Three's a crowd -- A history of third-party campaigns

Wallace wasn't the only politician to harness the racial tensions of the South for a third-party run. In 1948, South Carolina Governor Strom Thurmond ran for president as the States' Rights Democratic Party candidate. His party, also called the Dixiecrat Party, represented a segregationist, populist, socially conservative splinter of the major Democratic Party. Thurmond captured four states and 39 electoral votes.

Although Thurmond's presidential bid fell short, his career in politics was far from over. Thurmond served in the US Senate for 49 years, beginning as a Democrat in 1954 and switching to the Republican Party from 1964 to 2003.

(Susan Walsh / AP Photo)
Wallace wasn't the only politician to harness the racial tensions of the South for a third-party run. In 1948, South Carolina Governor Strom Thurmond ran for president as the States' Rights Democratic Party candidate. His party, also called the Dixiecrat Party, represented a segregationist, populist, socially conservative splinter of the major Democratic Party. Thurmond captured four states and 39 electoral votes. Although Thurmond's presidential bid fell short, his career in politics was far from over. Thurmond served in the US Senate for 49 years, beginning as a Democrat in 1954 and switching to the Republican Party from 1964 to 2003.
(By Amy Farnsworth, Linda Seid Frembes, and Jason Tuohey)