Ross Perot

Henry Ross Perot (born June 27, 1930, Texarkana, Texas) is an American businessman best known for running for President of the United States of America in 1992 and 1996. The founder of a company named Electronic Data Systems (EDS) in 1962, he sold it to General Motors in 1984 for $2.4 billion. A middle-of-the-road pragmatist, he ran for president in 1992 as an independent who could, he claimed, go to Washington, get "the best minds" to "look under the hood", and then get things fixed. His message was very successful at first, and for a while in the spring of 1996 his poll ratings were higher than those of any other candidate. As his ratings began to sink, however, he first dropped out of the race and then reentered it. In the November election, running against the incumbent, Republican George H. W. Bush, and the Democrat Bill Clinton, he lost to Clinton. He received 18.9% of the popular vote, with more than 19.7 million votes, the best showing of any third-party candidate since Theodore Roosevelt in 1912. He did not, however, win any electoral votes. Three years later he founded the Reform Party, then ran on its ticket for president in 1996. This time he was far less successful, garnering only 8% of the popular vote, about eight million votes.

With an estimated net worth of over $3 billion, he is still one of the richest people in the United States.