A new Quinnipiac University poll tells us that just under half of American voters would consider voting for a third-party candidate in the 2024 presidential election.
They won’t, of course.
No third-party candidate has received even 20 percent of the popular vote in a presidential election in the past 100 years, and the last one to receive an electoral vote was George Wallace way back in 1968.
Even Ross Perot, with his vast wealth, couldn’t buy himself a single electoral vote in 1992 or 1996, and god knows he tried.
What the poll numbers really say is a lot of us are understandably frustrated that the 2024 election is looking like it’s going to be a replay of the 2020 race between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, two old White guys with tons of baggage, skeletons in the closet and the rest.
“With neither President Biden nor former President Trump knocking it out of the park on favorability, almost half of the country would consider another option. No specific name for the candidate, no specific designation for the party, but it is a vivid indication that for many voters, the status quo is a no-go,” Quinnipiac University Polling Analyst Tim Malloy said.
The bulk of those saying they would consider going third party are, not surprisingly, the already-unaffiliated.
According to Quinnipiac, independents are thinking third party by a 64 percent to 30 percent margin.
These next two numbers are surprising: 35 percent of Democrats and 38 percent of Republicans say they would consider a third-party candidate.
The big problem with a third-party candidate in our two-party system is obvious: how they would govern in partnership with a partisan Congress and partisan Supreme Court if they won.
That problem is why most voters end up holding their noses to vote for the lesser of two evils candidate when push comes to shove.
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Chris Graham
