Who would you say are the most well known presidential loser to never make it

[King]

Even if you believe the conspiracy about Illinois and Texas in 1960, JFK won the popular vote by a larger margin than those two states flipped to Nixon and if they hadn't stolen the race, it would have been a travesty of the electoral process a la 2000.


The only other election besides 2000 that can truly be called stolen in US history without bias hackery is 1876.

[King]

1888 was not stolen.  Cleveland won the South virtually uncontested while Harrison won his states by smaller margins, thus Cleveland ended up with more PV.

1876 was a backroom political boss deal to let Hayes be President so the Democrats would get considerations in Congress and was a large part of the reason the electoral college in each state is now allocated directly on the popular vote winner instead of letting electors have a legitimate say in how they vote.

As for your thread topic, I would have to agree with above.  William Jennings Bryan was basically a celebrity in his day.  The only modern loser to hold true national name recognition at time of declaration of candidacy (and not be a VP like HHH, Gore or Mondale) was H. Ross Perot.