Third Parties: Ross Perot and the Reform Party
H. (for Henry) Ross Perot was a Texas billionaire who ran for President twice in the 1990s, the second time under the banner of the Reform Party. Both elections were won by Bill Clinton. He is one of the most memorable third party candidates in history.
Perot was born on June 27, 1930 in Texarkana, Texas. His father was a cotton broker. At the age of 19 he entered the U.S. Naval Academy and graduated in 1953. In 1954, Perot was made a lieutenant, junior grade, but in the following year Perot became discontent with his life in the Navy. He finished four-year commitment and resigned his commission. The next year he married Margot Birmingham of Greensburg, Pennsylvania.
After he left the Navy in 1957, Perot became a salesman for International Business Machines (IBM). He quickly became a top seller. In one year he fulfilled his annual sales quota in two weeks. He left IBM in 1962 to found Electronic Data Systems (EDS) in Dallas, Texas, selling data processing systems to large corporations. EDS received lucrative contracts from the U.S. government in the 1960s, computerizing Medicare records. EDS went public in 1968 and the stock price rose from $16 a share to $160 within days. Fortune magazine called Perot the "fastest, richest Texan" in a 1968 cover story. In 1984 General Motors bought controlling interest in EDS for $2.4 billion.
Just before the 1979 Iranian Revolution, the government of Iran imprisoned two EDS employees in a contract dispute. Perot organized and sponsored their rescue. The rescue team was led by retired U.S. Army Special Forces Colonel Arthur D. "Bull" Simons. When the team was unable to find a way to free their two prisoners, they decided to wait for a mob of pro-Ayatollah revolutionaries to storm the jail and free all 10,000 inmates. The two prisoners then connected with the rescue team, and the team spirited them out of Iran via a risky border crossing into Turkey. The exploit was recounted in a book, On Wings of Eagles by Ken Follett, which became a best-seller. In the 1986 miniseries, Perot was portrayed by Richard Crenna.
Perot became heavily involved in the Vietnam War POW/MIA issue. He believed that hundreds of American servicemen were left behind in Southeast Asia at the end of the U.S. involvement in the war, and that government officials were covering up POW/MIA investigations in order to avoid revealing a drug smuggling operation used to finance a secret war in Laos. Perot engaged in unauthorized back-channel discussions with Vietnamese officials in the late 1980s, which led to fractured relations between Perot and the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations. Perot also launched private investigations of, and attacks upon, U.S. Department of Defense official Richard Armitage.
Perot did not support President George H. W. Bush and vigorously opposed the United States involvement in the 1990–1991 Persian Gulf War. He unsuccessfully urged Senators to vote against the war resolution, and began to consider his own presidential run. On February 20, 1992, he appeared on CNN's Larry King Live and announced his intention to run as an independent if his supporters could get his name on the ballot in all fifty states. He declared policies of balancing the federal budget, a pro-choice stance on abortion, expansion of the war on drugs, ending outsourcing of jobs, belief in protectionism on trade, advocating the Environmental Protection Agency and enacting electronic direct democracy via "electronic town halls".
Perot's candidacy received increasing media attention. On May 25, 1992 he was featured on the cover of Time with the title "Waiting for Perot." Perot supporters began petition drives to get him on the ballot in all fifty states. Perot hired two savvy campaign managers in Democrat Hamilton Jordan and Republican Ed Rollins. His supporters established a campaign organization called United We Stand America.
By the summer Perot commanded a lead in the presidential race with thirty-nine percent of the vote. By mid-July, the Washington Post reported that Perot's campaign managers were becoming increasingly disillusioned by his unwillingness to follow their advice and that he was micromanaging campaign operations with such tactics as forcing volunteers to sign loyalty oaths. Perot's poll numbers began to slip to 25%, and his advisers warned that if he continued to ignore them, he would fall into single digits. Co-manager Hamilton Jordan threatened to quit, and on July 15, Ed Rollins resigned after Perot fired advertisement specialist Hal Riney. Rollins later said that a member of the campaign accused him of being a Bush plant with ties to the CIA. Amid the chaos, Perot's support fell to 20%. The next day, Perot announced on Larry King Live that he would not seek the presidency. Perot later stated the reason was that he received threats that digitally altered photographs would be released by the Bush campaign to sabotage his daughter's wedding. His withdrawal damaged his reputation and many of his supporters felt betrayed.
