About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored
A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog).
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If you include nomination fights I would have to suggest Estes Kefauver’s bid for the Democratic nomination in which he campaigned in a coon-skin cap by dogsled. Or the shear weirdness of Strom Thurmond’s selection as the Democratic Party’s official nominee in the states that he carried as his fellow party member Truman was reelected President. These are not quite as weird as those mentioned, but they are more conventionally weird in that they dealt with one of the two major parties.
He may not be the most unusual presidential candidate (and he didn’t get the nomination of any party), but Mike Gravel’s bid in the 2008 election led to what has got be the weirdest political ad ever:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rZdAB4V_j8