Third Party Candidate?

[Sam 0]

Americans will likely be facing a choice between two candidates who each have a large number of people who hate them (whether it's Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump or Ted Cruz). Do you think an independent candidate could stand a serious chance at this election? Who would be high profile enough to run?

[Demon_skeith 28]

If one appears and is more honest than both bad options they have a chance. But money is already being thrown around to media block the other party, so hard to say really.

[thebestofthebest 9]

In America a vote for a third party will likely always be a wasted vote. In the UK people complain that third parties are a wasted vote but our voting system means that the third party can divert vital votes from a major party. This lead to us getting the EU referendum as the conservatives as they did not want to lose seats to the labour party.

[jy76 1]

On 4/20/2017 at 2:20 PM, thebestofthebest said:

 

In America a vote for a third party will likely always be a wasted vote. In the UK people complain that third parties are a wasted vote but our voting system means that the third party can divert vital votes from a major party. This lead to us getting the EU referendum as the conservatives as they did not want to lose seats to the labour party.

 

They can do the same in the US.  For instance, Nixon catered to white Southern political voters in 1968 - mainly as a response to the threat of George Wallace running as a third-party candidate.  Also, some claim that Ross Perot swung the 1992 election in favor of Bill Clinton by taking away Republican voters opposed to NAFTA.

Edited September 24, 2017 by jy76