Lyndon LaRouche, American politician and activist, founded the LaRouche movement
Lyndon Hermyle LaRouche Jr. (September 8, 1922 – February 12, 2019) was an American political activist who founded the LaRouche movement and its main organization the National Caucus of Labor Committees (NCLC).Born in Rochester, New Hampshire, LaRouche became sympathetic to socialist and Marxist movements and ideals in his twenties during World War II and by the 1960s became engaged in increasingly smaller and more radical splinter groups. During the 1970s he created the foundation of the LaRouche Movement and became more engaged in conspiratorial beliefs and violent and/or illegal activities. In 1986, his movement reached its height in electoral success when Larouchite candidates won several Democratic primaries for state offices in Illinois. (The defeated mainstream Democratic candidates ran in the general election as members of the Illinois Solidarity Party; the Larouchite Democrats all finished a distant third.) Later in the 1980s, criminal investigations led to convictions of several LaRouche movement members, including LaRouche himself. He was sentenced to fifteen years imprisonment, but only served five years.

LaRouche was a perennial candidate for President of the United States. He ran in every election from 1976 to 2004 as a candidate of third parties established by members of his movement. He also tried to gain the Democratic presidential nomination. In 1996, he got 5% of the total nationwide vote in Democratic primaries. In 2000, he received enough primary votes to qualify for delegates in some states, but ultimately was refused those delegates at the convention.