RFK Jr., Third Party Candidates, and the Anti-Freemason Party
Why is this relevant?
Given the upcoming U.S. presidential election, I have seen a lot of articles about Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the third-party presidential candidate for the 2024 United States presidential election. Given that this is my first blog post, I will try not to venture too long into the quagmire that is modern internet politics, but I still thought this would be a relevant place to start. Especially given the recent reporting that RFK Jr.’s running mate, Nicole Shanahan, is openly considering joining their operation with the Trump campaign.
Despite my personal misgivings when I see the headlines come up, it did get me thinking about third-party candidates. And that made me want to learn a bit more about their history. This led me to the Anti-Masonic Party, the first truly prominent third party in the United States, and their first candidate, William Wirt. If you thought conspiracy theories being at the center of the political campaign is something new, think again.
Political Parties in the United States
Even though the United States of America’s founding documents specifically do not mention political parties, and the Federalist Papers warn against their formation (see Federalist No. 10), political parties sprouted up in America pretty much as soon as our first president, George Washington, stepped into office. And in truth, the parties were forming before that. In 1796, George Washington already warned against the “baneful effects of the spirit of party.” But by 1800, the first two political parties in the United States, the Federalist Party and the Democratic-Republican Party, were officially formed.
As this post is not about shifts within political parties, we won’t go into depth on the history of those first two parties and how they fractured. But just know that from those humble origins, the Democratic and Republican parties we now love, and maybe even despise, were formed.
The First Third Party Candidate
The first third-party candidate in the United States was, interestingly enough, a candidate who later became the fifth president of the United States. James Monroe. This first failed candidacy arguably began as a squabble between Monroe and the then President Thomas Jefferson, as Jefferson during his term as President refused to submit to the terms of the Monroe-Pinkney Treaty. As you might expect from the name, Monroe was integral in forming this treaty. This snubbing was purportedly a conscious effort employed by Jefferson to lessen the accomplishments of Monroe, who would be a possible opponent of Jefferson’s preferred candidate, James Madison, in 1808 presidential election. (See Unger, Harlow G., pg. 191-192). So, for those of you who happen to believe that presidents making decisions with an eye on future elections is anything new, it’s not.
Now back to Monroe. Leading up to the election of 1808, the great American tradition of political parties fracturing once they achieve success began (what Podcaster and Author Mike Duncan likes to call the “entropy of victory”), and our future president Monroe was spurned to action by the Quids who denounced Jefferson and his control over the Democratic-Republican party. This led to our first “independent” candidate for president, James Monroe, receiving 4,848 popular votes. Not great. However, Monroe did get the last laugh, for, as we mentioned earlier, he was elected president in the election of 1816. However, by this point, Monroe was back under the Democratic-Republican fold after his efforts as Secretary of State and Secretary of War under the Madison administration. Water under the bridge I suppose.
The Anti-Masonic Party
There were several other third-party candidates for president and many more at the local level in the subsequent elections after the presidential election of 1808. But the first party and candidate to make significant headwinds in a presidential election was the Anti-Masonic Party, who nominated William Wirt in 1832.
Now, just in case you are not familiar with the excellent Nicolas Cage movie National Treasure and its sequels which discuss the Masons and their conspiracies, the Freemasons are a fraternal organization that started as a regulatory group of stonemasons that blossomed into a society for educated and ambitious men. Anti-Masonic party was formed to contest. There was a belief in the 1820s that Freemasons were secretly directing American politics. In particular, the rumors seemed to suggest that the Freemasons were sacrificing the desires of Americans to support the” grand lodges” back in Europe. There is evidence to support that masons were very involved in early American politics. Of the fifty-six original signers of the Declaration of Independence, no fewer than eight were Freemasons, including Benjamin Franklin and John Hancock.
The existence of this fraternal organization led to movements to prevent the Freemason’s from controlling the United States government. Support became somewhat widespread in northern states like New York, and were only exacerbated when William Morgan, a former Freemason turned critic of the organization, was jailed and later disappeared in 1826 after claiming that he was preparing to publish a book exposing Freemason’s secrets. As a fun aside, there are claims that Morgan took on a false identity in the Cayman Islands before being later hanged as a pirate. Though this might just be confusion with some descendent of Sir Henry Morgan.
