A dark horse is a previously lesser-known person, team or thing that emerges to prominence in a situation, especially in a competition involving multiple rivals, that is unlikely to succeed but has a fighting chance, unlike the underdog who is expected to lose.
16-582: A dark horse is a political candidate who is nominated unexpectedly; or an underdog in other fields who achieved unprecedented success. Dark Horse , Darkhorse , or The Dark Horse may also refer to: Dark horse The term comes from horse racing and horse betting jargon for any new but promising horse. It has since found usage mostly in other sports , sports betting , and sports journalism and to lesser extent in nascent business environments, such as experimental technology and startup companies. The term began as horse racing parlance for
32-565: A new leader if they lose confidence in their existing leader. The Chair of the PLP chairs meetings of the Parliamentary party. They are elected by Labour MPs at the start of each annual session of Parliament. By tradition, only elections at the start of each Parliament, following a general election , are competitive. From 1921 to 1970, the Chair of the PLP was also the leader of the party as
48-531: A race horse that is unknown to gamblers and thus difficult to establish betting odds for. The first known mention of the concept is in Benjamin Disraeli 's novel The Young Duke (1831). Disraeli's protagonist, the Duke of St. James, attends a horse race with a surprise finish: "A dark horse which had never been thought of, and which the careless St. James had never even observed in the list, rushed past
64-564: A three-term congressman from Nebraska nominated on the fifth ballot after impressing the 1896 Democratic National Convention with his famous Cross of Gold speech (Bryan would go on to receive the Democratic presidential nomination twice more and serve as United States Secretary of State ), and Republican businessman Wendell Willkie , who was nominated on the sixth ballot at the 1940 Republican National Convention despite never having previously held government office and having only joined
80-844: A whole; before 1921, leadership of the party was arguably split between the Chairman of the PLP, the General Secretary and the Party Chairman . When the leaders of the Labour Party joined coalition governments during the First and Second World Wars , an acting chair was appointed to lead the rump of the party in Opposition. When the Party was in government, a liaison committee was elected to facilitate communications between
96-587: The 1990 election , and Pedro Castillo , a previously unknown elementary school teacher, who won the 2021 election . In the United Kingdom, Jeremy Corbyn was considered a "dark horse" candidate when he ran for the 2015 Labour Party leadership election ; despite struggling to secure enough nominations from the Parliamentary Labour Party to stand as a candidate, he won the leadership in a landslide. In Venezuela, then-President of
112-548: The 1994 FIFA World Cup ; Croatia at the 1998 FIFA World Cup and 2018 FIFA World Cup (who placed 2nd despite being ranked 20th in the FIFA World Rankings ); and Morocco at the 2022 FIFA World Cup (who placed 4th despite being ranked 23rd in the FIFA World Rankings ). Parliamentary Labour Party The Parliamentary Labour Party ( PLP ) is the parliamentary group of the Labour Party in
128-655: The Democratic Party 's 1844 presidential nomination over a host of better-known candidates. Polk won the nomination on the ninth ballot at his party's national nominating convention , and went on to become the country's eleventh president . Other successful dark horse candidates for the United States presidency include: Perhaps the two most famous unsuccessful dark horse presidential candidates in American history are Democrat William Jennings Bryan ,
144-544: The Guardian Council and won a surprising victory in the second round of the 2024 Iranian presidential election . The term has been used in sport to describe teams and athletes who unexpectedly outperformed their expectations in a competition. Examples include the Los Angeles Kings during the 2012 Stanley Cup playoffs (who placed 1st despite being an 8th-seed entry into the playoffs); Bulgaria at
160-540: The National Assembly Juan Guaidó was described as "the accidental leader" of the Venezuelan opposition ; he declared himself acting president in 2019, during the Venezuelan presidential crisis . In Turkey, Ekrem İmamoğlu was little-known before his victory in the 2019 Istanbul mayoral election . In Iran, Masoud Pezeshkian , a little-known "dark horse" candidate, was allowed to run by
176-648: The British House of Commons . The group comprises the Labour members of parliament as a collective body. Commentators on the British Constitution sometimes draw a distinction between the Labour Party (which was created outside Parliament and later achieved office) and the Conservative and Liberal parties (which began as parliamentary factions). The term Parliamentary Labour Party refers to
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#1732802491956192-525: The Leader of the Labour Party was elected by the PLP. Now, however, the party operates on a one member, one vote system, where all members are awarded a single vote, as well as affiliated organizations ( trade unions and socialist societies ) and temporary registered supporters. Instant-runoff voting (the "Alternative Vote") is used to conduct the election. Labour MPs retain the power to trigger an extraordinary or "special" Labour Party Conference to choose
208-513: The cabinet and Labour backbenchers – the chair of this committee also chaired meetings of the PLP as a whole during these periods. In 1970, the positions of Leader of the Labour Party and Chair of the PLP were permanently split. There is also a deputy chair. Other groups have been established within the PLP, such as the Women's PLP and the LGBT+ PLP. Labour and Co-operative MPs form part of
224-466: The grandstand in sweeping triumph." The concept has been used in political contexts in such countries as Iran , Philippines , Russia , Egypt , Finland , Canada , the United Kingdom , and the United States . Politically, the concept came to the United States in the nineteenth century when it was first applied to James K. Polk , a relatively unknown Tennessee politician who won
240-418: The party in 1939. U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders is another classic example of a dark horse candidate, whose grassroots campaign in the 2016 Democratic Party presidential primaries came much closer than initially expected to toppling front-runner Hillary Clinton for the party's presidential nomination. In Peru , "dark horse" candidates who won include Alberto Fujimori , who defeated Mario Vargas Llosa in
256-696: The party in Parliament, whereas the term Labour Party refers to the entire Labour Party, the parliamentary element of which is the PLP. A similar body for the Conservative Party is the 1922 Committee . An organisation for former members, the PLP in exile , was established after the 2010 general election . The PLP holds regular meetings behind closed doors to question the Leader and to discuss its concerns. Labour MPs elect three of their number to Labour's National Executive Committee . Originally,
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