In September he qualified for all fifty state ballots. On October 1, he announced his intention to reenter the presidential race. He campaigned in 16 states and spent an estimated $12.3 million of his own money. Perot employed the innovative strategy of purchasing half-hour blocks of time on major networks for infomercial-type campaign advertisements. This advertising garnered significant viewership with one Friday night program in October attracting 10.5 million viewers. Perot's running mate was retired Vice Admiral James Stockdale, a highly-decorated former Vietnam prisoner of war (POW).
At one point in June, Perot led the polls with 39% (versus 31% for Bush and 25% for Clinton). Just prior to the debates, Perot received 7–9% support in nationwide polls. Perot did well in the debates. Although his answers during the debates were often general, many Democrats and Republicans conceded that Perot won the first debate. On the subject of the Constitution, Perot said: "Keep in mind our Constitution predates the Industrial Revolution. Our founders did not know about electricity, the train, telephones, radio, television, automobiles, airplanes, rockets, nuclear weapons, satellites, or space exploration. There's a lot they didn't know about. It would be interesting to see what kind of document they'd draft today. Just keeping it frozen in time won't hack it."
In the 1992 election, Perot received 18.9% of the popular vote, approximately 19,741,065 votes (but no electoral college votes), making him the most successful third-party presidential candidate in terms of the popular vote since Theodore Roosevelt in the 1912 election. Perot's support drew heavily from across the political spectrum, with 20% of his votes coming from self-described liberals, 27% from self-described conservatives, and 53% coming from self-described moderates. Economically, however, the majority of Perot voters (57%) were middle class, earning between $15,000 and $49,000 annually. Exit polls also showed that Perot drew 38% of his vote from Bush, and 38% of his vote from Clinton, while the rest of his voters would have stayed home had he not been on the ballot.
Based on his performance in the popular vote in 1992, Perot was entitled to receive federal election funding for 1996. Perot remained in the public eye after the election and championed opposition to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), urging voters to listen for the "giant sucking sound" of American jobs heading south to Mexico should NAFTA be ratified. Perot tried to keep his movement alive through the mid-1990s, continuing to speak about the increasing national debt. He debated with Al Gore on the issue of NAFTA on Larry King Live.
In 1995, he founded the Reform Party and won their nomination for the 1996 election. His running mate was Pat Choate. Because of the ballot access laws, he had to run as an Independent on many state ballots. Perot received eight percent of the popular vote in 1996, much less than in the 1992 race. He spent much less of his own money in this race than he had four years before, and also allowed other people to contribute to his campaign, unlike his prior race. Perot was excluded from the presidential debates, based on the preferences of the Democratic and Republican party candidates.
Later in the 1990s, Perot's detractors accused him of not allowing the Reform Party to develop into a genuine national political party, but rather using it as a vehicle to promote himself. Perot did not give an endorsement during Jesse Ventura's run for governor of Minnesota in the 1998 election.
In the 2000 presidential election, Perot refused to become involved with the internal Reform Party dispute between supporters of Pat Buchanan and of John Hagelin. Perot was unhappy with what he saw as the disintegration of the party, as well as his own portrayal in the press and he chose to remain quiet. He appeared on Larry King Live four days before the election and endorsed George W. Bush for president. After that, Perot was mostly silent on political issues, refusing to answer most questions from the press.
In January 2008, Perot publicly came out against Republican candidate John McCain and endorsed Mitt Romney for President. In 2012, Perot endorsed Mitt Romney for President. He did not endorse any candidate in 2016. Ross Perot died on July 9, 2019. He was 89 years old. He died in Dallas, Texas, from leukemia.
