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.
The 1996 United States Senate elections were held on November 5, 1996, with the 33 seats of Class 2 contested in regular elections. Special elections were also held to fill vacancies. They coincided with the presidential election of the same year, in which Democrat Bill Clinton was re-elected president.
The 1980 United States Senate elections were held on November 4, coinciding with Ronald Reagan's victory in the presidential election. The 34 Senate seats of Class 3 were contested in regular elections. Reagan's large margin of victory over incumbent Jimmy Carter gave a huge boost to Republican Senate candidates, allowing them to flip 12 Democratic seats and win control of the chamber for the first time since the end of the 83rd Congress in January 1955.
The 1976 United States Senate elections was an election for the United States Senate. Held on November 2, the 33 seats of Class 1 were contested in regular elections. They coincided with Democrat Jimmy Carter's presidential election and the United States Bicentennial celebration. Although almost half of the seats decided in this election changed parties, Carter's narrow victory did not provide coattails for the Democratic Party. Each party flipped seven Senate seats, although, one of the seats flipped by Democrats was previously held by a Conservative.
The 1970 United States Senate elections was an election for the United States Senate. It took place on November 3, with the 33 seats of Class 1 contested in regular elections. Special elections were also held to fill vacancies. These races occurred in the middle of Richard Nixon's first term as president. The Democrats lost a net of three seats, while the Republicans and the Conservative Party of New York picked up one net seat each, and former Democrat Harry F. Byrd Jr. was re-elected as an independent.
The 1968 United States Senate elections were elections for the United States Senate. Held on November 5, the 34 seats of Class 3 were contested in regular elections. They coincided with the presidential election of the same year. The Republicans picked up five net seats in the Senate. This saw Republicans win a Senate seat in Florida for the first time since Reconstruction.
The 1964 United States Senate elections were held on November 3. The 33 seats of Class 1 were contested in regular elections. Special elections were also held to fill vacancies. They coincided with the election of President Lyndon B. Johnson by an overwhelming majority, to a full term. His Democratic Party picked up a net two seats from the Republicans. As of 2023, this was the last time either party has had a two-thirds majority in the Senate, which allowed the Senate Democrats to override a veto, propose constitutional amendments, or convict and expel certain officials without any votes from Senate Republicans. However, internal divisions would have prevented the Democrats from having done so. The Senate election cycle coincided with Democratic gains in the House in the same year.
In American politics, a Libertarian Republican is a politician or Republican Party member who has advocated libertarian policies while typically voting for and being involved with the Republican Party.
The 1954 United States Senate elections was a midterm election in the first term of Dwight D. Eisenhower's presidency. The 32 Senate seats of Class 2 were contested in regular elections, and six special elections were held to fill vacancies. Eisenhower's Republican party lost a net of two seats to the Democratic opposition. This small change was just enough to give Democrats control of the chamber with the support of an Independent who agreed to caucus with them; he later officially joined the party in April 1955.
The 2006 United States Senate election in West Virginia was held November 7, 2006. Incumbent Democrat Robert Byrd won re-election to a ninth term. He was sworn in on January 3, 2007. However, he died in office on June 28, 2010, before the end of his term. This was Byrd's closest re-election.
Brian Patrick Moore is an American politician and founder of antiwar organization Nature Coast Coalition for Peace & Justice. A perennial candidate, he was the presidential nominee of the Socialist Party USA for the 2008 United States presidential election; he waged several campaigns for mayor and city council in Washington, D.C., and twice ran for the United States House of Representatives from Florida's 5th congressional district, winning none; he ran for the Democratic Party nomination for Governor of Florida in 2010, but lost in the primary election.
The 1996 United States Senate election in Oregon was held on November 5, 1996. Incumbent Republican United States Senator Mark Hatfield decided to retire after thirty years in the Senate. Oregon State Senate President Gordon H. Smith, who had run for the Senate earlier that year, won the Republican primary, while businessman Tom Bruggere won a contested Democratic primary. The contest between Smith and Bruggere was one of the toughest that year, but ultimately, Smith was able to keep the seat in the Republican column and defeated Bruggere by a narrow margin. This is the last time that a Senate candidate was elected to the United States Senate in Oregon at the same time that a presidential candidate of the opposite party won Oregon.
The 1980 United States Senate election in Pennsylvania was held on November 4, 1980. Incumbent Republican U.S. Senator Richard Schweiker decided to retire, instead of seeking a third term.
The 2012 United States House of Representatives elections in Massachusetts were held on Tuesday, November 6, 2012, to elect the nine U.S. representatives from the state of Massachusetts, a loss of one seat following the 2010 census, for service in the 113th Congress from January 3, 2013, to January 3, 2015. The elections coincided with the elections of other federal and state offices, including a quadrennial presidential election. The candidate elected in each of the state's congressional districts was a member the Democratic Party.
A general election was held in the U.S. state of Rhode Island on November 4, 2014. All of Rhode Island's executive officers went up for election as well as a United States Senate seat and both of Rhode Island's two seats in the United States House of Representatives. Primary elections were held on September 9, 2014.
The 2020 United States Senate elections were held on November 3, 2020, with the 33 class 2 seats of the Senate contested in regular elections. Of these, 21 were held by Republicans, and 12 by Democrats. The winners were elected to 6-year terms from January 3, 2021, to January 3, 2027. Two special elections for seats held by Republicans were also held in conjunction with the general elections: one in Arizona, to fill the vacancy created by John McCain's death in 2018; and one in Georgia, following Johnny Isakson's resignation in 2019. These elections ran concurrently with the 2020 United States presidential election in which incumbent president Donald Trump lost to Democratic nominee Joe Biden.
The 2016 United States House of Representatives elections in Indiana were held on November 8, 2016, to elect the nine U.S. representatives from the state of Indiana, one from each of the state's nine congressional districts. The elections coincided with the 2016 U.S. presidential election, as well as other elections to the House of Representatives, elections to the United States Senate and various state and local elections. The primaries were held on May 3.
United States gubernatorial elections were held on November 8, 2022, in 36 states and three territories. As most governors serve four-year terms, the last regular gubernatorial elections for all but two of the seats took place in the 2018 U.S. gubernatorial elections. The gubernatorial elections took place concurrently with several other federal, state, and local elections, as part of the 2022 midterm elections.
The 2021 United States elections were held in large part on Tuesday, November 2, 2021. This off-year election included the regular gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia. In addition, state legislative elections were held for the New Jersey Legislature and Virginia House of Delegates, along with numerous state legislative special elections, citizen initiatives, mayoral races, and a variety of other local elections. Six special elections to the United States House of Representatives also took place on November 2 or earlier as a result of either deaths or vacancies. The first of these was held on March 20.
The 1944 Massachusetts general election was held on November 7, 1944, throughout Massachusetts. Primary elections took place on July 11.
The 1942 Massachusetts general election was held on November 3, 1942, throughout Massachusetts. Primary elections took place on September 15.
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.
