THE FREE SOIL CAMPAIGN OF 1848
Many people have blamed the “third party” campaign of Ralph Nader as the reason Al Gore lost the election of 2000 to George W. Bush. This may or not be true, although Nader certainly gained almost all his votes at Gore’s expense and cost him at least two states, Florida and New Hampshire; with a victory in either of those two states, Gore would have won the election.
But Ralph Nader is not the first “third party” candidate to change the outcome of an election. We will define “third party” to be any independent party whose candidate wins electoral votes or a significant number of popular votes to affect the outcome of the election, or come very close to doing so. In one or two elections, third party candidates have come close to achieving their goal, but in one or two, they have actually changed the final result of the election.
The first true “third party” to change the result of a presidential election was the Free Soil Party in 1848. The two major parties in this election were the Democratic Party (the same one of today) and the Whig Party (in many ways the forerunner of the modern Republican Party).
The Whigs, having lost in previous elections with their leading politicians, this time nominated Mexican War hero Zachary Taylor. Taylor had no political experience, had never voted in an election and, until the Whig Party nominated him, had no political party affiliation or preference. The election was expected to be close, and New York, with its 36 electoral votes, would be the key to the election. The two parties were very close in New York, so the Whigs nominated the top Whig vote getter in the state, Millard Fillmore, for Vice President to help win that crucial state. The Democrats nominated popular Senator Lewis Cass of Michigan.
Many Democrats in New York were opposed to slavery and to their party’s neutral position on slavery. Other Democrats often called them barnburners, comparing them to a farmer who burns down his barn to get rid of the rats in it. This faction, along with other anti-slavery groups, formed the Free Soil Party. Their platform called for the protection of slavery where it already existed, but prohibited any further spread of slavery into the territories. They nominated former President Martin Van Buren to head their ticket.
Martin Van Buren, a former governor of the state, was the leader of the Democratic Party in New York and had been for many years. He had helped found the new party in the 1820s and had helped carry the state for Andrew Jackson in the election of 1828. For this, Jackson made him Secretary of State. Van Buren served as Jackson’s second Vice President and, with Jackson’s support, was elected President when Jackson retired.
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