A perennial 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, congressperson or mayor) more than three times without success.[1][2][3]

The United States, a representative democracy with low hurdles to running for elected office, has a long tradition of perennial candidates.

Notable American perennial candidates who have run for president

Candidate Current/final political party Home state Notable elections lost Notable results
Jeff Boss Democratic  New Jersey 3 presidential elections (2008, 2012, 2016)
U.S. Senate (2008, 2014)
New Jersey gubernatorial (2009, 2013)
8.3% in the 2009 New Jersey gubernatorial election Democratic primary
Harry Braun Democratic  Arizona 4 presidential elections (2004, 2012, 2016, 2020)
2 congressional (1984, 1986)
Democratic nominee for U.S. House, Arizona district 1 in 1984 and 1986
Mark Callahan Republican  Oregon 2012 New Hampshire Republican presidential primary
2014 United States Senate election in Oregon
2016 United States Senate election in Oregon
2018 United States House of Representatives elections in Oregon
Republican nominee, 2016 United States Senate election in Oregon
Republican nominee, Oregon's 5th congressional district, 2018
John H. Cox Republican  California Illinois's 10th congressional district (2000)
2002 United States Senate election in Illinois

2008 Republican Party presidential primary
2018 California gubernatorial election
2021 California gubernatorial recall election

