Since the first presidential election in American history, which was entirely made up of Founding Father candidates, the run for president has become increasingly crowded with some of the most eccentric characters America has ever produced. While they hardly ever make a notable showing, some of these folks are the weirdest presidential candidates in United States history.
By virtue of the country’s democratic government, practically anyone can make a bid for the highest political position in the U.S. To actually win the presidency requires winning a majority of electoral college votes. What’s more, the United States is ostensibly a two-party system. While many have tried to win the election through a third party or as an independent, no candidate has ever won the election on a third-party ticket. That hasn’t stopped many from trying, however.
There’s something in the air of America that instills a can-do attitude in its populace. Be it the merits of the free market, the inalienable rights of the Constitution, or something more ineffable, something about the place encourages the strangest people to believe themselves worthy of the highest position in the country. While many obscure candidates are decidedly unserious, seeking to poke fun at the establishment or simply further their megalomania, others approach being elected as a politically charged affair. Regardless of background or intent, however, some candidates for president are truly bizarre. In this article, we will explore the weirdest presidential candidates in U.S. history.
To compile a list of the weirdest presidential candidates in U.S. history, 24/7 Tempo consulted a range of entertainment, encyclopedic, and historical sources, including History.com and The Atlantic Magazine. Next, we selected presidential candidates with particularly eccentric platforms, notorious candidacies, or uniquely compelling backstories. We then consulted sites like Smithsonian Magazine, Britannica, and the National Women’s History Museum to confirm aspects of each candidate’s background and biography. (For candidate success stories, explore each president’s path to the Oval Office.)
William Dudley Pelley
Largely self-educated, Pelley fashioned himself a writer and did quite well at it. After two of his short stories won O. Henry Awards, he moved to Hollywood, where he wrote screenplays for multiple Lon Chaney films. However, he became disillusioned with the industry, blaming it on unfair treatment by Jewish studio executives.
A few years later, Pelley would undergo three mystical, out-of-body experiences that shaped the trajectory of his life. Soon after, he began publishing articles and essays regarding his new religious system, which he called the “Liberation Doctrine.” His admiration for Hitler and his latent antisemitism inspired him to start the Silver Legion of America, a fascist and pro-Nazi organization.
This led to Pelley running for President in 1936 as part of the Christian Party (which he founded a year earlier). While his campaign touched on much of what you would expect, pro-fascism, anticommunism, and antisemitism, he also proposed turning the United States into a corporation and making all white Protestants shareholders. Unsurprisingly, he lost the election by a long shot. A few years later, however, Pelley was convicted on 11 counts of sedition for his various statements as well as fomenting insurrection in the military.
Vermin Supreme
Supreme is less of a politician than a performance artist. He’s run as a perennial candidate in five of the last U.S. presidential elections. He’s known for his trademark appearance and outlandish platforms, such as wearing a large boot as a hat and carrying around an outsized toothbrush. Indeed, he once said that if elected, he would pass a law requiring people to brush their teeth.
Seeking to mainly poke fun at the existing political power structures, Supreme’s various platforms boggle the mind. At different times, he’s campaigned on a zombie apocalypse awareness platform and support for time travel research. During one of his more recent runs for president, he famously promised a free pony for every American.
Though he does not necessarily seek to ever win a presidential race, Supreme has made surprising showings in past bids. Besides serving on the Libertarian Party’s Judicial Committee, Supreme campaigned for the party’s 2020 presidential nomination. There, he came in third place, receiving 206 votes from delegates.
Victoria Woodhull
Half crank and half iconoclast, Woodhull was a notable leader in the women’s suffrage movement. As an activist, she supported “free love,” which meant women’s freedom to marry, divorce, and have children without government restrictions.
Woodhull was also something of a spiritualist and businesswoman. She first made serious money as a traveling magnetic healer before taking a stab at Wall Street. Along with her sister, Tennessee Claflin, she was the first woman to open and operate a brokerage firm on Wall Street, which netted them both a fortune. They also were some of the first women to start a newspaper.
Though she was just shy of the minimum age, this didn’t stop Woodhull from running for president in 1872. She chose notable civil rights activist Frederick Douglass as her running mate, though he was never informed of this and did not appear in her campaign. She ran on her platform of free love and too many men in government, but it was short-lived. Along with her sister and husband, Woodhull was arrested on obscenity charges days before the election due to controversial material in her newspaper.
Eugene V. Debs
Born and raised in Indiana, Debs was a founding member of Industrial Workers of the World and a perennial presidential candidate. For most of his life, Debs was a tireless socialist and union supporter. In the late 1800s, Debs became a scourge for corporations across the country.
In his position at the Industrial Workers of the World, Debs led various unions in strikes against railroad companies. His clout in railroad unions helped him lead a demonstration that would later become known as the Pullman Strike. This boycott affected most of the train lines west of Detroit, affecting a quarter of a million workers in the process. In response, the government arrested him on charges of defying a court injunction and sentenced him to six months in prison.
While incarcerated, Debs studied Marxist theory and emerged as a committed socialist. This led to him starting various Socialist parties and running for president five times throughout the early 20th century. Though he never received more than 6 percent of the votes, he was noted for his fiery and impassioned oratory skills. These skills got him arrested again, however, after he gave a speech denouncing World War I. Though President Warren G. Harding commuted his sentence, Debs would die shortly after from heart failure.
Pat Paulsen
Sometimes, comedians find themselves in potential leadership positions. Volodymyr Zelensky, a former comedian and performer and current president of Ukraine, is one example. Another is Pat Paulsen, a musical comedian and long-time contributor to the “Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour” television program.
