Believe it or not, Henry A. Wallace, considered too far to the left to remain on Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s 1944 Presidential ticket, was a Republican first, then a Democrat (then a Progressive in the 1948 election). Robert LaFollette was a Republican, winning more Republican primaries in 1912 than incumbent Republican President William Howard Taft (though many less than Republican challenger Theodore Roosevelt). Republican Illinois Congressman John Anderson ran in the 1980 Republican primaries against future Republican Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush before he launched his independent campaign in the general election. 1948 “States Rights” third party candidate Strom Thurmond began his career as a Democrat, switching to the Republican Party when southern whites dropped their long-standing aversion to the political party of Abraham Lincoln.
Copyright © 2000 by Richard Warren Field