The presidential election of 1860 is one we Americans know well.

That election sent Abraham Lincoln to the White House,

Southern enslavers to the exit door, and the United States into a bloody civil war.

Lincoln's leadership in those years and his tragic assassination in the last days of the war

propelled the rail splitter into the pantheon of American presidents.

But sometimes we forget that just a few months before that election, Lincoln looked like a long shot.

His experience at the federal level amounted to one term in the House of Representatives.

His Republican Party, founded in 1854, was only running its second presidential campaign.

And even in victory, Lincoln's share of the popular vote fell just short of 40%. So how did Abraham Lincoln win a resounding victory in the

electoral college with a minority of the popular vote? Why did the Democratic Party, which had

dominated politics in the previous decade, lose to an upstart rival.

And why, in the midst of a fierce battle over American slavery that ultimately broke the country

apart, did John Bell, a third-party candidate that you've probably never even heard of,

have a reasonable chance of winning the presidency by skirting the issue altogether?

Let's find out.

Welcome to the Road to Now's third party election series. Today, part two, the election of 1860 with Michael Green.

I'm Bob Crawford. I'm Ben Sawyer.

And this is the road to now.

That's right. And this is our road to the 2024 election looking back on elections of the past.

Contested elections, elections with multiple candidates.

You guys, if you didn't listen last week, we started off with the election of 1824, where strangely

enough, you don't have a third party, you only have one party with four candidates.

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