# The Contenders

The Contenders is a 14-program series that was produced and aired by C-SPAN in the fall of 2011. It looked at the lives and careers of 14 candidates for the presidency of the United States who were determined to have made significant impacts on U.S. politics despite not having won the presidency. Most episodes were broadcast from a location of significance to the person being profiled, and featured interviews and discussion with a variety of experts.

## Selection of subjects

The list of persons profiled was selected by C-SPAN producer Mark Farkas and historian Richard Norton Smith, who was a consultant to the series. Smith described the objective of their efforts as follows:
   To give viewers an alternative school of American political history, in particular. It has famously been observed that the winners write the history books, and there's a lot of truth to that. But that means that we are deprived of... It's like the dark side of the moon. There's another whole story line... and even more, on the biographical level, there are 14 people in this series, many of whom I guarantee viewers may never have heard of. And all of whom I can pretty much guarantee they will find interesting to fascinating, and certainly surprising.

## Programs

| Original air date (Links to video of program) | Featured candidate | Featured location | Interviewees |
| September 2, 2011 | Historians' Preview | N/A | Richard Norton Smith, Jean Baker, Carl Cannon |
| September 9, 2011 | Henry Clay | The Ashland Estate, Lexington, Kentucky | James C. Klotter, Avery Malone, Alicestyne Turley |
| September 16, 2011 | James G. Blaine | The Blaine House, Augusta, Maine | Elizabeth D. Leonard, Paul LePage, Neil Rolde, Earle G. Shettleworth Jr. |
| September 23, 2011 | William Jennings Bryan | Fairview, Lincoln, Nebraska | Michael Kazin, L. Robert Puschendorf, William G. Thomas III |
| September 30, 2011 | Eugene Debs | Eugene V. Debs Home, Terre Haute, Indiana | Ernest Freeberg, Lisa A.W. Phillips, Bernie Sanders |
| October 7, 2011 | Charles Evans Hughes | United States Supreme Court Building, Washington, D.C. | Paul D. Clement, Bernadette A. Meyler, Robb W. Patryk, David Pietrusza |
| October 14, 2011 | Al Smith | Chamber of the New York State Assembly, New York State Capitol, Albany, New York | John J. Evers, Beverly Gage, Sheldon Silver, Alfred E. Smith IV |
| October 21, 2011 | Wendell Willkie | Rush County Historical Society, Rushville, Indiana | Richard Lugar, James H. Madison, Amity Shlaes, David Willkie |
| October 28, 2011 | Thomas E. Dewey | The Roosevelt Hotel, New York City, New York | Thomas E. Dewey Jr., Richard Norton Smith |
| November 4, 2011 | Adlai Stevenson | Adlai E. Stevenson Historic Home, Mettawa, Illinois | Newton N. Minow, Richard Norton Smith, Adlai E. Stevenson III |
| November 11, 2011 | Barry Goldwater | The Goldwater Institute, Phoenix, Arizona | Bill McCune, Darcy Olsen, Rick Perlstein, |
| November 18, 2011 | Hubert Humphrey | The Minnesota History Center, St. Paul, Minnesota | Mick Caouette, Juan Williams |
| November 25, 2011 | George Wallace | The Alabama Governor's Mansion, Montgomery, Alabama | Dan T. Carter, Peggy Wallace Kennedy, Joe L. Reed |
| December 2, 2011 | George McGovern | McGovern Center for Leadership, Dakota Wesleyan University, Mitchell, South Dakota | Scott Clark Farris, Jules Witcover (Note: McGovern himself had been scheduled to be part of this program, but fell and injured himself on the way into the building where the program was being filmed.) |
| December 9, 2011 | Ross Perot | Washington, D.C. | Carolyn Barta, Douglas Brinkley |
| December 16, 2011 | Historians' Retrospective | N/A | Richard Norton Smith, Jean Baker, Carl Cannon |