Republican nominee, 2018 California gubernatorial election
Jacob Coxey Democratic  Ohio 1932 United States presidential election
U.S. Senate in Ohio (1916, 1928)
Governor of Ohio (1895, 1897)
Congressman from Ohio (1894, 1922, 1924, 1928, 1936)
Mayor of Massillon, Ohio
Farmer–Labor Party nominee, 1932 United States presidential election
Eugene V. Debs Socialist  Indiana 5 presidential elections:
1900, 1904, 1908, 1912 and 1920
Indiana State Senate (1885–1889)
6% of popular vote, 1912 United States presidential election
Rocky De La Fuente Reform  California 2016 presidential election
2017 New York City mayoral election
10 U.S. Senate elections since 2018
21st California congressional district, 2020
Reform presidential nominee in 2016 and 2020
David Duke Republican  Louisiana 2 presidential (1988, 1992)
3 U.S. Senate (1990, 1996, 2016)
1 gubernatorial (1991)
U.S. House (1999)
Louisiana House of Representatives (1989–1992)
Top Republican:
1990 United States Senate election in Louisiana
1991 Louisiana gubernatorial election
Joe Exotic Democratic  Oklahoma 2016 presidential election
2018 Oklahoma gubernatorial election
2020 Libertarian Party presidential primaries
2024 Libertarian Party presidential primaries
18.7%, 2018 Oklahoma Libertarian Party gubernatorial primary
Jack Fellure Republican  West Virginia Every presidential campaign between 1988 and 2020 2012 Prohibition Party presidential nominee
Howie Hawkins Green  New York 2006 United States Senate election in New York
New York's 25th congressional district
(2000, 2004, 2008)
3 gubernatorial (2010, 2014, 2018)
2017 Syracuse mayoral election
2020 presidential election
2020 Green Party presidential nominee
Henry Hewes Democratic  New York 1989 New York City mayoral election
1994 United States Senate election in New York
2016 Democratic Party presidential primaries
2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries
New York State Right to Life Party nominee for Mayor of New York City and U.S. Senate
E.W. Jackson Republican  Virginia 2012 United States Senate election in Virginia
2013 Virginia lieutenant gubernatorial election
2018 United States Senate election in Virginia
2024 United States presidential election
Republican nominee, 2013 Virginia lieutenant gubernatorial election
Bob Kelleher Republican  Montana 1976 Democratic Party presidential primaries
5 gubernatorial (1980, 1984, 1992, 1996, 2004)
3 U.S. Senate (2002, 2006, 2008)
1 U.S. House (1968)
Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in Montana, 2008
Democratic nominee for U.S. House, Montana District 2, 1968
Alan Keyes Republican  Maryland 3 presidential (1996, 2000, 2008)
3 U.S. Senate (1988 and 1992 in Maryland, 2004 in Illinois)
5% in 2000 Republican Party presidential primaries
3-time Republican nominee for U.S. Senate
Gloria La Riva Peace and Freedom  California Every presidential campaign since 1984
3 gubernatorial (1994, 1998, 2018)
1983 San Francisco mayoral election
California's 8th congressional district (2008)
Peace and Freedom Party presidential nominee, 2016 and 2020
Lyndon LaRouche Democratic  New Hampshire Every presidential campaign between 1976 and 2004 Founder of the LaRouche movement
Andy Martin Republican  New Hampshire 4 presidential (1988, 2000, 2012, 2016)
7 U.S. Senate (1978, 1980, 1998, 2000, 2008, 2010, 2014)
3 U.S. House (1986, 1992, 2018)
2 gubernatorial (1990, 2006)
1977 Chicago mayoral special election
1996 Republican nominee for Florida State Senate, District 35
Jimmy McMillan Rent Is Too Damn High  New York New York City mayoral (1993, 2005, 2009, 2013)
New York gubernatorial (1994, 2006, 2010, 2014, 2018)
2012 Republican Party presidential primaries[4]
2017 New York City Council election
Second place finisher, District 2, 2017 New York City Council election
Ralph Nader Independent  Connecticut 4 presidential campaigns (1996, 2000, 2004, 2008) 3% of popular vote, Ralph Nader 2000 presidential campaign
Pat Paulsen Independent  California Every presidential campaign between 1968 and 1996 1%, 1992 Republican Party presidential primaries
1%, 1996 New Hampshire Democratic presidential primary
Paperboy Prince Democratic  New York U.S. House in New York's 7th district (2020, 2022)
2021 New York City Democratic mayoral primary
Second place, NY-7 Democratic Congressional primary in 2020, 2022
Joe Schriner Independent  Ohio Every presidential campaign since 2000 Candidate in the 2020 American Solidarity Party presidential primary
Jerome Segal Democratic  Maryland 2018 United States Senate election in Maryland
2020 presidential election (Bread and Roses Party)
2022 Maryland gubernatorial election
2024 Democratic Party presidential primaries
3.6%, 2018 Maryland U.S. Senate Democratic primary
Sam Sloan Democratic  New York 2 Gubernatorial elections (2010, 2014)
2 Presidential elections (2012, 2016)
2013 New York City mayoral election
3 congressional elections (2014, 2016, 2020)
Second place finisher, 2014 New York congressional district 13 Democratic primary
Harold Stassen Republican  Minnesota Every Republican presidential primary between 1944 and 1992, except for 1956 and 1972
U.S. Senate (1978, 1994)
U.S. House (1986)
Governor of Minnesota (1982)
Governor of Pennsylvania (1958, 1966)
1959 Philadelphia mayoral election
Governor of Minnesota (1939–1943)
Chair of the National Governors Association (1942-1943)
Delegate to the 1944, 1948, 1952, 1964, 1968, and 1992 Republican National Conventions
Jill Stein Green  Massachusetts 2012 and 2016 presidential campaigns
2 Gubernatorial (2002 and 2010)
Member of the Lexington Town Meeting (2005–2010)
Green Party presidential nominee, 2012 and 2016
Vermin Supreme Libertarian  Massachusetts Every presidential campaign since 2004 2020 Libertarian National Convention, third place
His running mate in the 2020 Libertarian primaries, Spike Cohen, became Libertarian vice presidential nominee in the general election
Randall Terry Independent  West Virginia New York's 26th congressional district (1998)
Florida State Senate (2006)
2012 Democratic Party presidential primaries
Florida's 20th congressional district (2012)
13% in Florida's 20th congressional district, 2012
Norman Thomas Socialist  New York 6 presidential runs between 1928 and 1948
1 gubernatorial in 1924
1 U.S. Senate in 1934
1929 New York City mayoral election
6-time Socialist Party presidential nominee
Willie Wilson Democratic  Illinois 2016 Democratic Party presidential primary
3 Chicago mayoral elections (2015, 2019, 2023)
2020 United States Senate election in Illinois
3rd place, 2015 Chicago mayoral election and 2020 United States Senate election in Illinois
John Wolfe Jr. Democratic  Tennessee 2012 Democratic Party presidential primaries
2016 Democratic Party presidential primaries
2018 United States Senate election in Tennessee
Tennessee's 3rd congressional district (1998, 2002, 2004, 2010)
Second place finisher, 2012 Democratic Party presidential primaries

Local, statewide and federal candidates

Northeastern United States

Southern United States

  • Gil Carmichael ran unsuccessfully for the Mississippi State Senate in 1966 and 1967, the United States Senate in 1972, Governor of Mississippi in 1975 and 1979, and Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi in 1983.
  • 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.
  • Joe Exotic is a former zookeeper and convict, known for his G.W. Zoo and made especially famous by the documentary series Tiger King. He has run unsuccessfully for public office two times notably and three times in total. Exotic first ran for President of the United States in 2016 as an independent and then for Governor of Oklahoma in 2018 as a Libertarian. Exotic filed to run for the Libertarian nomination in 2020 before his gubernatorial run.
  • 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]
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Larry Kilgore, Texas[12]
  • 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]
  • Basil Marceaux, during the 2010 election cycle filed as a candidate for the Republican nominations for governor in the Tennessee gubernatorial election[14] and U.S. House of Representatives in Tennessee's 3rd congressional district.[15] Before his 2010 candidacies for governor and the U.S. House, Marceaux had previously run as a candidate for the Tennessee State Senate three times, the United States Senate once and the Governor of Tennessee in three separate elections.
  • 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."
  • Peppy Martin, perennial candidate in Kentucky.
  • Prince Mongo ran unsuccessfully for Mayor of Memphis, Tennessee ever since 1979.[16] He has never won an election.
  • 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.
  • John Raese, a Republican, unsuccessfully ran for the U.S. Senate from West Virginia in 1984, 2006, 2010, and 2012. Raese also ran for Governor in 1988, but lost the Republican primary.
  • 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 Representatives in 2008, 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 Florida in 2022 but withdrew and chose to run for Congress instead, losing to incumbent Republican Maria Elvira Salazar in the general election.
  • 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.
  • Jay Wolfe was elected to one term in the West Virginia State Senate, but unsuccessfully ran for the U.S. Senate from West Virginia as the Republican nominee in 1988, 2002, and 2008.
  • Geoff Young, perennial candidate in Kentucky.

