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The term "dark horse candidate" was used at the 1844 Democratic National Convention, at which little-known Tennessee politician James K. Polk emerged as the candidate after the failure of the leading candidates to secure the necessary two-thirds majority. [31] [32] Other successful dark horse candidates include:
A dark horse is a previously lesser-known person, team or thing that emerges to prominence in a situation, especially in a competition involving multiple rivals, [1] that is unlikely to succeed but has a fighting chance, [2] unlike the underdog who is expected to lose. The term comes from horse racing and horse betting jargon for any new but ...
This article is a list of United States presidential candidates. The first U.S. presidential election was held in 1788–1789, followed by the second in 1792. Presidential elections have been held every four years thereafter. Presidential candidates win the election by winning a majority of the electoral vote.
The table above lists counties that have voted for the winning presidential candidate in at least 85% of elections from 1980 through 2020. This yields 125 counties with 11 or more wins during this period. The probability of this occurring by chance in a completely random distribution is quite low and is statistically significant.
In the United States, 15 counties or county equivalents have never voted for the Democratic presidential nominee in their history, while 5 have never voted for the Republican nominee. [1] In recent decades, the number of electorally competitive counties has decreased, with most counties now consistently favoring one political party over the ...
Democrats divided among four major candidates at the 1852 Democratic National Convention. On the 49th ballot, dark horse candidate Franklin Pierce won nomination by consensus compromise. The Free Soil Party , a third party opposed to the extension of slavery in the United States and into the territories , nominated New Hampshire Senator John P ...
On the next roll call, the convention unanimously accepted Polk, who became the first dark horse, or little-known, presidential candidate. [50] The delegates selected Senator Silas Wright of New York for Vice President, but Wright, an admirer of Van Buren, declined the nomination to become the first person to decline a vice presidential nomination.
The major parties turned to little-known dark horse candidates from the state of Ohio, a swing state with a large number of electoral votes. Cox won on the 44th ballot at the 1920 Democratic National Convention , defeating William Gibbs McAdoo (Wilson's son-in-law), A. Mitchell Palmer , and several other candidates.