section_path: Americas/United States/President
section_name: President
paragraph_text: President
  
  George Washington is the only U.S. president elected as an independent to date. Washington opposed the development of political parties, which had begun to solidify as the Federalist faction, centered around John Adams and Alexander Hamilton, and the Democratic-Republican faction, centered around Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. Washington feared that partisanship would eventually destroy the country, and famously warned against "the baneful effects of the spirit of party" in his 1796 Farewell Address.
  
  John Tyler was expelled from the Whig Party in September 1841, and effectively remained an independent for the remainder of his presidency. He later returned to the Democratic Party and briefly sought election in 1844 as a Tyler Democrat, but withdrew over fear he would split the Democratic vote and give the election to Whig candidate Henry Clay.
  
  Since 1900, notable candidates running as independents for U.S. president have included congressman John Anderson in 1980, billionaire entrepreneur Ross Perot in 1992 and 1996 (in 1996 under the newly founded Reform Party), former Green Party candidate Ralph Nader in the 1996 and 2000 elections, and "Never Trump" conservative candidate Evan McMullin in 2016. Out of all independent candidates since Washington, Perot performed the best, gaining no votes in the Electoral College but receiving 19 percent of the popular vote and, early in the election season, leading in polls against his opponents Bill Clinton and George H. W. Bush. Additionally, McMullin received 21 percent of the popular vote in his home state of Utah but received little support from the remainder of the country. Independent senator Bernie Sanders ran in the 2016 and 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries, but ultimately did not appear on the ballot in either the 2016 nor 2020 presidential elections, though he did receive more than 5% of the popular vote as a write-in candidate in his home state of Vermont.
  
  In 2008, Nader formed Independent Parties in New Mexico, Delaware, and elsewhere to gain ballot access in several states. In 2024, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. created " We the People " parties in several states for the same purpose, even though he is Independent.
  
  Several other candidates for federal races, including Joe Lieberman (who created Connecticut for Lieberman), have pursued a similar strategy.