Ross Perot

1930 – 2019

Henry Ross Perot was an American billionaire businessman who founded Electronic Data Systems and Perot Systems, and ran for U.S. president as an independent in 1992 and as the Reform Party nominee in 1996. His 1992 campaign won 18.9 percent of the popular vote, the strongest showing by a non-major-party candidate since Theodore Roosevelt in 1912, and is widely credited with helping deliver the presidency to Bill Clinton over incumbent George H. W. Bush. His warnings of a "giant sucking sound" of jobs leaving for Mexico under NAFTA presaged later populist economic critiques on both the right and the left.

Last checked: May 10, 2026, 1:06 PM