@checkervest there was a politician called Horace Greeley (1811–1872) who stood against Ulysses S Grant in the US presidential election, and, obviously, lost it.
He ran a newspaper which promoted socialism, vegetarianism, teetotalism, and feminism; it had the first female Senate reporter, and *Karl Marx* as a foreign correspondent.
His wife died a week before the election. He'd called off campaigning to be with her. He died brokenhearted before the Electoral College met.