Dark Horse Candidate

ORIGINATING IN 1831, “dark horse” first appeared within Benjamin Disraeli's three-volume novel The Young Duke. Disraeli employed the term to describe the unexpected finish of a horse race:

Since Disraeli's initial use, the term has been applied in various contexts while chiefly retaining its original meaning.

In 1844, the term and politics united during the Democratic National Convention. Former President Martin Van Buren entered the convention as the likely candidate; however, following the first ballot, Van Buren possessed only a simple majority of the vote. Lacking the requisite two-thirds supermajority of votes, subsequent ballots were cast; with each recast, Van Buren's support diminished. Recognizing that Van Buren's stance on the annexation of Texas had alienated many southern voters, James Knox Polk's name was included on the eighth ballot.

Following another inconclusive ballot, Polk was finally nominated on the ninth ballot. Though Polk had entered the convention as a likely candidate for the vice presidency, he left as the Democratic Presidential nominee. Despite the nomination, Polk lacked serious recognition. Playing upon his obscurity, his Whig opponents quipped, “Who is James K. Polk?” Nevertheless, by a narrow margin, Polk defeated Henry Clay and emerged as the 11th president of the United States. Rising from virtual namelessness to the presidency, Polk is largely regarded as the first dark horse candidate.

Subsequent politicians to bear that title have included Franklin Pierce, who overcame more noteworthy candidates and received the Democratic nomination for presidency on the 49th ballot of the 1852 Democratic National Convention; James A. Garfield, who became the Republican nominee for president after winning the 36th ballot of the 1880 Republican National Convention; and Warren Gamaliel Harding, who despite receiving only 6.7 percent of votes on the first ballot of the 1920 Republican National Convention, successfully became the Republican nominee for president following the 10th ballot. Oftentimes, as in the cases of Pierce, Garfield, and Harding, the dark horse candidate is one who, though initially unsuspected, successfully emerges due to a deadlock between more probable candidates.

Russ Feingold achieved the appellation of dark horse candidate after winning the 1992 Wisconsin race for Senate. During the primary, Feingold's campaign unfolded as the two leading candidates, Jim Moody and Joe Checota, exhausted millions of dollars in a seesawing slanderous struggle. Establishing himself as the underdog and an alternate to his prominent, but blistering opponents, Fein-gold surprisingly received the Democratic bid for Senate and eventually defeated Republican incumbent Bob Kas-ten to become the junior senator from Wisconsin.