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A Tale of Two Campaigns: Ralph Nader's Strategy in the 2004 Presidential Election

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 September 2006

Barry C. Burden
Barry C. Burden
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin
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Extract

In the final days of the 2004 election, independent candidate Ralph Nader hardly resembled the same man who ran for president four years earlier. In 2000, Nader had catapulted himself from consumer activist to Green Party nominee, pledging to build a new progressive alternative to the Democratic and Republican parties. He raised $8.4 million, appeared on 44 state ballots, earned almost three million votes nationwide, and was widely blamed for Al Gore's defeat in Florida. Four years later, Nader had shed his Green Party affiliation, raised only $4.6 million, appeared on just 35 ballots, and earned a meager .38% of the popular vote. The controversial third party candidate who drew so much attention for his pivotal role in the 2000 election outcome had become a mere footnote by 2004.I thank Phil Jones for research assistance, Theresa Amato for Nader travel information, and participants in the Riker Seminar at the University of Rochester for comments.

Type
FEATURES
Information
PS: Political Science & Politics , Volume 39 , Issue 4 , October 2006 , pp. 871 - 874
Copyright
© 2006 The American Political Science Association

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