Items21The creator’s order
  1. 1William Jennings BryanWilliam Jennings BryanBorn 19 Mar 1860Bryan lost in 1896, 1900 and 1908, but his "Cross of Gold" campaign absorbed the Populists and turned the Democrats from a party of limited government into one hostile to big finance. The income tax, direct election of senators and other planks he championed were enacted within two decades.0i
  2. 2Theodore RooseveltTheodore RooseveltBorn 27 Oct 1858The 1912 Progressive "Bull Moose" run is the strongest third-party showing in modern history: 27 per cent and second place. Its platform of social insurance, minimum wages for women and campaign finance disclosure anticipated much of the New Deal, though splitting the Republican vote also elected…0i
  3. 3Eugene V. DebsEugene V. DebsBorn 5 Nov 1855Debs ran five times for the Socialist Party, winning about 6 per cent in 1912 and nearly a million votes in 1920 while in federal prison for opposing the First World War. His campaigns pressed old-age pensions and labour protections onto the agenda and became a lasting reference for free speech in…0i
  4. 4Robert M. La FolletteRobert M. La FolletteBorn 14 Jun 1855La Follette's 1924 Progressive campaign took nearly 17 per cent with backing from organised labour, then rare for a presidential candidate. Its platform of public ownership of utilities, protection for collective bargaining and an end to child labour fed directly into the New Deal coalition.0i
  5. 5Al SmithAl SmithBorn 30 Dec 1873The first Catholic major-party nominee lost heavily in 1928 amid open anti-Catholic campaigning, yet Smith carried the country's twelve largest cities, which had voted Republican four years earlier. That urban, immigrant vote became a pillar of Roosevelt's coalition from 1932.0i
  6. 6Wendell WillkieWendell WillkieBorn 18 Feb 1892Willkie won the 1940 Republican nomination over the party's isolationists and backed aid to Britain and the peacetime draft during the campaign. After losing he toured the Allied world and wrote One World, helping to move his party towards the internationalism that later supported the United…0i
  7. 7Strom ThurmondStrom ThurmondBorn 5 Dec 1902An influence most readers will not admire: Thurmond's 1948 States' Rights "Dixiecrat" campaign, launched against Truman's civil rights programme, carried four Deep South states. It was the first sign of the white Southern break from the Democrats, which Thurmond himself completed by switching to…0i
  8. 8Henry A. WallaceHenry A. WallaceBorn 7 Oct 1888The former vice president's 1948 Progressive Party run won only about 2 per cent, but it campaigned in the South before integrated audiences and opposed the early Cold War line. Its weak showing helped settle the Democratic Party's anticommunist liberalism for a generation, and its civil rights…0i
  9. 9Adlai Stevenson IIAdlai Stevenson IIBorn 5 Feb 1900Stevenson lost to Eisenhower twice, in 1952 and 1956, but his speeches drew a generation of educated professionals into Democratic politics, the "amateur" reform clubs that challenged city machines. His 1956 call to stop atmospheric nuclear testing was dismissed at the time and realised in the 1963…0i
  10. 10Barry GoldwaterBarry GoldwaterBorn 2 Jan 1909Goldwater won only six states in 1964, yet his campaign handed control of the Republican Party to its conservative wing, built a national donor base of small contributors and launched Ronald Reagan with the televised speech "A Time for Choosing". His opposition to the Civil Rights Act also helped…0i