Brady-Handy Photograph Collection (Library of Congress) · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Third party · 1833–1912

James B. Weaver

United States representative

James Baird Weaver was an American politician in Iowa who was a member of the United States House of Representatives and two-time candidate for President of the United States. He joined the Republicans, opposed slavery, and served as an officer in the Union army during the Civil War, but after 1876 he switched to the Greenbacks, then the Populists, and finally the Democrats. He trained as a lawyer. Late in his career he served as mayor of Colfax, Iowa. He wrote A Call to Action: An Interpretation of the Great Uprising, Its Source and Causes published in 1892 when he was a Populist Party candidate for the U.S. presidency, he later wrote a history of Jasper County, Iowa.

On the Ballot

2 presidential runs

1880Lost3.3% of the vote · 0 EV · v. James A. Garfield

Strongest counties, 1880

County	third-party share	votes
Bland, VA	68.4%	548
Page, VA	62.0%	1,226
Taylor, TX	60.0%	986
Highland, VA	58.9%	715
Russell, VA	55.3%	1,148

Weakest counties, 1880

County	third-party share	votes
Bibb, AL	0.0%	843
Blount, AL	0.0%	1,578
Bullock, AL	0.0%	781
Cherokee, AL	0.0%	1,570
Chilton, AL	0.0%	844

County returns lump all third-party tickets together — these are the counties where the combined third-party vote ran strongest, a proxy for the 1880 insurgency.

1892Lost8.5% of the vote · 22 EV · v. Grover Cleveland

Strongest counties, 1892

County	third-party share	votes
Eureka, NV	92.0%	761
Humboldt, NV	89.7%	797
Pitkin, CO	86.3%	3,252
Lander, NV	84.4%	525
San Juan, CO	83.5%	581

Weakest counties, 1892

County	third-party share	votes
Bradley, AR	0.0%	1,007
Lafayette, AR	0.0%	805
Mississippi, AR	0.0%	1,302
Monroe, AR	0.0%	1,412
Newton, AR	0.0%	983

County returns lump all third-party tickets together — these are the counties where the combined third-party vote ran strongest, a proxy for the 1892 insurgency.