Burton Kendall Wheeler

 Note how Sen. La Follette makes up for the height difference in spite of the tall hair

 Wheeler and 1912 Progressive Party VP nominee Sen. Hiram Johnson

Burton Kendall Wheeler, February 27, 1882 (Hudson, Mass.) – January 6, 1975 (Washington, DC)

VP candidate for Progressive Party (aka Independent Progressive Party) (1924)

Running mate with nominee: Robert M. La Follette (1855-1925)
Popular vote: 4,831,706 (16.61%)    
Electoral vote: 13/531

The campaign:

Wisconsin Republican Senator Robert La Follette and Montana Democratic Senator Burton K. Wheeler combined forces in a significant third party effort that enjoyed high voter turnout in the Northwestern quarter of the US and the Far West. More agrarian and radical than the the previous Bull Moose Progressive Party, this new incarnation even gained the endorsement of the Socialist Party of America and the American Federation of Labor.

The VP nomination was first offered to Justice Louis Brandeis, who declined. Wheeler was then given the opportunity and after some consideration decided to accept. He did not renounce his loyalty to the Democratic Party, but could not support Davis. "I am a Democrat but not a Wall Street Democrat," Wheeler explained. He also wanted to use the VP nomination as a way to make his Senate investigations into the Harding scandals more public.

The platform included stands that were anti-monopoly, pro-free speech, pro-equal rights for women, pro-public ownership of utilities, promotion of public works, pro-public control of natural resources, pro-union, and anti-war.

Wheeler used the empty chair gimmick while "debating" an absent Coolidge apparently to great acclaim. Clint Eastwood attempted the same showmanship at the 2012 Republican National Convention but comic timing was not his forte.

It was the 5th largest popular vote percentage for a third party in US history, surpassed since then only by Ross Perot in 1992. It was the 7th best third party vote from the Electoral College.

On the ballot in every state except Louisiana, the La Follete/Wheeler ticket won the standard bearer's home state of Wisconsin (53.96%) and placed second in 11 more states, nearly winning in North Dakota. After Election Day La Follette and Wheeler returned to their parties of origin.

Wheeler later reflected: "Our trouble was that we were ahead of the times. The Progressive Party platform of 1924 became the ideological basis for the New Deal in 1933 and much of it found its way to the statute books by 1935."

Election history:
1910-1912 - Montana House of Representatives (Democrat)
1920 - Governor of Montana (Democrat) - defeated
1923-1946 - US Senate (Mont.) (Democrat)
1946 - Democratic primary for US Senate (Mont.) (Democrat) - defeated

Other occupations: traveling book salesman, stenographer, attorney, Delegate to the Democratic National Convention 1932-1940, US District Attorney of Montana 1913-1918

Buried: Rock Creek Cemetery (Washington, DC)

Notes:
Buried in the same cemetery as Alice Lee Roosevelt Longworth, Frank Mankiewicz, George S.
 McGovern, Tim Russert, Upton Sinclair, and Gore Vidal.
Was headed to Seattle to start his law career but lost his shirt in a poker game in Butte, Mont. along
 the way and stayed.
Author of the Wheeler Resolution limiting AM radio to 50,000 watts.
Broke with FDR over the court-packing plan and later became an isolationist until Dec. 7, 1941.
Isolationists urged him to run as a third party presidential candidate in 1940.
If La Follette/Wheeler had won in 1924, Wheeler would have been President June 18, 1925 upon the
 death of La Follette.

Hiram Warren Johnson

Hiram Warren Johnson, September 2, 1866 (Sacramento, Calif.) – August 6, 1945 (Bethesda, Md.)

VP candidate for Progressive Party (aka Bull Moose Party) (1912)

Running mate with nominee: Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919)
Popular vote: 4,122,721 (27.40%) 
Electoral vote: 88/531

The campaign:

This is The Big One in the history of third parties in America.

Theodore Roosevelt failed in his bid to reclaim the presidency as a Republican at their convention. The conservative Taft forces outmaneuvered the liberal wing of the party. So Theodore Roosevelt being Theodore Roosevelt decided to perform an end run and make a bid as a third party candidate in the newly formed Progressive Party. His running mate was the reformist Governor of California Hiram Johnson.

It was a remarkable election, with three presidents-- past (Roosevelt), present (Taft), and future (Wilson)-- plus the Socialists at the height of their national electability. The nastiness of the name-calling and and personal nature of the insults between the Republicans and the Progressives seemed beyond the usual campaign mud-slinging.

The Progressive platform was filled with planks that had been well worn by the Populists and Socialists in the 1890s, but by 1912 many of those ideas were now socially acceptable.

Roosevelt was shot on Oct. 14, 1912 in Milwaukee, wounded in the chest but the bullet was slowed by TR's thick folded typewritten speech and his spectacles case. Not one to let good theater slip away, he gave his speech anyway. John Schrank, the would-be assassin, was found legally insane. All three of the major parties took a brief break from electioneering until Roosevelt recovered.

The Roosevelt/Johnson ticket placed second with 27.40% of the popular vote and 88 electoral votes. The Republican incumbent landed in third place.

On the ballot in 47 states the Progressives won the electoral votes of South Dakota, California, Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and Washington. In California Roosevelt defeated Wilson by just under 200 votes, demonstrating the wisdom of placing Johnson on the ticket.

Impressive as this third party showing was, it could be argued that the Progressive Party was personality-driven and not policy-driven. Case in point-- as soon as Roosevelt rejoined the Republican fold the Progressive Party evaporated. Johnson went on to become a gadfly Republican in the US Senate, holding the record for longevity in that office from California.

Election history:
1911-1917 - Governor of California (Republican/Progressive)
1917-1945 - US Senate (Calif.) (Republican)
1920 - Republican nomination for US President - defeated
1924 - Republican nomination for US President - defeated

Other occupations: stenographer, attorney, assistant district attorney of San Francisco

Buried: Cypress Lawn Memorial Park (Colma, Calif.)

Notes:
Buried in the same cemetery as Joseph Alioto, Hubert Howe Bancroft, Eddie Fisher, William
 Randolph Hearst Jr. and Sr., Tom Mooney, and Lincoln Steffens.
Declined to be Warren Harding's running mate in 1920.
One of his opponents in the 1916 Senate race was George S. Patton Sr., father of the later general.
One of his opponents in the 1922 Senate race was Socialist Upton Sinclair.
One of his opponents in the 1928 Senate race Charles Hiram Randall, the only member of the
 Prohibition Party ever elected to the US House.
One of his opponents in the 1934 Senate race was George Ross Kirkpatrick, Socialist Party of
 America VP nominee 1916.
Son of Grove L. Johnson (1841-1926) a Republican Congressman from California (1895-1897)
Although he voted to declare war with Germany he opposed America's entry into WWI, supported
 the prohibition of Japanese immigrants, opposed the League of Nations and the United Nations. He supported FDR in the 1932 and 1936 elections. He was instrumental in the creation of the Japanese-American internment camps during WWII.
The old isolationist died the same day the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.