The Reform Party of the United States of America (RPUSA), generally known as the Reform Party USA or the Reform Party, is a centrist political party in the United States. The party was founded in 1995 by Ross Perot and qualifies as a third party.
Perot believed Americans were disillusioned with the state of politics as being corrupt and unable to deal with vital issues. After he received 18.9 percent of the popular vote as an independent candidate in the 1992 presidential election, he founded the Reform Party and presented it as a viable alternative to Republicans and Democrats. As the Reform Party presidential nominee, Perot won 8.4 percent of the popular vote in the 1996 presidential election. While he did not receive a single electoral vote, no other third-party or independent candidate has since managed to receive as high a share of the popular vote.
The party has nominated other presidential candidates over the years, including Pat Buchanan and Ralph Nader. Its most significant victory came when Jesse Ventura was elected Governor of Minnesota in 1998, although he left the party shortly into his term. Donald Trump was a member of the Reform Party during his brief 2000 presidential campaign. In around the year 2000, party infighting and scandals led to a major decline in the party's strength. Beginning with Buchanan's poor showing in the 2000 election, no Reform Party presidential nominee since 1996 has been able to gather 1 percent of the popular vote.
Nicholas Hensley is the current chair of the party.
The Ross Perot movement Ross Perot's 1992 presidential election campaign The party grew out of Ross Perot's efforts in the 1992 presidential election, where—running as an independent—he became the first non-major party candidate since 1912 to have been considered viable enough to win the presidency. Perot received attention for focusing on fiscal issues such as the federal deficit and national debt; government reform issues such as term limits, campaign finance reform, and lobbying reform; and issues on trade. A large part of his following was grounded in the belief he was addressing vital problems largely ignored by the two major parties.
A Gallup poll showed Perot with a slim lead; however, on July 19, he suspended his campaign, accusing Republican operatives of threatening to sabotage his daughter's wedding. He was accused by Newsweek of being a "quitter" in a well-publicized cover-page article. After resuming his campaign on October 1, Perot was dogged by the "quitter" moniker and other allegations concerning his character. On Election Day, many voters were confused as to whether Perot was actually still a candidate. He ended up receiving about 18.9 percent of the popular vote, a record level of popularity not seen in an independent candidate since former President Theodore Roosevelt ran on the "Bull Moose" Progressive Party ticket in 1912. He continued being politically involved after the election, turning his campaign organization (United We Stand America) into a lobbying group. One of his primary goals was the defeat of the North American Free Trade Agreement during this period.
Foundation and rise of the party In 1995, Republicans took control of the House of Representatives, largely on the strength of the "Contract with America", which recognized and promised to deal with many of the issues Perot's voters had mobilized to support in 1992. However, two of the major provisions (Constitutional amendments for term limits and the balanced budgets) failed to secure the two-thirds congressional majorities required to be submitted to the states.
Dissatisfied, the grassroots organizations that had made Perot's 1992 candidacy possible began to band together to found a third party intended to rival the Republicans and Democrats. For legal reasons, the party ended up being called the "Reform Party" ("Independent Party" was preferred, but already taken, as were several variants on the name). A drive to get the party on the ballot in all fifty states succeeded, although it ended with lawsuits in some regions over state ballot access requirements. In a few areas, minor parties became incorporated as state party organizations.
Apex: 1996 presidential election
Nomination campaign
At first, when the 1996 election season arrived, Perot held off from entering the contest for the Reform Party's presidential nomination, calling for others to try for the ticket. The only person who announced such an intention was Dick Lamm, former Governor of Colorado. After the Federal Election Commission indicated only Perot and not Lamm would be able to secure federal matching funds—because his 1992 campaign was as an independent—Perot entered the race. Some were upset that Perot changed his mind because, in their view, Perot overshadowed Lamm's run for the party nomination. This built up to the beginning of a splinter within the movement, when it was alleged certain problems in the primary process—such as many Lamm supporters not receiving ballots, and some primary voters receiving multiple ballots—were Perot's doing. The Reform Party claimed these problems stemmed from the petition process for getting the Reform Party on the ballot in all of the states since the party claimed they used the names and addresses of petition signers as the basis of who received ballots. Primary ballots were sent by mail to designated voters. Eventually, Perot was nominated for president and he chose economist Pat Choate as his vice presidential running mate. The results of the party's presidential primary were: Perot 32,145, Lamm 17,121.
