Argentina •
Jorge Altamira, leader of the
Trotskyist Workers' Party, has run for
President five times (
1989,
1995,
1999,
2003 and
2011). His best performance was in 2011, with 2.30% of the votes. •
Nicolás del Caño, leader of the
Socialist Workers' Party has run for political positions five times (2013,
2015,
2017,
2019 and
2021). His best performance was in 2019, with 2.16% of the votes.
Bolivia •
Samuel Doria Medina, leader of
National Unity Front, has run for
President in
2005,
2009,
2014, and
2025 elections with best performance in 2014, with 25.1% of votes.
Brazil •
José Maria Eymael, a fringe political figure, ran for the
Presidency six times (
1998,
2006,
2010,
2014,
2018 and
2022); he failed to reach 1% of the votes in any of those. He also unsuccessfully ran for mayor of
São Paulo in 1985 and 1992, though he won two terms in the lower house of the
National Congress of Brazil, from 1987 to 1995. •
Rui Costa Pimenta, leader and founder of the
Trotskyist Workers' Cause Party (PCO), ran for the
Presidency in
2002,
2010,
2014 and is a declared candidate in
2026 (his candidacy in
2006 was blocked by the Superior Electoral Court). He was last in all his runs, with his best performance being 0.04% of the votes in 2002. • Vera Guasso, labor union leader and member of the
Unified Socialist Workers Party (PSTU), ran for the Porto Alegre city assembly, mayor of Porto Alegre, the Brazilian Senate and other positions in a non-stop serial candidacy (every two years) from the early 90s on. In her best results, she had numbers of votes in local Porto Alegre elections similar to those of lesser-voted elected candidates but did not get a seat due to her party's overall voting being small. PSTU traditionally enters elections with no visible chance to, allegedly, "put a leftist set of points in discussion" and "build the party" but has lately achieved some expressive numbers. •
Enéas Carneiro, a cardiologist and founder of the far-right
Party of the Reconstruction of the National Order (PRONA), ran for presidency three times, in 1989, 1994 and 1998. He was mostly known for his comical style of speech on political broadcasts (due in part to the reduced TV time his party had) and his distinct beard. He also ran for mayor in
São Paulo at the 2000 elections, before finally being elected federal deputy in 2002 with record voting. He was re-elected in 2006 but died in 2007 from
myeloid leukemia. •
José Maria de Almeida, leader of the
Trotskyist United Socialist Workers' Party (PSTU), ran for the
Presidency on four occasions:
1998,
2002,
2010 and
2014. His best performance was in 2002 when he got 0.47% of the votes. •
Levy Fidelix, leader and founder of the conservative
Brazilian Labour Renewal Party (PRTB), ran for all municipal and general elections held in Brazil from 1996 to 2020. He was twice candidate for the
Presidency (in
2010 and
2014), twice candidate for the
Governor of São Paulo (in 1998 and 2002) and five times candidate for the
Mayor of São Paulo (in 1996, 2008, 2012, 2016 and 2020), never being elected for any position in his political career. He succumbed to COVID-19 on April 23, 2021.
Canada according to the
Guinness World Records holds the records for the most elections contested and for the most elections lost, having contested 112 elections and lost 111. •
Don Andrews, leader of the unregistered
Nationalist Party of Canada has run for
Mayor of Toronto several times,
1972,
1974,
1976,
1988,
1991,
1994,
1997,
2003,
2010 and most recently in
2014, when he came in seventh place with 0.10% of the vote. •
Michael Baldasaro (1949–2016), a leader of the pro-
marijuana Church of the Universe, ran for
Mayor of
Hamilton, Ontario in
1988,
1991,
1994,
2000,
2003,
2006,
2010, and
2014 and, among other federal and provincial campaigns, attempted to seek the leadership of the
Progressive Conservative Party of Canada in
1988. • Douglas Campbell has run as a fringe candidate for the
House of Commons in the 1960s, the leadership of both the
Ontario and federal
New Democratic Party in the 1970s and 1980s, and Mayor of
North York, Ontario. He ran for
Mayor of
Toronto in
2000,
2003 and
2006. •
Ross Dowson, leader of the Canadian
Trotskyist group the
Revolutionary Workers Party (later the League for Socialist Action) ran for Mayor of Toronto nine times in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. His best result was in
1949, when he won 20% of the vote in a two-man race. He also ran twice for the
House of Commons of Canada. •
Terry Duguid is a
Manitoba politician who has run multiple times for city council, mayor and MP in
Winnipeg. He lost the
1995 Winnipeg Civic election and lost the
2004 and
2006 federal elections in
