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How did Bill Clinton defeat George H.W. Bush to become the 42nd president?

In the 1992 presidential election, the United States voters actually had three choices: Republican (and current president) George H.W. Bush, Democrat William Jefferson Clinton, and Independent candidate Ross Perot, a billionaire from Texas.

Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton ended George H.W. Bush's chances for re-election.
Some Republicans and Independents voted for Ross Perot, who received 20 percent of the popular vote but no votes at all from the electoral college. As a result of this split in conservative votes, Bill Clinton easily captured the election and became the country's 42nd president.

Bill Clinton was born in Arkansas in 1946, and he served as the state's governor for more than 10 years. From 1977 to 1979, he was also the attorney general of Arkansas.

Unlike Bush, Clinton was young and charismatic; at 46 years old, he was the third-youngest president in American history. Clinton had a folksy, lower-class appeal, partly due to his personal history (he came from a poor family), whereas George H.W. Bush had a stiff public persona and had grown up in a wealthy family. These factors, combined with Bush's difficulty reconnecting with voters after breaking his promise not to raise taxes, propelled a Democratic candidate into the White House in 1992 for the first time since 1979.

Question

Why would the presence of a significant third-party candidate (like Ross Perot) have a big effect on the outcome of an election?

Third-party candidates take away votes from the "primary" candidates. For example, if Ross Perot hadn't been available as on option on the ballot, many of the 20 percent who voted for him might have voted for Bush or Clinton.

While it's not the third-party candidate's responsibility to worry about getting a Republican or Democrat elected, their presence on the ballot does have an effect on the election.