Exclusion from the debates Between 1992 and 1996, the Commission on Presidential Debates changed its rules regarding how candidates could qualify to participate in the presidential debates. As Perot had previously done very well in debates, it was a decisive blow to the campaign when the Commission ruled that he could not participate on the basis of somewhat vague criteria — such as that a candidate was required to have already been endorsed by "a substantial number of major news organizations," with "substantial" being a number to be decided by the commission on a case-by-case basis. Perot could not have qualified for the debates in 1992 under these rules, and was able to show that various famous U.S. presidents would likewise have been excluded from the modern debate by the Commission on Presidential Debates.
Despite legal action by the Perot team, and an 80 percent majority of Americans supporting his participation in the debates, the Commission refused to budge and Perot was reduced to making his points heard via a series of half-hour "commercials". In the end, Perot and Choate won 8 percent of the vote.
Plateau and decline
1997 By October 1997, factional disputes began to emerge with the departure of a group that believed Perot had rigged the 1996 party primary to defeat Lamm. These individuals eventually established the "American Reform Party" (ARP). Then chairman, Roy Downing, said the split came about when it was "...discovered [that the Reform Party] was a top-down party instead of a bottom-up organization."Atlantic Herald – Fall of the Reform Party Although members of the group attempted to persuade former Colorado Governor Dick Lamm – Perot's chief rival for the nomination – to run for president as an Independent, he declined, pointing out that he had promised before running that he would not challenge the party's decision. During this time, Perot himself chose to concentrate on lobbying efforts through United We Stand America.
American Reform Party
When the ARP was founded, Jackie Salit noted in the Christian Science Monitor: "At its founding meeting in Kansas City in 1997, the 40 black delegates in the room, led by the country's foremost African-American independent – Lenora Fulani – represented the first time in US history that African-Americans were present at the founding of a major national political party."
The ARP has yet to organize in more than a few states. In the 2000, 2004, and 2008 elections, the American Reform Party supported Ralph Nader for president. The ARP is not a political party in the conventional sense. It does not have ballot access in any state, and it does not run candidates. It supports third-party candidates and independents who support the primary principles of the Party's platform.
About 2010–2011, the party shifted from a relatively centrist platform to a Tea Party-style fiscal conservative one. In the 2012 presidential election, the ARP endorsed Republican Party nominee Mitt Romney against incumbent president Barack Obama. In the 2016 presidential election, the Party endorsed the Republican candidate Donald Trump.
Affiliates In New York State, the Integrity Party is an ARP affiliate. The group, led by Darren Johnson, used the state's fusion election system in cross-endorsing a Democratic sheriff candidate, Vincent Demarco, in Suffolk County, helping him narrowly win the election. The party had also run a host of other candidates and attempted to go statewide in 2006, fielding Phoebe Legere as a candidate in the 2006 New York gubernatorial election. Legere and the party did not qualify for the November ballot. The Reform Party of Northern Mariana Islands was an affiliate of the ARP. The group was founded by former governor Froilan Tenorio, who was dissatisfied with the Democratic Party. The territory-level party was notable for electing a member to the Northern Mariana Islands Senate in the 1999 general elections, their first and only elected official. The party would lose their only elected official in the 2003 general elections and would cease political activities afterwards.
Mid-term elections of 1998 In 1998, the Reform Party received a boost when Jesse Ventura was elected Governor of Minnesota. According to the League of Women Voters, the Reform Party USA obtained more votes nationwide in 1998 than did any other third party in America (without those garnered by Ventura). Counting Ventura's performance, Reformers took in more votes than all other third parties in the United States combined, establishing the Reform Party as America's third-largest party.
2000 presidential election
The Reform Party's presidential nominee for the 2000 election was due federal matching funds of $12.5 million (~$ in ), based on Perot's 8 percent showing in 1996. Early on, there was a failed effort to draft Ron Paul.
Donald Trump entered the race briefly, giving television interviews outlining his platform. Trump was relatively progressive on social issues, and supported allowing openly gay soldiers in the military, saying: "it would not disturb me". Trump considered himself a conservative, but criticized Pat Buchanan, saying: "I'm on the conservative side, but Buchanan is Attila the Hun." He withdrew from the race citing the party's infighting, as did Jesse Ventura and the Minnesota Reform Party. Donald Trump stated: "So the Reform Party now includes a Klansman, Mr. Duke, a neo-Nazi, Mr. Buchanan, and a communist, Ms. Fulani. This is not company I wish to keep."
Buchanan decided to leave the Republican Party because, "The Republican Party at the national level has ceased to be my party. This divorce began around the end of the Cold War when President [George] Bush declared it to be a New World-order party and began intervening all over the world. While he and I were allies and friends during the Cold War, I just felt that once the Cold War was over the United States should return to a more traditional non-intervention foreign policy."