Perot was born on June 27, 1930 in Texarkana, Texas. His father was a cotton broker. At the age of 19 he entered the U.S. Naval Academy and graduated in 1953. In 1954, Perot was made a lieutenant, junior grade, but in the following year Perot became discontent with his life in the Navy. He finished four-year commitment and resigned his commission. The next year he married Margot Birmingham of Greensburg, Pennsylvania.
After he left the Navy in 1957, Perot became a salesman for International Business Machines (IBM). He quickly became a top seller. In one year he fulfilled his annual sales quota in two weeks. He left IBM in 1962 to found Electronic Data Systems (EDS) in Dallas, Texas, selling data processing systems to large corporations. EDS received lucrative contracts from the U.S. government in the 1960s, computerizing Medicare records. EDS went public in 1968 and the stock price rose from $16 a share to $160 within days. Fortune magazine called Perot the "fastest, richest Texan" in a 1968 cover story. In 1984 General Motors bought controlling interest in EDS for $2.4 billion.
Just before the 1979 Iranian Revolution, the government of Iran imprisoned two EDS employees in a contract dispute. Perot organized and sponsored their rescue. The rescue team was led by retired U.S. Army Special Forces Colonel Arthur D. "Bull" Simons. When the team was unable to find a way to free their two prisoners, they decided to wait for a mob of pro-Ayatollah revolutionaries to storm the jail and free all 10,000 inmates. The two prisoners then connected with the rescue team, and the team spirited them out of Iran via a risky border crossing into Turkey. The exploit was recounted in a book, On Wings of Eagles by Ken Follett, which became a best-seller. In the 1986 miniseries, Perot was portrayed by Richard Crenna.
Perot became heavily involved in the Vietnam War POW/MIA issue. He believed that hundreds of American servicemen were left behind in Southeast Asia at the end of the U.S. involvement in the war, and that government officials were covering up POW/MIA investigations in order to avoid revealing a drug smuggling operation used to finance a secret war in Laos. Perot engaged in unauthorized back-channel discussions with Vietnamese officials in the late 1980s, which led to fractured relations between Perot and the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations. Perot also launched private investigations of, and attacks upon, U.S. Department of Defense official Richard Armitage.
Perot did not support President George H. W. Bush and vigorously opposed the United States involvement in the 1990–1991 Persian Gulf War. He unsuccessfully urged Senators to vote against the war resolution, and began to consider his own presidential run. On February 20, 1992, he appeared on CNN's Larry King Live and announced his intention to run as an independent if his supporters could get his name on the ballot in all fifty states. He declared policies of balancing the federal budget, a pro-choice stance on abortion, expansion of the war on drugs, ending outsourcing of jobs, belief in protectionism on trade, advocating the Environmental Protection Agency and enacting electronic direct democracy via "electronic town halls".
Perot's candidacy received increasing media attention. On May 25, 1992 he was featured on the cover of Time with the title "Waiting for Perot." Perot supporters began petition drives to get him on the ballot in all fifty states. Perot hired two savvy campaign managers in Democrat Hamilton Jordan and Republican Ed Rollins. His supporters established a campaign organization called United We Stand America.
By the summer Perot commanded a lead in the presidential race with thirty-nine percent of the vote. By mid-July, the Washington Post reported that Perot's campaign managers were becoming increasingly disillusioned by his unwillingness to follow their advice and that he was micromanaging campaign operations with such tactics as forcing volunteers to sign loyalty oaths. Perot's poll numbers began to slip to 25%, and his advisers warned that if he continued to ignore them, he would fall into single digits. Co-manager Hamilton Jordan threatened to quit, and on July 15, Ed Rollins resigned after Perot fired advertisement specialist Hal Riney. Rollins later said that a member of the campaign accused him of being a Bush plant with ties to the CIA. Amid the chaos, Perot's support fell to 20%. The next day, Perot announced on Larry King Live that he would not seek the presidency. Perot later stated the reason was that he received threats that digitally altered photographs would be released by the Bush campaign to sabotage his daughter's wedding. His withdrawal damaged his reputation and many of his supporters felt betrayed.