Kildonan—St. Paul, then ran and lost in
Winnipeg South in
2011. He ran in Winnipeg South again in
2015, this time winning the seat with 58% of the vote. He was re-elected for Winnipeg South in
2019 with 42% of the vote. •
Jim Enos, a Hamilton, Ontario-based
social conservative and Christian activist, has sought elected office nine times over three decades. Enos ran provincially in
1999,
2007,
2011, and
2018, federally in the riding of
Hamilton Mountain in
2011,
2015,
2019, and
2021, and for the public school board in the
2003 Hamilton Municipal Election. Enos has run with the
Family Coalition Party of Ontario,
Christian Heritage Party of Canada, and as an independent. • Henri-Georges Grenier ran 13 times for the House of Commons of Canada between
1945 and
1980 on the tickets of a variety of political parties, for each of which he was the sole candidate. •
Ben Kerr, a
street musician, ran for Mayor of Toronto seven times between
1985 and his death in 2005. He was best known for his
country music performances and for advocating the medicinal benefits of drinking a concoction that has
cayenne pepper as its main ingredient. • Patricia Métivier contested 24 Canadian federal, provincial or municipal elections from
1972 to 2001. • David Popescu has run for federal, provincial, and municipal office multiple times since 1998 on an extreme
anti-abortion and
anti-gay platform. While campaigning in the
2008 election, he advocated the execution of homosexual people, which precipitated charges under Canada's
hate crime laws. •
Naomi Rankin ran for the
Communist Party of Canada in
2008, her eighth attempt at becoming an MP. She has also run six times for the
Communist Party of Alberta, all of which were also unsuccessful. •
Gilbert Thibodeau has run four times for municipal office in Montreal between 2013 in 2025, most notably when he came in third place with 10% of the vote as a
mayoral candidate in 2025. •
Alex Tyrrell, leader of the
Green Party of Quebec, has run 11 times between 2012 and 2022 for provincial general elections and by-elections. •
John Turmel is in the
Guinness Book of World Records for being the candidate who has the "most elections contested" and lost 103 as of October 2022 (he also ran in a by-election canceled due to a general election). • Harry Bradley ran for the
Toronto Board of Control 24 times between 1930 and 1964. He also ran for mayor in 1960 and 1962, and for city council in 1969. •
Kevin Clarke is a homeless person who has unsuccessfully contested municipal, provincial and federal offices in Toronto numerous times from the 1990s to the present, often as leader of
The People's Political Party. •
Régent Millette is a teacher in Quebec who has run for public office at the municipal, provincial, and federal levels over 25 times since 2000. • Don Woodstock of
Winnipeg has contested several positions at all three levels of government. He unsuccessfully ran for
provincial seats in
2007 and
2011 as a
Liberal, and in
2016 as an independent. He ran
federally in 2015 as a
Green candidate, and received national attention after being called a "son of a bitch" by
NDP incumbent
Pat Martin during a televised debate. Woodstock ran for
city council in
2014 and ran as a
mayoral candidate in the 2018 election. •
Paul Fromm is an anti-immigration activist who has run in many municipal, provincial and federal office elections. He ran in
Mississauga East in the
1988 federal election, for mayor of
Mississauga in the
2010 and
2014 municipal elections across
Peel Region,
Ontario, in
Calgary Southeast in the
2011 federal election, for mayor of
Hamilton in the
2018 municipal election for the single-tier city, and for
Etobicoke Centre in the
2018 Ontario general election.
Chile •
Marco Enríquez-Ominami has run as the
Progressive Party's presidential candidate in every election since the
2009–10 Chilean presidential election. •
Franco Parisi has run as the
Party of the People's presidential candidate in 2013, 2021, and 2025.
Colombia •
Horacio Serpa Uribe, three-times Liberal Party's presidential candidate (
1998,
2002,
2006). •
Antanas Mockus, two-times presidential candidate (2006,
2010), one-time vicepresidential candidate (1998). •
Noemí Sanín, three-times Conservative Party's presidential candidate (1998, 2002, 2010). •
Álvaro Gómez Hurtado, three times Conservative Party's presidential candidate (1974, 1986, 1990). •
Enrique Peñalosa, five-times Bogotá's mayor candidate (1994, 1997, 2007, 2011, 2015), one-time senatorial candidate (2006), one-time presidential candidate (2014). •
Sergio Fajardo, two-times presidential candidate (2018, 2022), one-time vice presidential candidate (2010). •
Regina 11, three-times presidential candidate (1986, 1990, 1994).
