The Reform Party

In 1992, the nation's economy was experiencing a recession, hampering the reelection efforts of Republican President George Bush. On the Democratic side, several leading figures within the party had decided not to enter the presidential contest, given the extraordinarily high public approval ratings enjoyed by Bush shortly after the liberation of Kuwait in the Persian Gulf War. These circumstances left the door open for a relatively unknown candidate, Governor Bill Clinton of Arkansas, to pursue the Democratic nomination.

Into the midst of this two-way contest jumped Ross Perot, an outspoken, self-made Texas billionaire with a populist message. Preaching the need for a balanced budget, immigration limits, and a reduction in the trade deficit, Perot appealed to a constituency of voters in the center of the political spectrum who were dissatisfied with the two major party candidates. Early in the summer of 1992, polls showed Perot, running as an independent, actually leading in a three-way race for the White House. However, Perot inexplicably dropped out of the race in July, citing an alleged plot to harm his family.

In the fall, Perot revived his campaign and spent $60 million of his own funds to air television commercials explaining the need for budgetary reform. His folksy, "straight-talking" style also helped him in the televised presidential debates, and ultimately Perot convinced 19 million voters to cast their ballots for him, the most ever for an independent or third party candidate. However, despite capturing 19 percent of the popular vote, Perot failed to carry a single state. Many political scientists argue that it was more likely that Perot attracted Republican voters than Democratic ones, thereby allowing Bill Clinton to win the election with only 43 percent of the popular vote.

Perot continued to be visible on the national political scene after the 1992 election, and both of the major parties responded to his calls for a balanced budget. In 1995, Perot supporters launched the Reform Party in an effort to create a more permanent organizational structure to promote the agenda of fiscal responsibility and campaign finance reform. The following year, the party qualified for the ballot in all 50 states and nominated Perot as its presidential candidate, but this time he received only 8 million votes as President Clinton rather easily won reelection.

In 1998, the Reform Party achieved its most notable success when Jesse Ventura, a former professional wrestler, was elected Governor of Minnesota running under the Reform Party banner. Since then, however, the Reform Party has nearly disintegrated as a result of internal party divisions.

After wrestling control of the party away from the Perot faction, Ventura quit the Reform Party in early 2000. Former Republican presidential candidate and conservative television commentator Patrick Buchanan and his supporters swooped into the party, commandeering it after a bitter dispute with the Perot faction. In the 2000 election, Buchanan managed to win 400,000 votes as the Reform Party candidate, while the Perot faction ended up endorsing John Hagelin, the nominee of the Natural Law Party. Recently, most of the Buchanan supporters abandoned the Reform Party, launching the new America First Party or joining the existing Constitution Party.