Initially little more than a bunch of poor, angry farmers, the People's Party, or the Populist Party as some called it, would come to have a pretty significant impact on the political scene of mid- and late-19th-century America. The People's Party was calling out big banks and major corporations such as the railroads way before it was cool. As crop failures and falling cotton prices were impoverishing farmers in the south and plains states, they directed their anger at elites in both the Democratic and Republican parties whom they thought were ignoring their interests (source).

The party had a hand in some of the bigger labor movements of the period and were closely allied with the unions. In the 1892 presidential election their ticket would take almost 10% of the vote, which isn't bad compared to the efforts of most third parties in American history. In the next election they threw their weight behind William Jennings Bryant and were simply absorbed into the Democratic Party. The party died, but the sentiments lived on and would find outlet in the form of Huey Long.