Leibnizian optimist, Pollyanna, addict, also-ran, applicant, aspirer, baby kisser, bidder, candidate, chiliast, claimant, collector, coveter, dark horse, defeated candidate, desirer, devotee, dud, fancier, favorite son, freak, hankerer, hopeful, hoper, irrepressible optimist, lame duck, lover, millenarian, millennialist, millennian, office seeker, optimist, perfectibilist, perfectibilitarian, perfectionist, petitioner, philosophical optimist, political hopeful, postulant, presidential timber, ray of sunshine, running mate, seeker, solicitant, solicitor, stalking-horse, suitor, suppliant, supplicant, utopian, votary, wanter, wisher, yearner