alternatehistory.com

Martin Van Buren and Millard Fillmore are both people who served as President of the United States for a major party (the Democrats and Whigs respectively) but then came back, years after their terms had ended, in order to stand again on third-party tickets--the Free Soil Party and the American Party or "Know-Nothings" respectively. Neither won but both managed to draw a significant percentage of the vote and Fillmore carried a state.

Your challenge is to have this repeated in the modern day (1900-present)--a former President comes back to stand as a third-party candidate. They need not win the presidential election (in fact it's very difficult) but they should draw a significant vote and perhaps carry states. The only 20th century example is Teddy Roosevelt in 1912, but that was a case of him founding his own party after failing to gain the Republican nomination--this is mainly about former presidents running for existing minor parties. Like, I don't know, Jimmy Carter running as the Modern Whig Party candidate in 2012 or something (stupid example but you get what I mean).

I realise this is made harder after the two-term limit amendment because most presidents will either have already served two terms or will have lost an election and been branded losers...but let's see what scenarios we come up with anyway.
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