The 2004 presidential campaign of Ralph Nader, political activist, author, lecturer and attorney began on February 23, 2004. This was Nader's third presidential campaign, having run in 1996 and 2000 campaign as the candidate for the Green Party; in 2004 he ran as an independent candidate. Nader won the 2002 endorsement of the Reform Party USA, and thus appeared on the ballot as the Reform Party candidate in several states. In some states, Nader was on the ballot as an independent candidate, while in other states, Nader was deemed not to have met the requirements for ballot access.