In 2024, 58 minor party or independent candidates received more votes than the margin of victory in their election.
Margins of victory can be used to measure electoral competitiveness or political party or candidate strength. This page identifies those elections where the difference between the winning and losing candidates was smaller than the number of votes received by a minor party candidate.
The partisan affiliation of these 58 candidates was as follows:
- 21 independent or unaffiliated
- 14 Libertarian Party candidates
- 8 Green Party candidates
- 5 U.S. Taxpayer’s Party candidates
- 2 Working Class Party
- 1 Approval Voting Party
- 1 Common Sense Party
- 1 Constitution Party
- 1 Disrupt the Constitution Party
- 1 Green Mountain Peace and Justice Party of Vermont
- 1 Independent Party of Oregon
- 1 Natural Law Party
- 1 Unity Party of Colorado
In 2024, these minor party or independent candidates who received more votes than the margin of victory in their election ran in eight U.S. House or Senate elections, eight statewide elections, 24 state-level district elections (such as for state legislature), and one local election within Ballotpedia’s coverage scope.
Here are some other notable minor party statistics:
- The number of minor party candidates whose votes exceeded the margin of victory increased by two compared to 2022, when 56 candidates achieved this. In 2020, 77 candidates earned more votes than the margin of victory in their races.
- In 2024, independent (including unaffiliated, undeclared, or unenrolled) candidates most frequently won more votes than the margin of victory. In 2020 and 2022, candidates for the Libertarian Party did so more than any other candidate.
- The Libertarian Party saw 14 candidates receive more votes than the margin of victory in 2024, less than their 2020 total of 26 and less than their 2022 total of 23 candidates.
- The Green Party saw 8 candidates receive more votes than the margin of victory in 2024, less than their 2020 total of nine, and more than their 2022 total of five candidates.