# John Anderson in the 1980 Pres. election... **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [July 19, 2017, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-anderson-in-the-1980-pres-election/791658 "2017-07-19T17:06:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2017, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-anderson-in-the-1980-pres-election/791658/21 "2017-07-20T14:00:28Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > This wasn’t true, and I say this as a local (northern Virginia) organizer for Anderson’s campaign. His support topped out at about 20%. I was wondering about that myself–sounded off to me, but I was only 4 at the time, so I wouldn’t know. Perhaps **pjacks** is thinking of Perot, Clinton, Bush? Perot actually did lead opinion polls for a bit there, until he dropped out of the race in July, and popped back in. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2017, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-anderson-in-the-1980-pres-election/791658/22 "2017-07-20T14:26:09Z")
trump is kind of Perot with a party behind him. If Ross had waited four years and ran as a Republican… ---
**Author:** ![Thing\_Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@Thing\_Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing_Fish)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2017, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-anderson-in-the-1980-pres-election/791658/23 "2017-07-20T16:04:29Z")
> [@Thing\_Fish](#): > > No. > > At least, Reagan still would have won the popular vote by more than three million votes, with an absolute majority of all votes cast. I suppose it’s theoretically possible that Carter might somehow have won the Electoral College, but highly unlikely and way too much trouble for me to bother checking. > [@RTFirefly](#): > > What the hey, I checked. > > If every Anderson vote had been a Carter vote instead, [it would have flipped 11 states worth 142 electoral votes](http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/data.php?year=1980&datatype=national&def=1&f=1&off=0&elect=0)\*. The problem was, Carter lost the EC 489-49; this would have closed the gap to 347-191. So still a big loss. > > - Arkansas, Connecticut, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, New York, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, and Wisconsin. God bless the SDMB.🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Thing\_Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@Thing\_Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing_Fish)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2017, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-anderson-in-the-1980-pres-election/791658/24 "2017-07-20T16:05:31Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > I was wondering about that myself–sounded off to me, but I was only 4 at the time, so I wouldn’t know. Perhaps **pjacks** is thinking of Perot, Clinton, Bush? Perot actually did lead opinion polls for a bit there, until he dropped out of the race in July, and popped back in. Right, Perot is the only third party candidate ever to lead a Presidential race at any point (in the era for which we have polling data, obviously). ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2017, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-anderson-in-the-1980-pres-election/791658/25 "2017-07-20T16:51:06Z")
George Wallace and Strom Thurmond are the only ones in that period to win any states, if that’s what you’re after. ---
**Author:** ![pjacks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e19adc/32.png) [@pjacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pjacks)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2017, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-anderson-in-the-1980-pres-election/791658/26 "2017-07-20T19:42:52Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > I was wondering about that myself–sounded off to me, but I was only 4 at the time, so I wouldn’t know. Perhaps **pjacks** is thinking of Perot, Clinton, Bush? Perot actually did lead opinion polls for a bit there, until he dropped out of the race in July, and popped back in. I must have misremembered, as the extent of my knowledge came from some personal google research a couple years ago after I found out he existed & ran for president. His Wikipedia page states that he polled as high as 26% against Reagan & Carter, which is not unimpressive. But it seems like the campaign could never get higher than that, & obviously his support cratered over time. Sent from my R1 HD using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![Some\_Call\_Me.Tim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Some\_Call\_Me.Tim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Some_Call_Me.Tim)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2017, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-anderson-in-the-1980-pres-election/791658/27 "2017-07-20T21:54:51Z")
> [@Thing\_Fish](#): > > Right, Perot is the only third party candidate ever to lead a Presidential race at any point (in the era for which we have polling data, obviously). Yeah, though I think it’s worth pointing out that Teddy Roosevelt, running as a Progressive, got more raw and electoral college votes than the third place Republican in the 1912 Presidential election. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2017, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-anderson-in-the-1980-pres-election/791658/28 "2017-07-20T22:35:26Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > This is true. I don’t think it is. It’s true in _most_ cases, but there are outliers in recent memory, like the Clinton-Bush-Perot election. If Perot didn’t briefly drop out, I really think it could have been much more interesting. I do think he might have won, but I was only in high school at the time, so my high school brain may be distorting my memories. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2017, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-anderson-in-the-1980-pres-election/791658/29 "2017-07-21T17:40:47Z")
