A political flop is a political campaign which fails disastrously in spite of high expectations.

Not all failed political endeavors are characterized as flops. For example: David McReynolds ran for President of the United States in 1980 and 2000 on the ticket of the Socialist Party USA, but came nowhere near winning. However, this would not be characterized as a flop because very few expected him to win.

Australian elections

• Academic John Hewson was to lead the Coalition to victory in the "unlosable" election in 1993 against the Labor government on the strength of his Fightback package of microeconomic reform, only to fall victim to an effective scare campaign by Prime Minister Paul Keating
• Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party was expected to be very competitive during the Australian legislative election, 1998. However, bad organisation, deteriorating relations with the Media, conflicting policy announcements and internal party confusion resulted in only 8.0% of the primary vote.^*

Canadian elections

• Newly-appointed Prime Minister Kim Campbell, who was initially praised for being a fresh face with uniquely feminine sensibilities, led the ruling Progressive Conservatives to a massive defeat in the 1993 election campaign losing 152 of their incumbent seats in the House of Commons and winning only two seats. Campbell lost her own, and had to resign after serving as PM for only seven months. It didn't help that her party approved a television campaign ad that made fun of a facial defect of the opposition leader Jean Chrétien (the right side of his face has limited muscle control caused by Bell's palsy) with the slogan "Would you trust someone who only speaks out of one side of his mouth?". (See 1993 Chrétien face ad)
• Stockwell Day became leader of the Canadian Alliance in the 2000 election campaign -- despite predictions that his charismatic presence could lead the party to an electoral breakthrough, the party gained just six additional seats in that year's election, and Day proved so spectacularly ineffective as leader that thirteen caucus members quit the party a year later. Day himself was turfed by the party after serving less than a year and a half.
• Paul Martin became the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, and the Prime Minister in 2003 after Jean Chrétien retired. Amid a number of alleged scandals (most notably the Sponsorship Scandal in Quebec) involving Paul Martin as well as other key Liberal Party members, the party only managed to maintain a minority government after the Canadian federal election, 2004, then proceeded to be defeated by the Stephen Harper-led Conservative Party of Canada in the Canadian federal election, 2006. Paul Martin announced that he would not lead the Liberal Party, and subsequently resigned in March 2006 from the leadership.

French elections

• The unnecessary dissolution of a favourable parliament (Assemblée nationale) in 1997 by President Jacques Chirac should have presaged an easy win for his partisans. They lost, yielding power to the opposition.
• In the first turn of 2002 presidential campaign, extreme right wing candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen ended up in second place, ahead of Lionel Jospin, the main left-wing candidate. The left-wing voters had either voted for left-wing third party candidates or neglected to vote at all. They expected a predictable left wing vs. right wing runoff election. Le Pen's success made the second turn a right wing vs. extreme right wing vote. This secured a second term for Chirac. After the first turn, Jospin declared he would immediately retire from politics.

Hong Kong elections

• In the 2004 election for the Legislative Council, former party chairman of Democratic Party Martin Lee received far more votes than needed to win a seat. It cost the seat expected to be taken by another member of the pro-democracy camp Cyd Ho in the same constituency. The seat was taken by Choy So Yuk from the rival pro-government camp. Should the Democratic Party got 815 less votes or about 2000 more votes, respectively, Cyd Ho or Joseph Lai (the following candidate on Lee's list) would have got the seat.

Indian elections

• The Bharatiya Janata Party performed unexpectedly well in the Assembly Elections in four states and wanted to exploit this success for the Indian general elections, 2004. Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee wasn't too keen to have early elections, but he succumbed to party pressure and prematurely dissolved the 13th Lok Sabha. BJP planned a huge election campaign called India Shining with help of professional ad agencies. The Indian National Congress, headed by Sonia Gandhi, replied with the Aam Aadmi (Common man) campaign. BJP mocked Sonia's leadership capabilities and questioned her foreign origins (she was born in Italy). The media was certain that BJP would come back to power. But to everybody's shock, BJP suffered a defeat and the Congress, with its allies, formed the Government.

