Ralph Nader

Ralph Nader (born February 27, 1934) is an American political activist. An author, lecturer, and attorney, he has been a perennial presidential candidate who is best-remembered for arguably being responsible for the Republican George W. Bush winning the election of 2000 rather than Al Gore, the Democratic candidate. Nader had first come to prominence as a young man in 1965 with the publication of his book Unsafe at Any Speed, a damaging attack on the safety record of American automobiles in general and, most famously, of the Chevrolet Corvair in particular. He first ran as a write-in candidate in the 1992 New Hampshire Democratic primary, then as the Green Party nominee in 1996 and 2000. Considered to be a far-left liberal, he won enough votes in 2000 in both New Hampshire and Florida from, presumably, the center-liberal Gore to permit the center-right Bush to win the two states by extremely narrows margins. Had either state's electoral votes gone to Gore, he would have been elected president. In advocating his candidacy at the time, Nader claimed that there was no distinguishable difference between the other other candidates, a position that he still maintains. He has come under caustic attack by Democrats during the last 12 years for his supposed role in Bush's election, but he has consistently argued that he did not, in fact, keep Gore from winning.

He later ran as an independent candidate in the 2004 and 2008.

As a writer, advocate, and attorney, his fields of particular concern include consumer protection, humanitarianism, environmentalism, and democratic government.