# States where third parties and independents have done well **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [May 30, 2016, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/states-where-third-parties-and-independents-have-done-well/756051 "2016-05-30T02:31:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![boffking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/858c86/32.png) [@boffking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boffking)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2016, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/states-where-third-parties-and-independents-have-done-well/756051/1 "2016-05-30T02:31:38Z")
Not just asking about Presidential elections, but in general. I live in Maine, where we have had several independent governors. Governor Angus King was later elected to the Senate. Many local officials in Cumberland County and the City of Portland have been Greens. Considering the career Bernie Sanders, I would say Vermont is good to independents as well. What other states have had successful independent candidates? ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2016, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/states-where-third-parties-and-independents-have-done-well/756051/2 "2016-05-30T03:28:56Z")
Minnesota elected Jesse Ventura as governor. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2016, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/states-where-third-parties-and-independents-have-done-well/756051/3 "2016-05-30T03:51:33Z")
The Green Party has had some success in Hawaii. Its candidate was elected to the county council on the Big Island in 1992, the first Green Party win in the US in a partisan race. Reelected in 1994, she stepped down to run unsuccessfully for Big Island mayor in 1996. Then in 1998, another Green Party candidate reclaimed the previous one’s seat on the county council and held it until 2002, when she decided not to run. But her husband did run, also under the Green Party, won, then held the seat until losing the 2008 election. ---
**Author:** ![FlikTheBlue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fliktheblue/32/10972_2.png) [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2016, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/states-where-third-parties-and-independents-have-done-well/756051/4 "2016-05-30T15:37:44Z")
I would guess that New Hampshire would be a state that independents would do well in. What is the highest office that has ever been won by a third party candidate? Let’s exclude true independents like Sanders and Angus King. No Whigs either :p. I think that question has relevance to this topic. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2016, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/states-where-third-parties-and-independents-have-done-well/756051/5 "2016-05-31T14:02:11Z")
> [@FlikTheBlue](#): > > I would guess that New Hampshire would be a state that independents would do well in. What is the highest office that has ever been won by a third party candidate? Let’s exclude true independents like Sanders and Angus King. No Whigs either :p. I think that question has relevance to this topic. I always had the impression that New Hampshire was too conservative to support independents, unlike Vermont next door. Or have I been laboring under a misapprehension? ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2016, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/states-where-third-parties-and-independents-have-done-well/756051/6 "2016-05-31T14:29:01Z")
Any regions where Greens or other parties are regularly getting elected to city counsels, county judgeships, state assemblies, etc? If a party succeeds on the local level in many locations over time, that’s when I think they’re ready to consider fielding presidential candidates. ---
**Author:** ![boffking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/858c86/32.png) [@boffking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boffking)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2016, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/states-where-third-parties-and-independents-have-done-well/756051/7 "2016-05-31T14:41:26Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > Any regions where Greens or other parties are regularly getting elected to city counsels, county judgeships, state assemblies, etc? > > If a party succeeds on the local level in many locations over time, that’s when I think they’re ready to consider fielding presidential candidates. As I mentioned in my OP, I live in Cumberland County, Maine. We have had a large number of Green officials, both in the County, and in the City of Portland. At one point, we were the county with the most elected Greens in the US. We still have quite a few. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2016, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/states-where-third-parties-and-independents-have-done-well/756051/8 "2016-05-31T17:14:20Z")
Alaska elected Wally Hickel as governor on the Alaska Independence party ticket back in 1990. But Hickel was really a Republican who was running as a third party candidate after the Republican party nominated someone unacceptable. One of the few cases where a third party in name only white knight swoops in to save the major party from a bad nominee and actually succeeds rather than throwing the election to the other guy. > **[Wally Hickel | Second governorship](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wally_Hickel#Second_governorship)** > > A blanket primary held on August 28, 1990, resulted in Arliss Sturgulewski, a member of the Alaska Senate from Anchorage since 1979, winning the Republican nomination for governor of Alaska. Winning the Democratic nomination was Tony Knowles, the immediate past mayor of Anchorage. > The Republicans chose as their nominee for lieutenant governor Jack Coghill, a fellow state senator from Nenana. Coghill had held elected office continuously since 1957 with the exception of relinquishing the mayorshi... ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2016, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/states-where-third-parties-and-independents-have-done-well/756051/9 "2016-05-31T17:16:45Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > Minnesota elected Jesse Ventura as governor. More Importantly, they elected Al Franken as a Senator. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2016, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/states-where-third-parties-and-independents-have-done-well/756051/10 "2016-06-02T04:25:37Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > Minnesota elected Jesse Ventura as governor. But only once – he would never have been re-elected. Even he saw that and quit rather than run again. > [@Count\_Blucher](#): > > More Importantly, they elected Al Franken as a Senator. How is that relevant? Franken was the endorsed Democrat in the election, and had been an active Democrat for years before that. ---
**Author:** ![DerekMichaels00](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f14d63/32.png) [@DerekMichaels00](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DerekMichaels00)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2016, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/states-where-third-parties-and-independents-have-done-well/756051/11 "2016-06-02T05:13:34Z")
Alaska; Nader got 10% of the vote there in 2000 and Perot got 28% in 1992 there. In 2008 it was also one of Nader’s best, his 2004 absolute best, and in 2012 one of Johnson’s best.