American Political Parties You Probably Haven't Heard Of

The United States of America is a diverse country. That diversity isn't just about ethnicity or religion — our political world is a patchwork of different interests. Even our two major political parties, the Republicans and Democrats, are really coalitions of different special interests that exist on a spectrum of political philosophy.

Then there are "third parties," which traditionally don't get much attention — or traction with voters. You've probably heard of some of the larger alternative parties, like the Green Party or the Libertarian Party. Those parties have received millions of votes and can sometimes influence elections or even elect a few candidates. But part of what makes this country great is the freedom citizens enjoy to freely assemble, organize, and press for the political future they want to see. And that means there are hundreds of political parties in the United States, most of which you probably haven't heard of.

And just like the country that inspired them, these parties run the gamut from weird and wacky to disturbing and even scary. You might be surprised to discover that some of these political parties exist at all — and that some not only exist but are thriving.

No, it's not a secret fan club for the Afghan Whigs, but any modern party that links itself to a defunct 19th-century organization deserves to be known. As Time explains, back in the 19th century, the Whig Party was initially organized in opposition to President Andrew Jackson, who was a controversial and polarizing chief executive. The original Whigs were pretty successful, managing to elect a few presidents, two of whom died shortly after taking office: William Henry Harrison in 1840 and Zachary Taylor in 1848. The party collapsed in the 1850s, with many of its members joining the brand-new Republican Party.

As Slate explains, the Modern Whig Party was founded in 2007, largely by military veterans. It presents itself as a "middle-of-the-road" party for people who reject both the mainstream conservative (Republican) and liberal (Democratic) political platforms (as Slate puts it, "a Republican head with a Democratic heart"). The main reason for the resurrection of the very old-timey sounding "Whig" name is to underscore both the old-school American values they purport to champion and to stress the oppositional nature of their philosophy.

According to Ballotpedia, the Modern Whigs are not a ballot-qualifying party, though they have managed to win a few local elections around the country. The Philadelphia Tribune reported that a Modern Whig won a "minor office" in Philadelphia in 2013, for example.

The New Afrikan Black Panther Party — Prison Chapter is notable for two things. One, as the San Francisco Bay View notes, it's a direct continuation of the Black Panther Party – Prison Chapter, founded in 1971 by W.L. Nolen and George Jackson. And two, it's essentially a political party for prisoners, with a focus on improving prison conditions and fighting for racial justice.

The New Afrikan Black Panther Party began as a newsletter concerned with Amerindian spiritual issues. Edited by a man named Tom Watts, it evolved into a group focused on African-American culture, which further evolved into a Maoist organization based on the earlier ideas of the Black Panthers.

The party doesn't seem to have run any candidates in any elections, but as the party's co-founder, Kevin Rashid Johnson, writes in The Guardian, they have successfully used the court on several occasions to try and improve prison conditions and gain justice for prison abuses. Johnson has reportedly been held in isolation and routinely abused because of his refusal to perform mandatory work and his outspoken efforts to hold prisons and prison guards accountable. Even though this isn't a traditional political party, its influence in the prison system and its fight against institutional racism make it an important party nonetheless.

You probably already know who Jimmy McMillan is. If the name doesn't spark your memory, his iconic look probably will — as will his catchphrase, which is also the name of the political party he founded. As The Washington Post writes, McMillan is a perpetual candidate for office in New York City and State. Ballotpedia reports that he's run for mayor of New York City in 2005, 2009, and 2013, governor of New York State in 2006 and 2010, and the New York City Council in 2017.

But it was his 2010 run for governor that established his fame. McMillan was an entertaining presence at the gubernatorial debate in October 2010, and his repetition of the phrase "the rent is too damn high" garnered him national attention. As reported by The New York Times, this led to a surprisingly robust showing in the election, where McMillan (officially running as an independent candidate) garnered more than 40,000 votes.

That's less than one percent of the votes cast, but it's also the highest tally outside of the largest four parties. The Rent is Too Damn High Party remains a one-state party with a very narrow platform that stresses affordable housing (obviously), anti-discrimination, anti-gentrification, and job creation — but it's a party that has managed to influence local politics a lot more than most.

If you were alive and paying attention to politics in the 1990s, you totally know the Reform Party, though you may have forgotten all about it. It was founded in 1995 by businessman Ross Perot, who ran as an independent in 1992 and received an astounding 18.9 percent of the vote – nearly 20 million votes in all. That makes Perot the most successful third-party candidate in the modern era. Perot founded the Reform Party in 1995 as part of the ramp-up to his 1996 campaign. Perot was not quite as successful in 1996, winning eight million votes, but that's still pretty great for a third party.

As Politico reports, the Reform Party's story gets complicated after that. They initially allied with the Independence Party but split in the year 2000 when Pat Buchanan secured its nomination for the presidency. (Donald Trump briefly flirted with running for the presidency on their ticket that year as well). The Reform Party's biggest triumph was the election of former wrestler Jesse Ventura as governor of Minnesota — though as The New York Times reports, Ventura left the party shortly afterward.

The Reform Party is still chugging along. They got more than 33,000 votes in the 2016 presidential election, and they have candidates registered for this year's elections as well.

The Black Riders Liberation Party (BRLP) positions itself as a direct continuation of the iconic Black Panther Party founded by Bobby Seale and Huey Newton in 1966. Officially declared a separatist hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, they were explicitly founded to oppose white nationalism and to convince members of criminal gangs like the Bloods and Crips to redirect their energies toward revolution.

As reported by VICE, the original Black Panthers attempted to check police by organizing armed patrols that would follow the cops around. The BRLP engages in similar activities, relying on cameras instead of guns to try to reduce instances of police misconduct. They monitor arrests and will step in and get involved if they believe someone's rights are being violated. In the wake of Freddie Gray's death in Baltimore in 2015, the BRLP was accused by the Baltimore Police Department of organizing some of the criminal gangs in the city to "take out" police, which the BRLP denied.

The Black Riders Liberation Party isn't going to field any candidates anytime soon — they regard our entire capitalist system to be irreparably corrupt and dominated by white supremacy, so they're agitating for revolution.

If you didn't sleep through the entirety of your school years, you probably know that the United States isn't so much a cohesive country as a bunch of states that were, you know, united. Many states have a history that begins long before they became part of this country, and some wouldn't mind getting back to being independent — and have political parties trying to accomplish just that (despite the fact that a bunch tried that in 1860 and it did not go well for literally anybody).

As CBS News reports, the Alaskan Independence Party has existed since the 1970s and works to secure a legal vote on Alaska seceding from the United States. The Puerto Rican Independence Party (PRIP) has been in existence since the 1940s. Britannica notes that the PRIP won nearly 20 percent of the vote in 1952, but it has slowly lost support over the years. Although The New York Times reported in 1972 that the president of the PRIP predicted they would declare independence by 1976, in the most recent elections, they only managed two percent of the vote.

As Business Insider notes, the California National Party is trying to make a "Calexit" happen the slow and steady way, by getting folks elected who can then somehow trigger an official secession request, or something. And as The Hill reports, the New Hampshire Liberty Party, which argues that the state should secede from the union, ran a candidate for president in 2016.