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David Bergland

American politician (1935-2019)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 4, 2026
Entity authorityQ5231343
Source-derived summary

David Peter Bergland (June 4, 1935 – June 3, 2019) was an American politician who was the United States Libertarian Party's nominee for President of the United States in the 1984 presidential election, and also served twice as the chair of the Libertarian National Committee.

Background

Bergland was born June 4, 1935, in Mapleton, Iowa, the son of Gwendolyn (née McCalman) and Cedores P. Bergland.

Political campaigns and activities

A resident of California and a lawyer, Bergland ran unsuccessfully for office several times, always as a Libertarian. In 1974, he ran as a write-in candidate for California Attorney General. In 1978, Bergland ran for the California state senate district 36, receiving 5.8% of the vote to finish third out of the three candidates on the ballot.

Bergland received the party's vice-presidential nomination in the 1976 presidential election, sharing the ticket with Roger MacBride. The MacBride/Bergland ticket received 172,553 votes (0.2%).

He served as the party's national chair from 1977 to 1981, and from 1998 to 2000.

In 1980, Bergland ran for the United States Senate, finishing third of five with 202,410 votes (2.4%).

Bergland received the Libertarian Party's presidential nomination in the 1984 presidential election.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “David Bergland” is american politician (1935-2019). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through David, Bergland and American, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1935, 2019, 1984, 1974—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1935-06-04. For this dossier, David, Bergland and American is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “american politician (1935-2019)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5231343. VIAF identifies the subject as 18636477. The Library of Congress control number is n84214458. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1935, 2019, 1984 and 1974.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “David Bergland”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow David Bergland primary sources, David Bergland archive and David research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “David Bergland”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from David Bergland” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.