My parents were for Anderson because he wasn’t as hard-right wacky as Reagan, and because they thought Carter was in over his head as President. I, as a proto-Democrat too young to vote yet, was for Carter despite his many shortcomings, but couldn’t persuade them otherwise. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2017, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-anderson-in-the-1980-pres-election/791658/30 "2017-12-06T02:41:11Z")
Updating this thread: **John B. Anderson, who made quixotic run for president the year Reagan won the White House, dies at 95** > **[John B. Anderson, who made quixotic run for president the year Reagan won the...](https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-john-anderson-2050-story.html)** > > John B. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2017, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-anderson-in-the-1980-pres-election/791658/31 "2017-12-06T05:11:44Z")
Ah, I hadn’t heard that. Thanks. Here’s NPR’s coverage: [John Anderson, Independent For President In 1980, Dies At 95 : The Two-Way : NPR](https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/12/05/568489924/john-anderson-independent-for-president-in-1980-dies-at-95) ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2017, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-anderson-in-the-1980-pres-election/791658/32 "2017-12-06T19:16:55Z")
> [@dalej42](#): > > A vote for a 3rd party in the United States is a wasted vote. You should have voted for Carter. This assumes that the person he wanted to avoid most was Reagan. It’s potentially true that he was equally, or even more so, motivated to avoid Carter. I dislike the assertion that a vote for a 3rd Party candidate is a “wasted” vote. 3rd-party candidates have on several occasions in American history produced a changed result in the November election, compared to what would probably have occurred had they not run. Ignoring for a moment the insanity of 1860, we can look to the outcomes of 1912 and 1992 for easy examples. Then, of course, there is the 2000 fiasco. The question you must ask yourself is what particularly you want in the way of ranked outcomes. If you rank the outcomes A, B, C, but by voting A, you help ensure C, then yes, you might want to re-think that vote. But if by voting A, you help ensure B, then you’re probably ok with voting 3rd-party. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2017, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-anderson-in-the-1980-pres-election/791658/33 "2017-12-06T20:03:42Z")
A third-party candidate can also have impact beyond the immediate election by forcing the two parties to look at issues/constituencies that they have not given attention to. ---
**Author:** ![RickG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rickg/32/5174_2.png) [@RickG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickG)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2017, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-anderson-in-the-1980-pres-election/791658/34 "2017-12-06T22:24:03Z")
I was only 16 at the time, so not a voter, but I was an Anderson supporter. To this day, I cannot fathom why Reagan was considered a Great Communicator. I thought from the beginning that he was both dangerous and not particularly bright (compared to what we have now, he was a calm, measured, genius of a president). And I was deeply discomfited by Carter’s apparent incompetence and overt Christianity. In retrospect, he did a couple of really good things, like hiring Volcker, beginning airline deregulation, and championing energy conservation. And his Christianity was, I think, of the real Jesus-based variety, where taking care of the poor is more important than making life easier for the rich. Reagan’s alliance with the Moral Majority crowd was also terrifying, for that matter. Anderson seemed to be progressive on social issues and reasonable on fiscal ones. To a 16 year old without a great deal of political or policy knowledge, he just seemed sane, and that was good enough for me. He’s the last candidate with an ® after his name that I ever supported. And I’ve never voted for one, for which I blame Reagan. ---
**Author:** ![HelenGawn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a88e4f/32.png) [@HelenGawn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HelenGawn)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2017, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-anderson-in-the-1980-pres-election/791658/35 "2017-12-11T19:39:43Z")
I thought he was the lead singer for _Yes._ Turns out he spelled it differently and was born here. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-anderson-in-the-1980-pres-election/791658.md?page=1)