minor party

Definition of minor party

: a political party whose electoral strength is so small as to prevent its gaining control of a government except in rare and exceptional circumstances

Examples of minor party in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web That disparity has worried the W.F.P. and other minor parties, even among those who acknowledge that 50,000 might be too low of a threshold. — Vivian Wang, New York Times, "Democrats’ Secret Plan to Kill Third Parties in New York," 29 Oct. 2019 Now, a commission created by Mr. Cuomo and state leaders has voted to raise the threshold for minor parties to make the ballot. — New York Times, "A Political Party Aligns Itself With Ocasio-Cortez," 6 Dec. 2019 There also are 5,207 Democrats, 4,037 Republicans and 120 members of minor parties. — Don Stacom, courant.com, "Democrats hope to retake Berlin mayor’s post; GOP seeks to keep control it won in 2015," 31 Oct. 2019 The 23rd Congressional District is 45% Democratic, 24% Republican, and 31% no party affiliation/independent voters or members of minor parties. — Anthony Man, sun-sentinel.com, "Wasserman Schultz launches campaign for one of top jobs in Congress," 21 Nov. 2019 While nearly a quarter of the electorate placed a minor party first on their ballot on Saturday, nearly 90 percent put either the governing Coalition of Prime Minister Scott Morrison or the opposition Labor Party first or second. — David Fickling And Daniel Moss | Bloomberg, Washington Post, "Australia’s Political Shock Echoes From Ohio to London," 19 May 2019 The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court against three metro-county prosecutors, seeks to have the statutory oath on minor party nominating petitions declared unconstitutional in time for the May petition window. — Josh Verges, Twin Cities, "MN Libertarians sue to get ‘downright silly’ nomination oath declared unconstitutional," 21 Aug. 2019 Over the years, other minor parties have come and gone from the California ballot, including the Prohibition Party (1910-62), the Socialist Party (1910-38) and, most recently, the Reform Party (1996-2002). — John Wildermuth, SFChronicle.com, "Sick of Democrats and Republicans? New party coming to California," 12 Sep. 2019 Moore essentially repeated a mistake made four years ago by Mayor Bill Finch, who also relied on a minor party for ballot insurance in November. — Mark Pazniokas, courant.com, "Moore not conceding to Ganim without reviewing options after Bridgeport primary loss," 11 Sep. 2019

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'minor party.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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Last Updated

14 Jan 2020

Cite this Entry

“Minor party.” The Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster Inc., https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/minor%20party. Accessed 18 January 2020.

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