In September he qualified for all fifty state ballots. On October 1, he announced his intention to reenter the presidential race. He campaigned in 16 states and spent an estimated $12.3 million of his own money. Perot employed the innovative strategy of purchasing half-hour blocks of time on major networks for infomercial-type campaign advertisements. This advertising garnered significant viewership with one Friday night program in October attracting 10.5 million viewers. Perot's running mate was retired Vice Admiral James Stockdale, a highly-decorated former Vietnam prisoner of war (POW).
At one point in June, Perot led the polls with 39% (versus 31% for Bush and 25% for Clinton). Just prior to the debates, Perot received 7–9% support in nationwide polls. Perot did well in the debates. Although his answers during the debates were often general, many Democrats and Republicans conceded that Perot won the first debate. On the subject of the Constitution, Perot said: "Keep in mind our Constitution predates the Industrial Revolution. Our founders did not know about electricity, the train, telephones, radio, television, automobiles, airplanes, rockets, nuclear weapons, satellites, or space exploration. There's a lot they didn't know about. It would be interesting to see what kind of document they'd draft today. Just keeping it frozen in time won't hack it."
In the 1992 election, Perot received 18.9% of the popular vote, approximately 19,741,065 votes (but no electoral college votes), making him the most successful third-party presidential candidate in terms of the popular vote since Theodore Roosevelt in the 1912 election. Perot's support drew heavily from across the political spectrum, with 20% of his votes coming from self-described liberals, 27% from self-described conservatives, and 53% coming from self-described moderates. Economically, however, the majority of Perot voters (57%) were middle class, earning between $15,000 and $49,000 annually. Exit polls also showed that Perot drew 38% of his vote from Bush, and 38% of his vote from Clinton, while the rest of his voters would have stayed home had he not been on the ballot.
Based on his performance in the popular vote in 1992, Perot was entitled to receive federal election funding for 1996. Perot remained in the public eye after the election and championed opposition to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), urging voters to listen for the "giant sucking sound" of American jobs heading south to Mexico should NAFTA be ratified. Perot tried to keep his movement alive through the mid-1990s, continuing to speak about the increasing national debt. He debated with Al Gore on the issue of NAFTA on Larry King Live.
In 1995, he founded the Reform Party and won their nomination for the 1996 election. His running mate was Pat Choate. Because of the ballot access laws, he had to run as an Independent on many state ballots. Perot received eight percent of the popular vote in 1996, much less than in the 1992 race. He spent much less of his own money in this race than he had four years before, and also allowed other people to contribute to his campaign, unlike his prior race. Perot was excluded from the presidential debates, based on the preferences of the Democratic and Republican party candidates.
Later in the 1990s, Perot's detractors accused him of not allowing the Reform Party to develop into a genuine national political party, but rather using it as a vehicle to promote himself. Perot did not give an endorsement during Jesse Ventura's run for governor of Minnesota in the 1998 election.
In the 2000 presidential election, Perot refused to become involved with the internal Reform Party dispute between supporters of Pat Buchanan and of John Hagelin. Perot was unhappy with what he saw as the disintegration of the party, as well as his own portrayal in the press and he chose to remain quiet. He appeared on Larry King Live four days before the election and endorsed George W. Bush for president. After that, Perot was mostly silent on political issues, refusing to answer most questions from the press.
In January 2008, Perot publicly came out against Republican candidate John McCain and endorsed Mitt Romney for President. In 2012, Perot endorsed Mitt Romney for President. He did not endorse any candidate in 2016. Ross Perot died on July 9, 2019. He was 89 years old. He died in Dallas, Texas, from leukemia.