The People's Party embodied the agrarian agitation that brought about a partisan realignment in the 1890s. However, the Populist uprising came to prominence only in William Jennings Bryan's failed Presidential bid due to regional political differences, fusion blunders, and the failure to unite those left behind by industrialism in a common agenda. The Populists' failure to attain major party status was not based purely on co-option by the Democratic Party. Along with basic obstacles to minor parties and economic change, internal dissention and inability to successfully reach out to similar constituencies played an important role. The People's Party suffered from the same inherent barriers that have hindered all American third parties. The single-member district plurality electoral system and the enduring regional party loyalties created by the Civil War prevented early success.1From its inception, the party's anti-wealth platform and third-party status generated only a small number of donations and few prominent figures were willing to take on the Populist label.2Reform newspapers had relatively small budgets and low circulations compared to the Republican and Democratic papers.3Election boards without Populist representation counted fraudulent votes to benefit the major parties.4In the South, the Democratic Party used physical force to prevent Populist voting and labeled the Populists as corrupt or hopeless whenever it fit their purposes. Economic changes unique to the Populist era explain much of the People's Party's short-lived success. In the late 1800s, Westward expansion advanced quickly and an influx of immigrants and easterners searching for cheap land fostered a high level of social change. Eastern bankers financed the real estate speculation and mortgages that fueled the boom. Railroad construction quickened the pace of change and brought about the economic dominance of industrialization.
