013 and 2017.[24] Each time he runs, he uses a different nickname such as "Fast Eddie", "Mr. Clean" "In Liberty" and "Swamper".
Robert Kelleher unsuccessfully ran for public office 16 times on various party tickets, including a bid for the Presidency in 1976, four runs for Governor of Montanain1980, 1984, 1992, and 1996, and three runs for Senator from Montana in 1988, 2002, and 2008.
Stan Lippman, a disbarred attorney and anti-vaccination activist, has unsuccessfully run for office more than eight times in the state of Washington.
Uncle Mover, known for many years as Mike The Mover, who was born Michael Shanks but legally changed his name twice, has run for public office in Washington state more than 17 times to help promote his furniture moving business.
Pat Paulsen, a comedian best known for his appearances on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, first ran for president in 1968 as both a joke and a protest. He ran again in 1972 and in succeeding elections until 1996, one year prior to his death.
Pro-Life, born Marvin Richardson, is an Idaho farmer who is well known for his staunch opposition to abortion which inspired his name change has run as an independent or as a Constitution Party candidate for the state House of Representatives, governor, and both houses of the United States Congress. He has expressed a commitment to continue running for public office until his death.
Arturo Pacheco Reyes has run for U.S. Senate in Hawaii in the 2012, 2014, 2016, and 2018 elections and has filed paperwork to run in the 2024 Senate election. Reyes has also ran for US House in Hawaii's 1st Districtin2020 and 2022. Reyes has run as a Democrat, Independent, and most recently as a Republican, but has never qualified for the general election ballot. The closest Reyes came to qualifying was in 2018, when he won the non-partisan primary, but did not receive enough votes under Hawaiian law make it to the general election.[25]
Gloria La Riva, a socialist activist, has run as either a presidential or vice-presidential candidate in every U.S. presidential election since 1984.
Danny Tarkanian, a Republican businessman from Las Vegas and son of UNLV Basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian and Las Vegas City Councilwoman Lois Tarkanian. He has run for Nevada State Senate, Secretary of State, US Senate in 2010 and 2018, Nevada System of Higher Education and Nevada's 4th and 3rd districts in 2012 and 2016 respectively. He did not reside in either congressional district during his last two campaigns.
Glen H. Taylor, a Democrat known as "The Singing Cowboy," ran for Congress in Idaho seven times (1938, 1940, 1942, 1944, 1950, 1954 and 1956). His 1944 Senate run was his only successful campaign. Taylor was also the Progressive Party vice presidential nominee in 1948.
Don Wright, as president of the Alaska Federation of Natives during the early 1970s, played a major role in the passage of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. However, Wright is far better known as a perennial candidate, having run for statewide office in Alaska 15 times since 1968. Wright has run for governor of Alaska 11 consecutive times since 1974. Wright ran 7 of those campaigns under a major party but lost in the primary election each time. The remaining four times (1978, 2002, 2006 and 2010), he was the nominee of the Alaskan Independence Party.
^Eaklor, Vicki L. (2008). Queer America: A GLBT History of the 20th Century. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press. p. 212. ISBN978-0-313-33749-9. Retrieved 2010-10-20. The nineties also saw the first openly transgender person in a state office, Althea Garrison, elected in 1992 but serving only one term in Massachusetts' House.
