Ross Perot

Ross Perot campaigning for President in 1992.

Ross Perot (b.1930), entrepreneur, and independent presidential candidate in 1992 and 1996. Perot became a major figure in the 1992 presidential election through his forceful personality, his criusading style against the corruption of federal deficits, and his articulation of many people's anger and frustration with the political system. His money brought him fame, credibility, and a large, well-paid staff.

Business

He became a billionaire as head of the computer company Electronic Data Systems, which held very large contracts with the federal government for processing Medicare and Medicaid claims. He sold it to general Motors for a vast sum and a seat on the GM board. GM could not handle such an unconventional outsider, and they bought him out for another large sum. By 1992 his portfolio of holdings added up into the billions, making him one of the two richest political figures of the era.

Perot had earned his fortune largely through his computer company's success

Reformer

Perot had for some years been involved in reform efforts in Texas. He helped modernize Texas's education system and its antidrug policies. He gained national fame for his much-publicized efforts in 1969 to free American prisoners of war held in North Vietnam. His successful effort to free two of his company's employees who were imprisoned in Iran in 1978 was the subject of a best-selling book, On Wings of Eagles, and of a television miniseries. Perot alarmed many Americans by darkly suggesting that the Reagan administration was not doing enough to help prisoners Perot believed were still being held in North Vietnam. That caused his break with Reagan and mainstream conservatives, and made him an enemy of Vice President George H. W. Bush.

1992 campaign

In the 1992 Presidential election he ran for President as an independent candidate and won 19% of the vote, which is the most any independent candidate has ever received.

Everything about Perot's candidacy was unconventional. He launched it on a television talk show in February 1992, saying that if volunteers placed his name on the ballot in fifty states, he would run for President. But his campaign began well before the ballot work was finished, in mid September, and Perot himself put substantial funds into the work of his "volunteers." The crew-cut, plain-talking, can-do Perot captured people's imagination and frustrated independents, mostly conservatives who distrusted the Republican Party, rallied to his banner. He became the leader of a substantial movement.

Perot peaked in June, 1992, running even in the polls with incumbent President Bush and with Democrat Bill Clinton. Pundits speculated that Perot could carry enough electoral votes to keep Clinton and Bush from a majority throwing the decision into the House of Representatives (where Democrats had a majority).

Perot had money, momentum and voters, and appeared unstoppable. Then he stopped himself in the strangest twist in the history of presidential politics. Perot was personally ill-prepared. He knew little about the major issues of the day, and he was a poor campaigner who could not relate to the millions of his followers. He kept hidden behind an army of aides. On July 16, at the peak of his strength, Perot suddenly withdrew from the race, apparently because he could not take the psychological pressure. His admirers felt abandoned, as Clinton adroitly scooped up most of Perot's supporters.

Perot's reentry into the race on 1 October was just as quirky as his withdrawal had been, but he made it clear that he did not want to be declared a quitter. His bought network time for thirty-minute infomercials that showed him pointing to various charts and graphs about deficits and economic indicators. Perot vehemently denounced deficits as evil and corrupt, but was unable to offer a plan to actually deal with them. Still, he forced the deficit issue onto the national agenda. He also crusaded for against "revolving-door" lobbyists and lobbyists for foreign countries.

Two weeks before the election, Perot began to climb in the polls again; his numbers reached 20%. But then more bizarre behavior puzzled Americans as to the state of his mental stability. On TV nine days before the election, and at a press conference the following day, he revealed for the first time an ugly side to his personality. He was deeply suspicious of hidden enemies all around him. He claimed that he had pulled out in July because he had been warned that the Bush campaign would try to disrupt his daughter's wedding. He spoke of a supposed attempt on his life in 1970 by some Black Panthers who, he said, had been sent by the North Vietnamese.

On election day he won 19% and enabled Clinton to score a clean majority in the electoral college.

The 1992 election was unique for a number of reasons: a perception that economic conditions were worse than they actually were, which harmed incumbent President Bush; a strong third-party candidate in Perot; a backlash against 12 years of a conservative presidency that gave ever-larger deficits; and, perhaps most importantly, Bill Clinton's ability to unite not only the Democratic Party, but a number of heterogeneous coalitions, much as Franklin Roosevelt, also a consummate politician, did in the New Deal Coalition after 132.

1996

In the 1996 Presidential election Perot ran again as the candidate of the newly-founded Reform Party, which he created and funded. He won a mere 8% of the vote. His quick zinging wit that boosted his popularity in 1992, had largely evaporated or backfired by the campaign of 1996. Perot let it be known he was not pleased when Pat Buchanan got the Reform Party nomination in 2000, but there was nothing he could do about it.

Further reading

• Ceaser, James, and Andrew Busch. Upside Down and Inside Out: The 1992 Elections and American Politics (1993)
• Crotty, William, ed. America's Choice: The Election of 1992 (1993)
• Follett, Ken. On Wings of Eagles. (1983). 445 pp.
• Goldman, Peter L. et al. Quest for the Presidency, 1992 (1994) online edition
• Koch, Jeffrey. "The Perot Candidacy and Attitudes Toward Government and Politics." Political Research Quarterly 1998 51(1): 141-153. 1065-9129, shows that supporing Perot made people more alienated and distrustful of government
• Levin, Doron P. Irreconcilable Differences: Ross Perot versus General Motors. (1989). 357 pp.
• McCann, James A.; Rapoport, Ronald B.; and Stone, Walter J. "Heeding The Call: An Assessment of Mobilization into H. Ross Perot's 1992 Presidential Campaign." American Journal of Political Science 1999 43(1):1-28.
• Nelson, Micael, ed. The Elections of 1992 (1993)
• Pomper, Gerald, ed. The Election of 1992: Reports and Interpretations (1993).

Primary sources

• Perot, Ross. United We Stand: How We Can Take Back Our Country (1992).