David Lory VanDerBeek has announced his gubernatorial candidacy for the Nevada 2014 election as the Independent American (Constitution) Party candidate. He is one of only three Constitution Party U.S. Senate candidates who ever got as much as 5% of the vote. In 2012 he received 5.12%. The only other two Constitution Party nominees for U.S. Senate in the party’s history who topped 5% were Scott Bradley in Utah in 2010, who got 5.67%, and Joseph Slovenec in Ohio in 1994, who got 7.33%.
So which 3rd party has the record for candidates receiving 5% in U.S. Senate races?
In just one year, 1914, the Progressive Party polled over 5% for US Senate in Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Vermont, and Washington.
In that same year, the Socialist Party polled over 5% for US Senate in Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Washington, and Wisconsin. The Prohibition Party presidential nominee from 1912, running as an independent in Arizona, polled over 5%.
1914 was quite a year. I wish some historian would write a book about the congressional election of 1914.
IF Wikipedia is anything close to accurate (big if…but you’d probably know if it is), both 1912 and 1914 were interesting years. Ten Progressives were elected to the House, and one got into the Senate in 1912, in addition to the strong showings by the Socialist and Prohibition parties in those years.
The early 1900’s were the last hurrah for decent democratic elections in this country. I may not be a historian, but I am studying Journalism. I’ll see if I can do something to bring some attention to this fact after I graduate. It would help give today’s sports team mentality Democratic and Republican some perspective.
Vanderbeek got 4.89% of the vote per the Nevada SOS elections website:
http://www.silverstateelection.com/USSenate/
Also per Dave Leip:
http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/state.php?year=2012&fips=32&f=0&off=3&elect=0&class=1
Also per David Leip, Slovenic was on the ballot as an independent, not as a Constitution Party candidate.
Vanderbeek got over 5% of the vote when the people who didn’t vote for any candidate are not included in the denominator. I have been working out percentages of the vote for candidates since I was in high school in the late 1950’s, and I have never included in the denominator the number of people who failed to vote for any candidate.
Joe Slovenic in 1994 was the Constitution Party nominee for US Senate in Ohio. The fact that he didn’t have the party label does not contradict that. He had no label next to his name on the ballot, because all minor party candidates in Ohio in 1994 had no ballot label. Harry Browne, the LP candidate for president in 1996, didn’t have the label “Libertarian” next to his name either, nor did Andre Marrou in 1992, nor Ron Paul in 1988.
Thank you for the article, Richard! Also, there was electronic voting fraud. My own family could not vote for me because my name did not show up in the machines, but they didn’t get a photo of it. We’ll be watching more closely this time.