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The term began as horse racing parlance. A dark horse is a race horse that is not known to gamblers and thus is difficult to place betting odds on. Politically, the term was first applied to James K. Polk, a relatively unknown Tennessee Democrat who won the Democratic Party's 1844 presidential nomination over a host of better-known candidates. Polk won the nomination on the ninth ballot, and went on to win the presidential election.

The general idea is that the 'dark horse' candidate is considered by those in the know to be unlikely to win, or at least unknown.
In the political world, a dark horse candidate is someone who is not expected to win or even to do well in the contest.
It means someone who is not expected to win.

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