Perot was ahead in the polls until he inexplicably dropped out and then re-entered the race like two weeks later. Americans were finally ready to dump the two-party “choices” at least for one presidential election and he ruined it.
He claimed that Bush operatives threatened to out his daughter as a lesbian. I’m not sure if that was true or if that was a cover story for being blackmailed by Clinton.
He didn’t want to win. He wanted to sink the GOP. Then in 1994, he started a really crappy talk show and ran against the Democrats his candidacy helped usher in during the 1992 landslide.
Perot said he made the decision to run after appearing on Larry’s King’s show when Larry said “Why don’t you run?”. That was a big lie. He had started setting up the run one year earlier. Perot just wanted to deny 41 whom he hated from being POTUS. For his personal animus against Bush he gave us 8 years of the Clintons. A pox on him forever.
Perot was not leading at the time he dropped out. He did lead early in his candidacy; but by the time he dropped out his poll numbers were dropping and staffers were leaving. By that time, and when he later re-entered the race, all he could hope for was to be a spoiler (which he was, much to Bush 41's chagrin).
He did do a lot of good... set the stage for the 1994 GOP takeover of the House... and also showed would not work if you wanted to play outsider and win the Presidency.
Trump learned those lessons and that contributed to his win in 2016.