A report on Dark horse

He was a dark horse candidate in the 1844 presidential election as the Democratic Party nominee; he entered his party's convention as a potential nominee for vice president but emerged as a compromise to head the ticket when no presidential candidate could secure the necessary two-thirds majority.

The convention instead chose James K. Polk, former Governor of Tennessee and U. S. House Speaker, who emerged as the first dark horse nominee.

He won the nomination on the ninth presidential ballot, thus becoming the first dark horse candidate to win a major party's presidential nomination.

Democratic James K. Polk's dark horse victory in the 1844 presidential election was welcome news to Pierce, who had befriended the former Speaker of the House while both served in Congress.

Reporters considered Harding unlikely to be nominated due to his poor showing in the primaries, and relegated him to a place among the dark horses.

On the 49th ballot, dark horse candidate Franklin Pierce won nomination by consensus compromise.

With both Wilson and Roosevelt out of the running, the major parties turned to little-known dark horse candidates from the state of Ohio, a swing state with a large number of electoral votes.

Dark horse Harding, however, was nominated.

The term "dark horse" had long been applied to Harrison due to his unexpected emergence as the most accomplished solo artist of the four former Beatles following the band's break-up in 1970.

Bryan had been a dark horse candidate with little support in the convention.