While he never even came close to being elected president, he received 12 percent of the vote on the Socialist Party ticket in 1912. Later, his vocal opposition to our involvement in WWI landed him in jail, and he campaigned for president from his jail cell. He is credited with bringing teeth to the labor movement in a manner that eventually forced some of the key reforms, and essentially the creation of the American middle class. The impact of this man, downplayed in our high school history classes, can't be overestimated despite the fact that he never held public office.
