5. Theodore Roosevelt
Election: 1912
Party: Progressive
Votes / Percentage: 4,120,609 / 27.39
Electoral votes / Total: 88 / 531
Running mate: Hiram Johnson
In 1909, Theodore Roosevelt, the number 5 in our list of most successful third party presidential candidates in history, became so frustrated with his heir on the helm of the Republican Party, President William Howard Taft that he decided to run once more for the president’s office. After he suffered defeat at the Republican primaries, Roosevelt founded a new party, called Progressives, and ran as their candidate in 1912 elections. During the campaign, Roosevelt was shot in an unsuccessful assassination attempt as he was preparing to give a speech in Milwaukee. Despite having the bullet in his chest, he went on to deliver a 90-minute speech, claiming to feel as fit as a bull moose, which became the party’s nickname and emblem. Teddy won more than 4 million votes and 88 electoral votes, the most of any candidate on our list of 11 most successful third party presidential candidates in history, carrying 6 states. The Progressives later folded back into the Republican Party.
