Why did Perot do so poorly in the South?

[Statilius the Epicurean]

It's very striking to see his 1992 performance on a state by state map:



I know he was pro-abortion, sure, but so was Clinton.

[morgankingsley]

Lol at pure white Mississippi

As for the question, there were already 2 southerners that politically resonated much more and depending on state the south by that time was either firm Democrat or from Republican no matter what, and it was only really the 6 deep south states where perot was decimated, he actually did pretty decent in the others

[Hydera]

Black voters stuck with the democratic candidate and republicans tended to be more strongly republican in the South than other regions. hence the lower support in the south.

Perot tended to do well in New England and the midwest due to him campaigning on NAFTA which was an issue since especially new england was the region most affected by the 1990-1991 recession. And he also did very well with the "Inner west" since that region was full of "conservative anti-establishment type republicans" upset with HW bush over tax increases which might had felt fine with Perot knowing that the region was so strongly republican that even if they voted for Perot it would had still be won mostly by a republican.


As for Florida im going to assume he did well in Florida in comparison to other Southern states amongst conservative democrats who voted republican heavily but still were registered Democrats and didn't mind voting for a third party candidate due to their loose loyalty(the coastal florida perot voters would later vote for Clinton in 1996 and then become heavily republican leaning after 2000 due to cultural wedge issues).

[darklordoftech]

The South has historically been for free trade and war. Could that be a factor?

[TheElectoralBoobyPrize]

Outside of segregationists (Thurmond, Wallace), have any third-party candidates done well in the South?

[morgankingsley]

Outside of segregationists (Thurmond, Wallace), have any third-party candidates done well in the South?

Weaver cracked over 30 percent in Alabama in 1892, and either got second, or at least won counties in several others.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

Outside of segregationists (Thurmond, Wallace), have any third-party candidates done well in the South?

Weaver cracked over 30 percent in Alabama in 1892, and either got second, or at least won counties in several others.

In AL, MS, and parts of GA, the Populists were basically the 2nd party against the Democrats, as in several Western states they were against the Republicans.

4 years later, when the populists took over the Democrats with Bryan, Palmer did relatively well in Alabama compared to other states, with the Prohibitionist candidate doing decently in Georgia.