Netherlands elections

• In the 1994 Netherlands general elections outgoing Prime Minister Ruud Lubbers said just a few days before the election day he would not vote for his acclaimed successor and new leader of the Christian party CDA Eelco Brinkman but would vote for the number three on the ballot Ernst Hirsch Ballin, the former Minister for Justice. This resulted in a massive defeat for the CDA party on election day and causing Eelco Brinkman to resign as party leader.

Poland elections

• In the 1990 presidential election, a Canadian businessman of Polish origin, Stanisław Tymiński unexpectedly gained 23.1% of votes, being second to Lech Wałęsa (39.9%). He eliminated Tadeusz Mazowiecki from the second round of presidential election. Wałęsa won the second round with 74.2% support. In the 2005 presidential election, Tymiński repeated his attempt to become the president, but he gained only 0.2% of votes.

UK elections

• The Unionist government split over tariff reform from 1903 led to landslide defeat at the 1906 election.
• The Liberal Party had performed well in the 1923 general election, but when it supported a Labour government into power then voted it out in the space of 10 months, it lost three quarters of its MPs in the ensuing 1924 election.
• The Labour Party's performance at the 1983 general election, led by Michael Foot. The manifesto was described as "the longest suicide note in history" by Gerald Kaufman and the campaign was centred around a poorly organised speaking tour which owed nothing to the television age.
• Sir James Goldsmith's anti-European Union Referendum Party failed to win a single seat in the 1997 general election, despite heavy publicity and spending as much as the major parties.
• In the 1992 general election the Labour Party, led by Neil Kinnock, was widely expected to defeat the Conservative government, led by John Major. A pre-election rally at Sheffield was widely perceived as celebrating victory prematurely, and the Conservatives won the election.
• The Conservative Party's performance at the 1997 and 2001 general elections. In both General Elections, the Conservatives were routed disastrously. Their showing was both times far worse than that of Michael Foot. Also in the 2005 General Election the Conservative Party won fewer seats than Labour did under Michael Foot though they got more votes.
• In 2005 General Election, UKIP fielded nearly 500 candidates; however, they failed to win a single seat despite having 12 incumbent MEPs (NB:1 had the whip removed and 1 left the party after the election)

US elections

• In the 1912 election, Republican incumbent William H. Taft received only 8 electoral votes to 88 for Bull Moose Party candidate Theodore Roosevelt and 435 for Woodrow Wilson, the Democratic nominee, the worst ever showing for an incumbent president. Splitting the Republican base with Roosevelt, he garnered only 23% of the popular vote, the lowest support ever for a major party candidate. He was also the only major party candidate in American history to lose either the electoral or popular vote to a third party candidate.

• In the 1932 Election, Republican incumbent Herbert Hoover earned 59 electoral votes and 40% of the popular vote to Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt's 472 and 58%. Having earned 444 electoral votes and 58% of the popular vote in 1928, Hoover's fall was the worst repudiation of a president in modern American history.

• In the 1964 Election, Republican Barry Goldwater got 52 electoral votes to 486 for incumbent Lyndon Johnson and lost by 22 points in the popular vote, the worst popular defeat ever for a Republican presidential nominee in the 20th century.

• In the 1972 Election, Democrat George McGovern received only 17 electoral votes to 520 for incumbent Richard Nixon and lost by 23 points in the popular vote.

• In the 1980 Republican primaries, John Connally spent millions of dollars hoping to win the nomination and instead ended up with only a single delegate to the convention.

• In the 1984 Election, Democrat Walter Mondale got 13 electoral votes and one state to 525 and 49 states for incumbent Ronald Reagan, the worst ever electoral defeat for a Democratic presidential nominee in the 20th Century.

• In 2004 Election, Howard Dean ran for the Democratic nomination, gaining lots of support and front-page articles in major news magazines prior to the primary elections. The Economist even went so far as to run an Election '04 cover story depicting George W. Bush and Dean under the label "who will America choose." But in the end Dean ended up placing third in the 2004 Iowa Democratic caucuses. His campaign never recovered, going on to suffer an unbroken string of defeats. Negative publicity following his infamous "I Have a Scream" speech following the Iowa caucuses (in which he over-energetically recited the names of states he intended to win) did not help matters. In the end, Dean won only the non-binding District of Columbia primary and his home state of Vermont after he had dropped out of the race.

Politics | Society-related lists | failure