A generation before Americans would hand the keys to the White House to a populist outsider, billionaire businessman Ross Perot set the stage for this seismic political shift by mining voters’ discontent with Washington and the two-party system.
Perot, who died Tuesday at 89, ran for president in 1992 on a populist platform that balked at free trade agreements, was suspicious of foreign entanglements, and railed against a dysfunctional federal government. The independent contender garnered 19% of the national popular vote, wildly successful for a third-party candidate by historical standards, despite failing to win a single vote in the Electoral College.
Nearly a quarter-century later, President Trump would win the White House casting himself as a similar figure prosecuting a similarly themed campaign, albeit with critical differences. Trump, a former Democrat who once sought the since-defunct Reform Party’s president nomination, chose to co-opt the two-party system by first joining, and then taking over, the Republican Party.
Brad Todd, a Republican operative who coauthored a book on Trump’s 2016 victory, has a section dedicated to Americans dubbed “Perotistas” — conservative voters who participate in the political process sparingly. They have a low opinion of the GOP and are disgusted with Washington, but on the rare occasion that a compelling outsider runs for president, they show up in droves.
Perot “catalyzed” these voters so that by the time of Trump’s rise, they were easier for the New York real estate mogul and reality television star to activate, according to Todd. “Among some older Perotistas, they may have projected some of Perot’s qualities onto Trump, and he was more successful because he went into the party system while giving cues that he disdained it,” said Todd, who explored this topic in The Great Revolt.
In 1992, Perot captured the imagination of the American public with his no-nonsense approach to what appeared to be intractable national problems. He used charts and graphs to warn about the burgeoning debts and deficits, arguing that a practical businessman’s rational, nonpartisan approach could overcome political hurdles that always seemed to block presidents, and Congresses, from acting.
Initially, Perot’s independent bid attracted Democratic and Republican operatives, with his personal wealth putting the Texan on equal footing with the two major political parties in the ramp-up to a full-fledged campaign. The effort would eventually unravel, hurt by Perot’s peculiar personal style and campaign infighting. But seeds had been planted. Trump initially sought to capitalize in 2000 by seeking the Reform Party nomination.
Trump at the turn of the century was a social liberal who supported single-payer healthcare. But he also supported lower taxes and warned of the dangers of illegal immigration. Not quite doctrinaire enough for Democratic or Republican primary voters, the Reform Party, founded by Perot in the 1996 cycle but by 2000 dissociated from him, offered Trump a way around.
Trump quickly aborted what amounted to a halfhearted presidential bid. But 15 years later, he revived that campaign as a GOP primary candidate, conveniently shedding liberal positions on key issues like abortion and healthcare while emphasizing his culturally conservative approach to immigration and other matters.
The populist, outsider flavor of his 2016 campaign was what set him apart from a crowd of impressive GOP competitors. “Mr. Trump was possible because he had the wisdom to tap into what Mr. Perot touched on in 1992,” said Orson Swindle, a long-time personal friend of Perot’s and the chief spokesman for his 1992 campaign.
There were some obvious differences between the genteel Perot, a Southerner who was stickler for honesty and following the rules, and the brash and bombastic Trump, who is, at times, cavalier with the truth and relishes disregarding decorum. As a political matter, however, Trump is a direct descendant of Perot.
Sal Russo, a veteran Republican consultant in Sacramento, California, who worked briefly as an adviser to Perot on the 1992 campaign, said the Tea Party movement that saw its high point during the presidency of Barack Obama, serves as the tie that binds Perot and Trump. Russo, who runs the Tea Party Express, a conservative grassroots organization, said the remnants of Perot’s movement blossomed in the rise of the Tea Party in the 2010 election cycle.
A few years later, that grassroots energy would become the rocket fuel propelling Trump.
“There were different threads in the Tea Party. One thread was: The heck with everybody,” Russo said, comparing the sentiment to “blowing up the boxes,” a line often used by Arnold Schwarzenegger when he ran for governor of California as a GOP outsider in 2003. “That was a thread of the Tea Party, and they were enthusiastic backers of Donald Trump.”