Midwestern United States

  • 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.
  • Arthur J. Jones is a Neo-Nazi who unsuccessfully pursued the Republican nomination in Illinois's 3rd congressional district seven times since 1984 before winning the nomination unopposed in 2018, and then losing in the general election. His candidacy was strongly denounced by national and local party officials. Additionally, he has lost bids for Mayor of Milwaukee, Mayor of Chicago, and Chicago City Council.
  • 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.
  • Rick Stewart, founder of Frontier Natural Products Co-Op, has run unsuccessfully in Iowa for U.S. Senate (2014, 2020), Linn County Sheriff (2016), Secretary of Agriculture (2018), and governor (2022).[17][18]
  • 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.

Western United States

References

  1. Also-Rans: What Drives The Perennial Candidates?, NPR, September 23, 2011
  2. "Is incumbent NC insurance commissioner a 'perennial candidate'?". 20 December 2019.
  3. "In defense of being a perennial candidate". billmcgaughey.com.
  4. "Jimmy McMillan Of 'The Rent Is Too Damn High Party' Announces Presidential Bid". HuffPost. December 23, 2010.
  5. Fuller, Jaime (August 26, 2014). "Where can you run for two offices at once? Vermont, of course". The Washington Post.
  6. Eaklor, Vicki L. (2008). Queer America: A GLBT History of the 20th Century. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press. p. 212. ISBN 978-0-313-33749-9. 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.
  7. Haider-Markel, Donald P. (2010). Out and Running: Gay and Lesbian Candidates, Elections, and Policy Representation. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press. p. 86. ISBN 978-1-58901-699-6. Retrieved 2010-10-20.
  8. Long, Tom (January 7, 1995). "Robert Hagopian, ran for office about 20 times in Hamilton; at 83". Boston Globe.
  9. Langner, Paul (September 29, 1974). "Hagopian says he'll fight move by Saugus selectmen to fire him". Boston Globe.
  10. McKinley, Jesse (19 October 2018). "0-for-23: An Undeterred Green Party Candidate on His Long Losing Streak". The New York Times. Retrieved 6 March 2020.
  11. DePuyt, Bruce (March 4, 2022), "Robin Ficker is Disbarred; Pledges His Gubernatorial Bid Will Continue", Maryland Matters, retrieved June 27, 2023
  12. Fernandez, Manny (November 23, 2012). "With Stickers, a Petition and Even a Middle Name, Secession Fever Hits Texas". New York Times.
  13. "George Mahoney, 87, Maryland Candidate". The New York Times. 21 March 1989.
  14. "Basil Marceaux biography". Knoxville News Sentinel. 2010-07-10. Retrieved 2010-07-28.
  15. Sher, Andy (2010-07-29). "Web hit: Marceaux goes viral with views". Chattanooga Times Free Press. Retrieved 2010-07-29.
  16. "MONGO FOR MAYOR". Memphis Current. April 24, 2019.
  17. "Meet the Libertarian candidate for governor: Rick Stewart". www.thegazette.com.
  18. "Kim Reynolds wins re-election as Iowa governor". www.thegazette.com.
  19. "Nevada Secretary of State: Elections Results: 2008 Statewide General Election Coverage and Reports". www.nvsos.gov. Retrieved 2017-05-21.
  20. "Nevada Secretary of State: Elections Results: 2014 Statewide Primary Election Coverage and Reports". www.nvsos.gov. Retrieved 2017-05-21.
  21. "Nevada Secretary of State: Elections Results: 2011 Municipal Primary Election Coverage and Reports". www.nvsos.gov. Retrieved 2017-05-21.
  22. "2010 Unofficial Statewide Primary Election Coverage and Reports". www.nvsos.gov. Retrieved 2017-05-21.
  23. "Nevada Secretary of State: Elections Results: City of Las Vegas". nvsos.gov. Retrieved 2017-05-21.
  24. "Mike Schaefer, 80, running for office again". May 3, 2018. Archived from the original on March 20, 2020. Retrieved March 20, 2020.
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