Green Party of the United States

The Green Party of the United States (GPUSA) is a federation of Green state political parties in the United States. The party promotes green politics, specifically environmentalism, nonviolence, social justice, participatory democracy, anti-war, and anti-racism. As of 2023, it is the fourth-largest political party in the United States by voter registration, behind the Libertarian Party. The Party first gained traction in 2000, when Ralph Nader ran for president.

The direct predecessor of the GPUSA was the Association of State Green Parties (ASGP). In the late 1990s, the ASGP, which formed in 1996, had increasingly distanced itself from the Greens/Green Party USA (G/GPUSA), America's then-primary green organization which had formed in 1991 out of the Green Committees of Correspondence, a collection of local green groups active since 1984. In 2001, the GPUS was officially founded as the ASGP split from the G/GPUSA. After its founding, the GPUS soon became the primary national green organization in the country, surpassing the G/GPUSA. John Rensenbrink and Howie Hawkins were co-founders of the Green Party.

The Greens (as ASGP) first gained widespread public attention during the 2000 presidential election, when the ticket composed of Ralph Nader and Winona LaDuke won 2.7% of the popular vote, raising questions as to whether they spoiled the election in favor of George W. Bush. Nader has dismissed the notion that he and other Green candidates are spoilers.