When CBS sold five minutes of airtime for a political ad on the program, the show’s writers came up with a bit where Paulsen disavowed the ad placement. Though this failed, it inspired the writers to launch a comedic Pat Paulsen presidential campaign. Seeking to poke fun at the establishment, Paulsen ran his campaign with blatant lies and tongue-in-cheek statements like “We’ve upped our standards, now up yours” and “United we sit.”
Though an obvious joke, it did not stop Paulsen from sticking in voters’ minds as a worthy candidate for decades. In the early 90s, he came in second behind George H.W. Bush in the North Dakota Republican primary. A few years later, in 1996, he came in second behind Bill Clinton in the New Hampshire primary ahead of real politicians.
Jonathon Sharkey
STAMFORD, CONNECTICUT - JANUARY 28: A wrestling belt sculpture stands in front of the WWE world headquarters on January 28, 2024 in Stamford, Connecticut. WWE founder Vince McMahon resigned from the WWE and its parent company TKO as executive chairman and board of directors following allegations of sexual assault in a Connecticut lawsuit. A former employee Janel Grant accused McMahon, 78, of sexual assault and sexually trafficking her. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)
As something of a derelict renaissance man, there’s almost too much disparate information on Jonathon “The Impaler” Sharkey to fit in this entry. Originally a professional wrestler in the WWA, Sharkey is also a lifelong musician and noted proponent of the vampire lifestyle. Indeed, he claimed to drink women’s blood and even attempted to set up a colony for vampires in Tennessee.
Starting in the new millennium, Sharkey began running for various political offices, including those in Congress and the presidency. He ran twice as an Independent candidate in 2004 and 2008 and once as a Republican candidate in 2012. Though he ostensibly leans libertarian, Sharkey has made various public statements that have turned heads along the way. Besides expressing a desire to impale and kill President George W. Bush, Sharkey said he would ban abortions and the teaching of evolution. By the same token, however, he supports gay rights and free medical and dental care for the poor. He also expressed a desire to kill and torture criminals instead of incarcerating them.
Though he’s never come close to winning any election, Sharkey has won various jail stays, warrants, and restraining orders. Besides visits from the Secret Service for his inflammatory remarks about Bush, Sharkey received jail time for comments made about an Indiana judge. What’s more, he has had various restraining orders filed against him for his allegedly inappropriate relations and brainwashing of teenage girls around the country.
Jello Biafra
Musician and activist Biafra is best known as the frontman for the seminal punk band Dead Kennedys. Though he became a legendary musician in the process, by the late ’80s, Biafra seemed to tire of music and turned to politics.
His first political bid was for the 1979 San Francisco mayoral campaign. Due to his platform of forcing businessmen to wear clown suits, Biafra was declared a joke candidate and responded, “They should keep in mind that it is no more of a joke, and no less of a joke, than anyone else they care to name.”
Indeed, Biafra continued to make political bids, most notably in the 2000 presidential campaign. As a Green Party candidate, he chose convicted murderer, activist, and death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal as his running mate. This bid failed spectacularly, however, as Biafra only received 10 delegate votes. Since then, he has remained a political figure, criticizing various presidents and lending support to candidates like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.
George Lincoln Rockwell
Possibly the most inflammatory candidate on our list is George Lincoln Rockwell. Born in Illinois, he attended Brown University before dropping out to serve in World War II and the Korean War. However, by the late 1950s, Rockwell’s political and racial views had radicalized to the point that he was discharged from the military.
After that, Rockwell founded the American Nazi Party. As such, his political views and future campaign platforms were typical of a Nazi perspective. Besides regularly praising Adolf Hitler, Rockwell blamed the civil rights movements on Jews and espoused other various hateful opinions. In 1964, Rockwell ran for president as a write-in candidate but only received 212 votes. Nevertheless, he tried again in the 1965 Virginia gubernatorial election, where he again came in last place.
Years of hateful rhetoric and controversial public forays caught up to Rockwell, and in 1967, while leaving a laundromat, Rockwell was shot and killed by a member of his American Nazi Party due to disagreements about the injection of Marxist ideas. It came as no surprise to anyone, particularly his father, who said regarding his son’s murder, “I am not surprised at all. I’ve expected it for quite some time.” (For other heinous Americans, discover 24 of the most reviled figures in American history.)
William Wirt
Wirt might be the most reluctant presidential candidate in U.S. history compared to the other characters on this list. A statesman and lawyer by trade, Wirt is credited with transforming the United States attorney general’s office into a position of influence. As attorney general, Wirt served under Presidents James Monroe and John Quincy Adams.
After he left the office, things took a stranger, more absurd turn. Though he was a former Freemason, the Anti-Masonic party nevertheless nominated him as their candidate for the presidency. He immediately regretted this, however, and refused not only to speak on the Freemasons but to run much of a campaign at all. Some historians have called him the most reluctant presidential candidate of all time.
Miraculously, Wirt and his running mate Amos Ellmaker carried the state of Vermont in the 1832 election. What’s more, Wirt became the first third-party candidate to win a state and the most successful candidate from Maryland. When a newspaper suggested he run for the election of 1836, Wirt quickly declined.
Earl Browder
A political activist from an early age, Browder served prison time during World War I for his conscientious objector status. Upon release, he became a noted member of the American Communist Movement and its most recognizable.
Also, Browder took a few shots at the presidency during this time. With his growing public image and Hilteresque mustache, he ran for president in 1936 and 1940. Though he received less than 100,000 votes, he did make the cover of Time Magazine as the “face of American Communism.”
While he was later jailed for passport fraud and kicked out of the American Communist Party for perceived support of capitalism, Browder’s big secret was not revealed till the 1990s. As per released government cables, Browder acted as a spy for the Soviet Union while running for the presidency. Evidence suggests he even recruited fellow American Communist Party members for espionage activities. (For other tidbits about American history, discover U.S. history “facts” we now know are not true.)