No matter the reason for Morgan’s disappearance, his book exposing the freemason organization’s secrets was still published, and he became an oft-discussed topic when considering the rights of free speech and free press guaranteed by the First Amendment. Those who believed men like Morgan thought that Andrew Jackson, the president of the United States at the time, was being controlled by other powers. He was a known Freemason. And so the Anti-Masonic Party was formed to contest the purported dominance of Freemasons in American politics. For their candidate, the Anti-Masonic party selected William Wirt, the… former mason. Admitted to the Virginia bar, Wirt had a rather important career in the early republic. He rose to prominence after his prosecution of Aaron Burr for treason. Serving as Attorney General to the United States, Wirt defended Cherokee rights before the Supreme Court in the case Cherokee Nation v. Georgia, arguing that Georgia law does not apply to the nation. In fact, he served the longest tenure of any Attorney General in United States history, eleven years. Pretty fascinating career even before the Anti-Mason party selected him as their nominee.
Now, as previously stated, Wirt was a mason, but in private he disagreed with the organization’s purported aims. This led him to gain attention from the budding Anti-Masonic party. It was in fact the Anti-Masonic Party that held the first presidential convention in United States history in 1830, but that convention failed to elect any candidate. This led to the second presidential convention in United States History, which nominated Wirt on their fifth ballot on September 28, 1831. So if someone asks, it was not until the second presidential convention in U.S. history that a candidate was nominated by a convention. History is amusing like that sometimes. After nominating Wirt, the Anti-Masons tried to gain the support of the National Republicans (aka the Anti-Jacksonian Party), the alternative party to the Jacksonian Democrats, but ultimately failed in their attempt.
Despite his nomination, Wirt does not seem like the best candidate the Anti-Masons could have nominated. This likely explains why he was not nominated until the fifth vote of the second convention. Wirt admitted later that “In the canvass I took no part, not even by writing private letters, which, on the contrary, I refused to answer whenever such answers could be interpreted into canvassing for office.” (See Vaughn, William Preston. The Anti-Masonic Party in the United States, 1826-1843) So, for those of you who have heard the post-pandemic trends about quiet quitting, be reassured that the trend might be said to have begun here, with a presidential candidate who refused to canvas for office.
In the election of 1832, William Wirt received 99,817 votes. A good bit better than James Monroe’s first go at things, but not close to enough to win, or even get second, which got you the vice presidency. There would be no repeat candidacy for Wirt either. Wirt was proposed as a candidate for the Anti-Masons in 1836, but he declined. At least you got that record, Wirt.
Unfortunately, the Anti-Masonic Party still finished fourth in the presidential election due to John Floyd of the Nullifiers. Why am I not talking about John Floyd and the Nullifiers then? It is because they didn’t actually receive any support in the popular vote. This is due to the fact that the Nullifiers were based almost entirely in South Carolina, whose electoral votes in the electoral college were determined by state legislature, not by popular vote. Therefore, the Nullifiers received South Carolina’s eleven electoral college votes, surpassing the Anti-Masonic Party’s seven electoral votes from Vermont. Poor Anti-Masons. As fun as it has been to look at them, I don’t really believe in their conspiracy. No new adherents to the Anti-Mason Party here.
The election of 1832 turned out to be not what you would call a competitive one. The Anti-Masonic party received 7.78% of the popular vote and its seven electoral votes. On the other hand, Andrew Jackson won two-hundred and nineteen of the then possible two-hundred and eighty-six electoral college votes, winning 54.23% of the popular vote. Even if William Wirt’s popular votes and electoral votes were combined with the popular and electoral votes of the National Republican’s candidate, Henry Clay, they would not have won the popular vote or the Electoral College. You may notice that this is a trend with third-party candidates, hence why we still refer to American politics as a two-party system. Sorry Green Party.
