Three Times In History Third Parties Had A Chance Of Winning

For most Republicans and Democrats a third parties today is just a thing to "take votes away." Some believed that in 2016 the Green party negatively affected Clinton's outcome. Now in 2020 it looks like Libertarians' could have pulled a good amount of votes from Trump. 

Most can agree there has been six parties which have succeeded as "major parties" Those being the Federalist Party, Democratic-Republican Party, National Republican Party, Democratic Party, Whig Party, and Republican Party.

The last third-party candidate to win a state was George Wallace of the American Independent Party in 1968, but there are a few times a third party came close.

3) The third party candidate with the most popular votes of all time was Henry Ross Perot who was an independent that gained 19,743,821 votes in 1992. Still far off from a win, getting third place, but showing that a lot of people agreed with the views.

2) We also saw John Cabell Breckinridge with the Constitutional Democratizes.  He gained 851,844 votes in 1860. That amount of votes actually got him second place, but still a fair distance from victory.

1) Debatably this it the only time a third party candidate had a chance of winning. It was Theodore Roosevelt in 1912 giving him 4,120,609 votes. He got second place, but it should be noted that this was after he had been president with Republican Party. He was already a big name, but it still wasn't enough to gain him another term with a third party.

In the end at this time no third party really has a chance against the two juggernauts that are Reps and Dems, but at one time some third parties was a formidable foe.