# Highest elected office reached by third party in USA?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/highest-elected-office-reached-by-third-party-in-usa/758703>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 29, 2016, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/highest-elected-office-reached-by-third-party-in-usa/758703 "2016-06-29T14:05:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\
**Post date:** [July 2, 2016, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/highest-elected-office-reached-by-third-party-in-usa/758703/21 "2016-07-02T02:35:39Z")

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> [@boffking](#):
>
> In one of my history classes we talked about how Washington didn’t believe in parties at all. He thought political parties would tear the country apart. Personally, I think he was right!

But even Washington recognized that people had different opinions on political issues. There were, in his era, people who wanted a new Constitution with a stronger central government and other people who preferred strong state governments with a weak national government. These weren’t parties in the modern but they were organized political movements. Washington was part of the stronger central government group - the Federalists.

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