Losers who won

Just because you lose a presidential election doesn’t mean you can’t change history.

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Texas billionaire Ross Perot in 1992. Perot ran on the Reform Party ticket and won 18 percent of the vote -- perhaps helping Democrat Bill Clinton win the election.

Richard Drew / AP

Ross Perot, at right, during a townhall meeting on Medicare in 1995 with then-House Speaker -- and current presidential contender -- Newt Gingrich.

Robert A. Reeder / The Washington Post

South Dakota Sen. George McGovern goes for a jeep ride with Cuban Premier Fidel Castro during a 1975 visit to Cuba. The Democrat's refusal to position himself as a centrist in 1972 won him few votes but shaped the future of his party. Through McGovern's bid for the White House, Scott Farris writes, "The New Deal coalition of urban ethnic groups, organized labor and Southern white populists gave way to a new focus on minorities, women, the young and highly educated activists."

CHARLES TASNADI / AP

Sen. George McGovern, center, in early 1972 with Bill Clinton, then a McGovern campaign worker.

/ AP

George McGovern speaks out against a possible war with Iraq in 2003, in Missoula, Mont., his first antiwar speech in 30 years.

Tim Thompson / ASSOCIATED PRESS/THE MISSOULIAN

Sen. Goldwater (R-Ariz.) with then-President Ronald Reagan in 1981. According to Scott Farris, "the conservative icon who lost in a landslide to Lyndon Johnson in 1964, actually won that election; it just took sixteen years to count all the ballots and make Ronald Reagan president."

Frank Johnson / The Washington Post

A 1964 campaign sign for GOP presidential candidate Barry Goldwater.

/ UPI

William Jennings Bryan in Chicago during one of his three presidential campaigns. Bryan remade the Democratic Party into the progressive, populist force it remains today.

/ AP

In 1925, the Scopes trial pitted Cllarence Darrow, left, against William Jennings Bryan, center. The issue was Tennessee's "Monkey Law," which prohibited teaching evolution in schools and was challenged by science teacher John Thomas Scopes, at right. Bryan represented the state of Tennessee, and the trial was memorialized in the play "Inherit the Wind."

/ UPI

Democratic presidential nominee Walter Mondale, center, and his running mate Geraldine Ferraro, right, at the 1984 Democratic National Convention in San Francisco. They lost, but Ferraro broke gender barriers in politics by being the first woman to run for vice president.

/ AP

Ferraro speaks to the press after voting at the Forest Hills polling station in the Queens borough of New York in 1998. Ferraro ran for Senate that year but lost.

JEFF GEISSLER / AP

Todd Palin prepares to sign a cardboard cutout of his wife, former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, during the Tea Party's "Restoring America" event on Sept. 3. Palin failed to become vice president in 2008 but has become the face of Tea Party conservatism.

Justin Sullivan / GETTY IMAGES

Sean Hannity interviews then-Gov. Palin (R-Alaska) in 2009.

Shealah Craighead / ASSOCIATED PRESS

Gov. Thomas E. Dewey (R-N.Y.) on "Meet the Press" in 1952. Remembered mainly for his surprising loss to Harry Truman in the 1948 presidential race, Dewey may be the "most influential Republican of the 20th century," Scott Farris writes, "for he realized that repealing the New Deal was a hopeless goal for conservatives."

/ AP

President Harry S. Truman holds up an election day edition of the Chicago Daily Tribune, which, based on early results, mistakenly announced "Dewey Defeats Truman" in 1948.

BYRON ROLLINS / AP

Two-time Democratic presidential loser Adlai Stevenson gets a Hawaiian lei from William Richardson, a Hawaiian Democrat, during a reception Stevenson held for Eleanor Roosevelt, left, in 1956. For many, Stevenson’s high-minded ideals were an antidote to the political cynicism of demagogues such as Joe McCarthy.

/ AP

Stevenson, left, who became American ambassador to the United Nations, and Soviet Deputy Foreign Minister Valerian A. Zorin address the General Assembly in 1962. During the Cuban missile crisis, Stevenson charged that Russia secretly had installed long-range missiles and other offensive weapons in Cuba.

/ UPI

FEATURED PHOTO GALLERIES

A protestor in a Guy Fawkes mask walks past razor wire outside a security perimeter of the G-8 summit in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland on Monday, June 17, 2013. The summit is taking place under heavy security, with some 7,000 police lining roads and checking vehicles. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)

Photos of the day

G-8 summit, massive protests rock Brazil, Britain’s Royal Ascot and more.

Two-year old male rat named Dyatlik wears a costume during a rodent exhibition in Minsk, Belarus, Saturday, June 15, 2013. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

Animal views

Rodent exhibition, swimming with elephants, Mexico’s feline mayoral candidate and more.

WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 14: Johnathon Carrington, valedictorian at Dunbar High School, laughs with family and friends after his school's graduation ceremony at Howard University on Friday, June 14, 2013, in Washington, DC. Carrington, who grew up in Tyler House public-housing apartments and is graduating from one of DC's low-performing high schoolsy, where academic expectations are high. (Photo by Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post)

Johnathon’s journey

Johnathon Carrington graduated Friday as the valedictorian of his neighborhood school, Dunbar High, and is headed to Georgetown University. But Carrington, 17, is nervous, and so are...

U.S. actress Sandra Bullock poses for the media during a photocall to promote her latest move 'The Heat' in Berlin June 18, 2013. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch (GERMANY - Tags: ENTERTAINMENT)

Eye on entertainment

Sandra Bullock, Jessica Sanchez, Snooki, Billy Porter, Billy Crystal, Sean Hayes, Gwen Stefani and other celebrities.

LONDON, ENGLAND - JUNE 16: Reenactors dressed as knights stage a medieval jousting competition at Eltham Palace on June 16, 2013 in Eltham, England. The 'Grand Medieval Joust' event at Eltham Palace, an English Heritage property which was the childhood home of King Henry VIII, aims to give a great insight into life at the palace during the medieval period. (Photo by Oli Scarff/Getty Images)

The Grand Medieval Joust

The Grand Medieval Joust at Eltham Palace, an English Heritage property that was the childhood home of King Henry VIII, aims to lend insight through reenactment into life at the palace...

In this June 8, 2013 photo, youth compete in the Sao Carlos slum local soccer tournament in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The pitch is just dirt and the incandescent lights aren't so bright. But when the boys' feet strike the football in the Sao Carlos slum as night falls every Saturday, big league dreams glow, inflated by the hope of escaping the shantytown with sporting skills. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

Brazil’s other soccer fields

With the Confederations Cup opening this week and the World Cup one year away, all eyes are on Brazil, where soccer is arguably played with more passion and art than anywhere else....

WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 16: John F. Tatum Sr. hugs his grandson John F. Tatum III during his annual Father's Day block party on Sunday, June 16, 2013 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Amanda Voisard/For the Washington Post)

Father’s Day picnic in Northeast D.C.

A decades-old backyard barbecue in Northeast Washington draws hundreds in honor of dads everywhere. “It’s off-the-chain fun,” says Butch McNair, who has worked one...

LAS VEGAS, NV - JUNE 16: Miss Connecticut USA Erin Brady reacts after being crowned Miss USA during the 2013 Miss USA pageant at PH Live at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino on June 16, 2013 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

Miss USA 2013

Miss Connecticut USA Erin Brady is crowned Miss USA 2013 in Las Vegas.

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