In the November 2010 election, eleven states elected people to federal or state office who were not nominees of either the Democratic Party or the Republican Party. This is the largest number of such states since 1922, when there were fourteen such states.
The eleven states in 2010 are: Alabama, Alaska, Georgia, Kentucky, Maine, North Carolina, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont, and Wisconsin. This assumes that Lisa Murkowski has been elected to the U.S. Senate.
In the 20th and 21st centuries combined, the even-numbered year with the fewest states that elected someone who wasn’t either a Democratic nominee or a Republican nominee to federal or state office was 1954, when South Carolina and Connecticut were the only such states. The year with the most such states was 1914, when there were 24 such states.
Is this mostly Independents that got elected?
Richard:
Wasn’t Jim Buckley elected to the U. S. Senate in New York only as a Conservative Party candidate that year, along with Robert Byrd as an Independent in West Virginia?
Wow, you’re right, Deemer. I was using printed references for all state office elections, and U.S. House elections, but I was relying on my memory for U.S. Senate. Thank you very much. I am fixing the post.
The only minor party victory in 2010 for state or federal office was Ben Chipman, a Green elected to the Maine legislature. He ran as an independent because by the time he decided to run, it was too late to file in the Green Party primary.
It’s been a great day. It’s only 6 am on Normandy Beach and the bodies are only beginning to pile up. At current pace, we’ll overrun the bunker in about 10,000 years.
Let’s all start boasting and bragging for everything accomplished up to now!
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How soon before the EVIL gerrymander empires STRIKE BACK and wipe out ALL third parties and independents getting ANY ballot access — with the help of the party hack SCOTUS folks with their 2 party super-bias ???
I made a mistake in #3. I should have said the only minor party victories were the 5 Progressives in Vermont and the one in Maine.
How many 3rd parties and independents were wiped out by even more unequal ballot access laws in 1914-1954 — the wars/great depression era ??? — i.e. the EVIL bad old days — that affected the so-called brains of the SCOTUS MORONS with their severe 2 party super-bias.
Do the Donkeys fear the Greens ???
Do the Elephants fear the now many anti-Elephant groups – Libertarian, Constitution, etc. ???
Which causes the most divide and conquer stuff to happen ???
— i.e. how many plurality/minority gerrymander monsters are being elected ???