# Reform Party The Reform Party was founded in 1995 by billionaire [[Ross Perot]] to institutionalize the movement behind his independent presidential runs of 1992 (nearly 19% of the vote — the strongest third-party showing since the [[Bull Moose Party]]) and 1996. Its appeal was a centrist-populist fusion: balanced budgets and deficit reduction, opposition to NAFTA and free-trade orthodoxy, campaign-finance and political reform, and a generalized revolt against a corrupt, unresponsive Washington establishment. In 1998 the party scored its most striking win when **Jesse Ventura** was elected governor of Minnesota on the Reform ticket. The party fractured almost as fast as it rose. In 2000 [[Pat Buchanan]] captured the Reform nomination, pulling it toward hard nationalism and immigration restriction and driving out the Perot centrists — a struggle that effectively destroyed the party as a national force. [[Donald Trump]] briefly sought the Reform nomination in 2000 before withdrawing. For this KB the Reform Party is doubly important: as a **right/center spoiler** case study (the mirror of the [[Green Party]]), and as an **ideological dress rehearsal for Trumpism** — its anti-trade, anti-establishment, nationalist-populist program prefiguring the [[MAGA]] platform that [[Donald Trump]] later carried to victory inside the [[Republican Party]] rather than outside it. ## See Also - [[Ross Perot]] — the founder - [[Pat Buchanan]] — whose 2000 takeover split the party - [[Green Party]] — the left-side spoiler counterpart - [[Bull Moose Party]] — the historic third-party benchmark - [[Sixth Party System]] · [[Seventh Party System]]