3rd Party candidates against each other

[Rob Bloom]

Sorry, if this has been posted before...
This map I created indicates the best 3rd party performances state-by-state in presidential elections since 1900.




Although it's a six-way-race, Roosevelt would win the "presidency" with 281 EV, with Wallace gaining 90, Perot 86, LaFollette 46, Thurmond 32 and Anderson 3 EV (based on 2012 numbers).

Note the contiguous "LaFollette-Land" from Wisconsin to Oregon, the once again Solid South and also, that the Deep South preferred Thurmond over Wallace.

I'm intending to upload a county map soon.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Pretty nice map, and interesting too. Liking the Roosevelt coalition made up of the North-East, Industrial Mid-West, part of the Rural Mid-West, Southwest, and Pacific.

[Rob Bloom]

So, here comes the county map. Spent a lot of time with it, but it was mostly fun. I think it looks pretty.

I'm confident, that the map is correct to an extent of 98 percent. I couldn't retrieve county data for Georgia in 1904, though. With Thomas Watson gaining 17,3 % of the vote in that year in Georgia, it is possible that he would win a few counties there. But still Wallace (42,8 % in Georgia 1968) would be the front-runner in most counties by far.

Also due to some missing data I'm not entirely sure of these brown-coloured counties in Texas which I  called for James Ferguson (1920).

This is based on today's county map - it looked different in 1900, with some counties in western states having been divided since.

Please discuss!

[homelycooking]

Nice work, Rob. What in the world is going on in Texas?

[Dr. Cynic]

Greene County going against the grain in Western PA is fairly common. Roosevelt would likely have dominated here.

The map is great, Rob. I look forward to more of them from you.

[Rob Bloom]

What in the world is going on in Texas?

Texas really looks funny, there are six different candidates winning counties. Maybe it's because 3rd party candidates were never very successful in the state. The best - Perot - had just 22 percent in 1992. So I guess you could argue that everybody has a good chance in Texas. In some of the southern counties none of the candidates won more than 10 percent.

[nolesfan2011]

great map man, awesome work.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

Interesting that Strom Thurmond did better in most of the Deep South than George Wallace.  That probably had to do with a lot of in-migration in the 50s and 60s by people from areas that didn't care much for the overt racism of candidates like that.

[nolesfan2011]

Interesting that Strom Thurmond did better in most of the Deep South than George Wallace.  That probably had to do with a lot of in-migration in the 50s and 60s by people from areas that didn't care much for the overt racism of candidates like that.

a little bit but not really, the difference is Wallace was a 3rd party candidate in 1968, never an official candidate of the Democratic party and was running on his own, Thurmond on the other hand had the "slate endorsement" of multiple state Democratic parties in the south (such as Mississippi and of course South Carolina). Meaning that those voting for Wallace were doing so on their "own accord" rather than just voting party line or picking a slate.  (the state parties that walked out of the 48 DNC convention after the civil rights plank then formed their own group).

Also remember that 1968 election was after the voting rights and civil rights acts, the 1948 election was before blacks in the south were really able to vote (poll taxes and really overt poll threats and stuff were being pushed out by 68 compared to 48), thus with more blacks voting, that obviously reduced the % of the white vote a bit meaning that Wallace would get a lower % than Thurmond even if their support bases were almost identical within the south (white racists opposed to civil rights).

[Rob Bloom]

Here is a closer look at some interesting states:

Alabama: Thurmond (purple) vs. Wallace (red)


Florida: Wallace (red) vs. Perot (orange) vs. Roosevelt (blue) vs. Thurmond (purple) vs. Faris (light green)

Dade County, FL, was the only county nationwide that went for Herman Faris (Prohibition Party/1924)

Illinois: Roosevelt (blue) vs. Perot (orange) vs. LaFollette (green) vs. Wallace (red)


Kentucky: Roosevelt (blue) vs. Wallace (red) vs. Perot (orange)


Oklahoma: Perot (orange) vs. Wallace (red) vs. Debs (grey)
Roosevelt wasn't on the ballot in Oklahoma 1912, enabling Socialist Debs to win some counties.


Texas: Perot (orange) vs. Wallace (red) vs. Roosevelt (blue) vs. LaFollette (green) vs. Ferguson (brown) vs. Thurmond (purple)


Wisconsin: Favourite son LaFollette (green) vs. nobody