Heeding the call: An assessment of mobilization into H. Ross Perot's 1992 presidential campaign

One of the most remarkable aspects of the 1992 Perot movement was its abili ty to mobilize thousands of activist volunteers. We draw upon studies of pa rticipation and the literature on third-party voting to suggest explanation s for activist involvement for Perot. Our analysis makes use of a national sample of potential activists who telephoned Perot's "volunteer hotline" ea rly in the 1992 campaign, and the 1992 American National Election Study. As the third-party literature leads us to expect, negative attitudes toward t he institutions of government and the major party candidates (especially Ge orge Bush) were significant in stimulating the initial contact with Perot's organization. Active mobilization into the campaign among those who called Perot headquarters depended largely on a positive view of Perot, support f or some issues on the candidate's agenda, and experience participating in p olitics prior to 1992. During the fall, however, the insurgency lost recrui ts due to the increasingly partisan nature of the contest and concerns abou t Perot's chances of winning. The general dynamic of declining support for third-party candidates in the partisan fall campaign appears to hold in the Perot case, although the decline in support among activists was nowhere ne ar as dramatic as the decline in the general public.