List of perennial candidates in the United States

A perennial candidate is a political candidate who frequently runs for public office without a reasonable chance of winning. The term is the opposite of an incumbent politician who repeatedly defends their seat successfully. In the U.S., perennial candidates are often affiliated with third party politics.

Generally speaking, candidates are considered perennial if they seek a specific elected office or general high office (such as president, governor, congressperson or mayor) more than three times without success.^[1][2][3]

The United States, a representative democracy with low hurdles to running for elected office, has a long tradition of perennial candidates.