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Notwithstanding the general perception, many third parties throughout U.S. history have achieved regional success and some (notably the Prohibition Party and the Socialist Party) have had major portions of their platforms incorporated into the platforms of the "major parties." While, of these, only the Republican Party has gone on to become a dominant player in American political life, the overall political platforms of several third parties have taken root in the American political landscape.
Categorizing the political parties can be a bit problematic. When a necessity for categorization is acknowledged at all, the dominant parties are usually called "major parties". The two most commonly used terms for the other parties are "third parties" and "minor parties", with other terms such as "alternate parties" also in use. Some people are actually quite attached to one or another of these terms for the non-dominant political parties, presenting evidence why their term is the "correct" one and the others are "wrong".
Some object to the term "third parties", contending that there can only be one "third party" with the others necessarily being "fourth", "fifth", and so on. Of course, the largest of the third parties all have evidence to support their claims to be the third party.
Some object to the term "minor parties" because of the dismissive implications of calling a party "minor". Additionally, the term "minor party" has legal significance in some states, so it could be inaccurate to use the term in those states. For example, as of 2004 the Libertarian Party is legally a major party in Washington State.
Some have suggested the term "alternate parties" to avoid the difficulties of the other terms, suggesting that these parties provide an "alternate" to the major parties. Those who object to this term point out that even the major parties are alternates for the voters to consider.
This difficulty in terminology is further complicated by the wide variation in size and influence of the parties. Some are nationally organized with active affiliates in all, or nearly all, of the states and dozens or hundreds of candidates for office at all levels of government. Others are organized in only a few states, either because of resources or a regional focus, and are virtually unheard of outside their sphere. Many others are organized in only a single state, often with only one or a handful of candidates. Still other groups call themselves political parties, but they have no candidates at all and merely use the term as a means to focus issue debate or to satirize the concept of political parties (and sometimes it's difficult to determine which is which).
For the purposes of this article, the political parties are grouped into four sections. The first section is "Current major parties", as the term is defined above. The second section is called "Current third parties" and it consists of those parties that have achieved (or, in the lead-up to an election, are reasonably expected to achieve) ballot status for their respective candidates for President of the United States in states with enough electoral votes to have a theoretical chance of winning. The third section is called "Current minor and regional parties that have endorsed candidates" and consists of all the other currently active parties which have candidates (so-called "political parties" with no candidates are not listed). The last section, "Historical political parties", is for political parties that are defunct.
See also: Current political party strength in U.S. states
Each of these parties had ballot status for its presidential candidate in states with enough electoral votes to have a theoretical chance of winning the 2004 presidential election. Only these three parties reached that threshold in 2004.
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