These lists are a companion to the Wikipedia article entitled United States presidential nominating convention.
Elec- tion | Party | City | Year | Presidential nominee | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1832 | Anti-Masonic | Baltimore, Maryland | 1831 | William Wirt | usually considered the first U.S. political party nominating convention |
1836 | Anti-Masonic | Philadelphia | 1836 | no candidate nominated | |
1840 | Anti-Masonic | Philadelphia | 1838 | William Henry Harrison (Whig) | By 1840, Anti-Masons had been largely absorbed into the Whig Party |
Liberty | Albany, New York | 1840 | James G. Birney | first U.S. anti-slavery political party | |
1844 | Liberty | Buffalo, New York | 1843 | James G. Birney | |
Tyler Democratic | Baltimore | 1844 | John Tyler | Nominated sitting President Tyler in May 1844 but Tyler withdrew from running in August 1844. [Also known as the National Democratic or Democratic Republican Party] | |
1848 | Free Soil | Utica & Buffalo, New York | 1848 | Martin Van Buren | united Liberty Party supporters with anti-slavery Democrats and Whigs |
1852 | Free Soil | Pittsburgh | 1852 | John P. Hale | Most Free-Soilers joined the Republican Party after its foundation in 1854. |
1856 | American | Philadelphia | 1856 | Millard Fillmore (Whig) | The anti-immigrant American (or Know Nothing) Party endorsed Fillmore in February 1856, followed by the Whigs in September. |
The two right-hand columns show nominations by notable conventions not shown elsewhere. Some of the nominees (e.g. the Whigs before 1860 and Theodore Roosevelt in 1912) received very large votes, while others who received less than 1% of the total national popular vote are listed to show historical continuity or transition. [For example, the Equal Rights Party convention of 1872 nominated the first national ticket to include either a woman (Victoria Woodhull) or an African-American (Frederick Douglass), although this ticket received no votes at all.]
Many important candidates are not shown here because they were never endorsed by a national party convention (e.g. William Henry Harrison in 1836, George C. Wallace in 1968, John B. Anderson in 1980 and Ross Perot in 1992); for a list by year of all notable candidates (at least one Elector or 0.1% of the popular vote), please see List of United States presidential candidates.
Note that there is no organizational continuity between the American Parties of 1856 and 1972, the Union Parties of 1860, 1864, 1888, 1900 and 1936, or the Progressive Parties of 1912–16, 1924 and 1948–52.
The Prohibition Party was organized in 1869. At the 1896 Prohibition Party convention in Pittsburgh, the majority of delegates supported a "narrow-gauge" platform confined to the prohibition of alcohol, while a "broad-gauge" minority — who also wanted to advocate for Free Silver and other reforms — broke away to form the National Party.
The Socialist Party of America (1901–1972) resulted from a merger of the Social Democratic Party (founded 1898) with dissenting members of the Socialist Labor Party (founded 1876). The Socialist Party of America stopped running its own candidates for president after 1956, but a minority of SPA members who disagreed with this policy broke away in 1973 to form the Socialist Party USA (SPUSA).
¶ Note that the years refer to the relevant presidential election and not necessarily to the date of a convention making a nomination for that election. Some nominating conventions meet in the year before an election.
The Communist Party was formed by Leninists who had left the Socialist Party of America in 1919. The Socialist Workers Party was formed by Communists who followed Leon Trotsky rather than Joseph Stalin and briefly joined the Socialist Party before forming their own party in 1937.
Election | Communist Party convention | Communist nominee | SWP convention | Socialist Workers Party nominee |
---|---|---|---|---|
1924 | Chicago [Workers Party] | William Z. Foster | ||
1928 | New York City [Workers (Communist) Party] | William Z. Foster | ||
1932 | Chicago | William Z. Foster | ||
1936 | New York City | Earl Browder | ||
1940 | New York City | Earl Browder | ||
1944 | New York City (Communist Political Association) | no candidate nominated | ||
1948 | New York City | Henry A. Wallace (Progressive) | New York City | Farrell Dobbs |
1952 | Vincent Hallinan (Progressive) | New York City | Farrell Dobbs | |
1956 | New York City | Farrell Dobbs | ||
1960 | (Farrell Dobbs) | |||
1964 | New York City | Clifton DeBerry | ||
1968 | New York City | Charlene Mitchell | New York City | Fred Halstead |
1972 | New York City | Gus Hall | Detroit | Linda Jenness |
1976 | Chicago | Gus Hall | (Peter Camejo) | |
1980 | Detroit | Gus Hall | Oberlin, Ohio | Andrew Pulley |
1984 | Cleveland, Ohio | Gus Hall | New York City | Melvin T. Mason |
1988 | New York City | James Warren | ||
1992 | Chicago | James Warren | ||
In 1999, the United States Taxpayers' Party changed its name to the Constitution Party.
The individual article about a Libertarian convention or about a Green Party convention after 1996 is linked to its respective city in the table below. Cities linked for Constitution and U.S. Taxpayers' Party conventions lead to individual sections of Constitution Party National Convention.
The list below shows the location of the party convention, along with the winner of the election. Bold font indicates that party won the presidential election. If the party won the state where the convention was held — but not necessarily that city itself — the box is shaded. (For example, while the 1948 Democratic, Progressive and Republican conventions were all held in Philadelphia, the city itself narrowly voted for Democratic President Harry Truman, while the state of Pennsylvania as a whole voted for the Republican candidate, Thomas Dewey. In this table the 1948 Republican box is shaded, but the Democratic one is not.) [7] . Other parties are only listed if they garnered electoral college votes. [8]