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.