Costa Rica •
Otto Guevara, a five-time presidential candidate. •
Walter Muñoz, a five-time presidential candidate. •
Máximo Fernández Alvarado, a three-time presidential candidate.
Ecuador •
Álvaro Noboa ran unsuccessfully for president in
1998,
2002,
2006,
2009 and
2013; he attempted to run for president in
2021 but his candidacy was suspended by the electoral authorities due to an alleged violation of registration requirements. His son,
Daniel, was successfully elected as president in the
2023 election and reelected in
2025.
Guatemala •
Alejandro Giammattei, a three-time presidential candidate (2007, 2011 and 2015), he won during his fourth election campaign in 2019. He previously ran unsuccessfully twice for mayor of
Guatemala City (1999 and 2003). •
Sandra Torres, a three-time presidential candidate, each time losing in the run-off. • Mario Estrada, a three-time presidential candidate (2007, 2011 and 2015). •
Eduardo Suger, a three-time presidential candidate (2003, 2007 and 2011).
Mexico •
Nicolás Zúñiga y Miranda was a presidential candidate 10 times: 1892, 1896, 1900, 1904, 1910, 1911, 1913,
1917,
1920 and
1924 and also tried to run for a seat in the
Congress of Mexico at least twice. The eccentric Zúñiga never got more than a few votes, but always claimed to have been the victim of fraud and considered himself to be the legitimate
President. •
Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas was a presidential candidate three times: 1988, 1994 and 2000. He was also was elected the first
Head of Government of Mexico City after the abolition of the city's federal immediacy in 1997, was the leader of the left-wing
PRD, and was Governor of the state of Michoacan. He was projected to win the
1988 election, which was admittedly
rigged against him, according to the president at the time,
Miguel de la Madrid.
Nicaragua •
Daniel Ortega ran unsuccessfully for president in 1990, 1996 and 2001, before being elected president in 2006.
Paraguay •
Domingo Laíno ran unsuccessfully for president three times:
1989,
1993, and
1998. His best performance was in 1998, with 43.88% of the votes. •
Efraín Alegre was a presidential candidate three times:
2013 and
2018, and
2023. His best performance was in 2018, with 45.08% of the votes.
Peru • Roger Cáceres,
FRENATRACA presidential candidate in 1980 with 2% of the vote, 1985 with 2% of the vote and 1990 with 1.3% of the vote. •
Ezequiel Ataucusi,
FREPAP presidential candidate in 1990 with 1.1% of the vote, in 1995 with 0.8% of votes and in 2000 with 0.75% of votes. • Ricardo Noriega, presidential candidate for All for Victory in 2001 with 0.31% of the vote and for Desperate National in 2011 with 0.15% of the vote. He was also a candidate from Independent Civic Union for senator in 1990. • Andrés Alcántara, presidential candidate of Direct Democracy in 2021 with 0.29% of the vote. He also was not elected as a congressman in the 2000 elections, 2016 and 2020, and as Mayor of Santiago de Chuco. •
Ciro Gálvez ran unsuccessfully for president three times in 2001, 2006 and the most recent in 2021 and ran unsuccessfully for Governor twice in 2002 and 2006. •
Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of former president
Alberto Fujimori ran unsuccessfully for president three times in 2011, 2016 and 2021, each time losing in the run-off. •
Jaime Salinas, candidate for mayor of Lima in 2002 and 2018 and presidential in 2006, without being elected and with low percentages such as 0.53% in the 2006 presidential elections and 3.5% in the 2018 municipal elections. •
Fernando Olivera ran unsuccessfully for president four times in 2001, 2006, 2016 and 2021 in which in 2006, he withdrew from the race and in 2021, his candidacy was rejected. •
Máximo San Román ran for the vice presidency four times between 1990, 1995, 2006 and 2011 in which, in 1990, he was successful and ran for the presidency on in 2000.
Uruguay •
Luis Alberto de Herrera ran for
President as the
National Party candidate six times (
1922,
1926,
1930,
1942,
1946 and
1950) • Minor politician
Carlos Iafigliola has been running for president in the National Party presidential primaries of the last years.
United States ==Africa==