Why does this matter today?
Now you know a little bit about the earliest third parties and third-party candidates in the United States, lets get back to RFK Jr. The aforementioned RFK Jr. is lagging in the polls, but if he remains in the race until election day, there are concerns that he might play spoiler in the 2024 presidential election. That alone makes third parties relevant.
As seen with some of the earliest third-party candidates, the third parties and their candidates today have platforms that can be single issue, or motivated by personal animus, as with Monroe. But they can also be founded upon something else, a unifying pervasive force, conspiracies. The Anti-Masonic party did not form because of a policy disagreement, it rose about due to the belief that this formerly European fraternal organization was secretly running the United States government. This may seem like a laugh, but the current leading third-party candidate, RFK Jr., is a conspiracy theorist who has used his rather eccentric beliefs to bring people who are frustrated or disengaged with the current system together. Whether it is denying the effectiveness of vaccines, claiming wi-fi causes cancer, or saying chemicals are turning people transgender, he espouses conspiracies that are as nonsensical as they are disgusting.
While in the case of 1808 and 1832, where third parties were unlikely to play the role of spoiler, in 2024, that is a very different story. While the RFK Jr. campaign has been struggling since President Biden stepped down as candidate for the Democratic party, RFK Jr. and his campaign are still receiving a greater than marginal amount of public support. While his support has dropped from double digits some polls showed in 2023 or early 2024, polls were still consistently finding that 4-8% of registered voters support RFK Jr. If that support continues until election day, that 4-8% is significant.
To make a quick demonstration, let’s look at the 2020 U.S. presidential election. President Biden received 51.31% of the popular vote, winning 306 electoral votes. Former President Trump received 46.85% of the popular vote, winning 232 electoral votes. The margin in the popular vote was thus about equal to the amount of support that RFK Jr. appears to be receiving in recent polls from registered voters.
When you look at a state-by-state level, the outcome is even more dramatic. In 2020, Arizona was decided by a margin of 0.3% of the popular vote. Georgia was decided by a margin of 0.23% of the popular vote. Pennsylvania was decided by a margin of 1.16% of the popular vote. And finally, Michigan was decided by a margin of 2.78% of the popular vote. In the case of Arizona and Georgia, the total popular vote margin in 2020 between Biden and Trump was less than the total number of voters William Wirt received by not canvasing at all in 1832. And RFK Jr. has been campaigning, he has been canvasing, and he has support… well, some at least. It is not unlikely to say that he can have a big effect on the upcoming election, if he stays in until then.
This blog post will finish with the recent news that Nicole Shanahan, RFK Jr.’s running mate, said the RFK Jr. campaign may join with the Trump campaign. This likely suggests where RFK Jr.’s support is derived from, and who it could hurt the most on election day. A leaked phone call during the RNC showed former President Trump saying he would “love” RFK Jr. to “Do something” with his campaign.
Interestingly, this potential path proposed by Shanahan has a clear example in history, the Anti-Masonic party. Following their failures in 1832, the Anti-Masonic Party would slowly collapse and combine with the National Republicans to form the Whigs.
One last aside
As I am unlikely to do something with RFK Jr. again soon, I wanted to point the good people’s attention to a section of a speech given by his father, RFK, during RFK’s own presidential campaign on March 18, 1968. It is excellent and worth pondering.
And this is one of the great tasks of leadership for us, as individuals and citizens this year. But even if we act to erase material poverty, there is another greater task, it is to confront the poverty of satisfaction – purpose and dignity – that afflicts us all. Too much and for too long, we seemed to have surrendered personal excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. Our Gross National Product, now, is over $800 billion dollars a year, but that Gross National Product – if we judge the United States of America by that – that Gross National Product counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for the people who break them. It counts the destruction of the redwood and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and counts nuclear warheads and armored cars for the police to fight the riots in our cities. It counts Whitman’s rifle and Speck’s knife, and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children. Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country, it measures everything in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it can tell us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans.
– Robert F. Kennedy, Remarks at the University of Kansas, March 18, 1968
