Nader, Ralph (1934-)

PRIOR TO THE 2000 presidential contest, most Americans knew Ralph Nader better as a crusading consumer and environmental activist. While his candidacies had little effect on the outcomes of the 1996 and 2004 presidential elections, his candidacy in 2000 probably changed the outcome of that election. An Arab-American born in Winsted, Connecticut, Nader graduated from Princeton University in 1955 with a double major in economics and Far Eastern Studies, and from Harvard Law School in 1958. After achieving national recognition in 1965, with the publication of the path-breaking expose Unsafe at Any Speed, Nader went on to publish numerous books on environmental, consumer, and government reform issues; mobilized hundreds of young activists to work as “Nader's Raiders” in Washington, D.C.; and founded nonprofit organizations such as the Capitol Hill News Service and the state Public Interest Research Groups (PIRGs).

In the 1996 presidential election, Nader's name appeared on a handful of state ballots as the nominee of the Green Party. With a miniscule campaign budget, Nader won less than one percent of the national popular vote and had no practical effect on the outcome of the election. However, the Nader campaign did strengthen the national Green Party organization.

In 2000, the national Green Party was prepared to formally nominate Nader as its presidential candidate. In addition to the post-materialist issues common to the green movement around the planet, Nader's vigorous 2000 campaign endorsed a moratorium on capital punishment, legalization of gay marriage, legalization of marijuana, and rejection of standardized testing in education. Winning 2.5 percent of the national popular vote, electoral support for the Green Party ticket varied widely across the 47 states and the District of Columbia where it appeared on the ballot. Nader did not appear on the ballot in Oklahoma, South Dakota, and South Carolina. He won an impressive 10.1 percent of the vote in Alaska, but only 0.8 percent of the vote in Indiana and Mississippi. In addition to Alaska, Nader received more than five percent of the vote in Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and the District of Columbia.

However, it was in Florida, where voters gave Nader 97,488 votes or 1.6 percent of the vote, that his candidacy probably changed the outcome of the 2000 election. The debacle in Florida presented a variety of election system pathologies so profound that they tended to obscure the fact that if the votes received by Nader had gone to Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore they would have been sufficient for Gore to win the state and the presidency. Gore received only 537 votes fewer [Page 430]than Republican nominee George W. Bush. Nader ran for president again in 2004, but this time as an Independent with the endorsement, but not the nomination, of the national Green Party. As in 1996, Nader received less than one percent of the popular vote and had no effect on the outcome of the election.

In the 2000 presidential election, Florida voters gave Ralph Nader 97,488 votes, likely altering the outcome of the race.

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