Third-party candidates could play a significant role in the outcome of a possible President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump rematch in the 2024 election.
Two long-shot presidential candidates, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Cornel West, threaten to take votes away in the Electoral College if even a small percentage of voters abandon one of the two major party candidates. West announced this week he’ll seek the White House as an independent, moving away from the Green Party, while speculation arose that Kennedy will follow suit. On top of those candidates, No Labels is considering mounting a third-party ticket.
HOUSE SPEAKER RACE ENDORSEMENT LIVE TRACKER: WHO HAS BACKED WHO SO FAR?
No Labels
The nonpartisan political group No Labels has been gaining momentum in states to get a candidate on the 2024 ballot. The organization has ballot access in around a dozen states as of this summer, and No Labels’s officials plan to secure more by the end of 2023.
Democrats widely criticize the group, saying No Labels’s efforts could tilt the Electoral College to favor Trump. Biden addressed No Labels for the first time last week after a group of leaders wrote to Democratic Party officials asking them not to interfere with their process.
“He has a democratic right to do it. There’s no reason not to do that,” Biden told ProPublica in an interview, referring to former Sen. Joe Lieberman who, along with former Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon and former head of the NAACP Benjamin Chavis Jr., run the organization. “Now, it’s going to help the other guy, and he knows. That’s a political decision he’s making that I obviously think is a mistake. But he has a right to do that.”
No Labels has made it clear they won’t move forward with an alternative option unless the two major-party candidates are widely unpopular and have denied allegations of attempting to create a path for Trump to return to the White House.
Although the group has yet to put forward a third-party candidate, a few names have been circulating in recent months, including Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), who has long worked with the organization. Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. has been discussed as joining a unity ticket with Manchin. Andrew Yang, former Democratic presidential candidate in 2020, dodged directly answering the question of a third-party presidential bid, while telling Politico he has “had conversations with various folks who are associated with No Labels.”
Cornel West
The progressive scholar Cornel West first launched his presidential campaign in June as a Green Party candidate, but switched on Thursday to run as an independent.
While no recent third-party candidates have managed to win a state presidential election, an independent candidate could spoil the election in favor of Trump.
West has both an anti-Biden and anti-Trump sentiment, attacking the president and the Democratic Party for not delivering on a promised leftist agenda and condemning the Republican Party for giving control to Trump.
“I think that we are not clear if either Biden or Trump will be in the actual election because things are so flexible and fluid right now,” West said at a fundraising event at Busboys and Poets in Washington, D.C., when the Guardian asked about his candidacy boosting Trump.
“But I happen to be focusing on the 40% that don’t vote at all, and I happen to be pulling from the 62% of folk who do vote but who would never vote for the two parties,” West added. “So if there is some taking from both parties, it’s going to be very, very small."
While West has denied allegations that his goal is to take votes away from Biden, obtaining support from swing states will be crucial to the president's reelection. West is a well-known black scholar and author and has blasted Biden’s past policies, accusing him of contributing to mass incarceration among minorities. Democrats have been looking to ramp up black voter engagement, as black voters were key in delivering Biden the White House in 2020.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Kennedy announced his presidential run in April as a Democrat, but speculation emerged this week that he could end up running as an independent. The son of Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of President John F. Kennedy has been urged to drop out by Democrats in fear of taking away critical states from Biden.
While both Kennedy and West are likely to appeal to Democratic voters rather than Republicans, their candidacy could hand the presidency to Republicans as Biden is already struggling in swing states, according to national polls.
Democrats have attacked the anti-vaccine activist and environmental lawyer for shocking comments about COVID-19, claiming the virus was engineered to target certain ethnic groups and spare others. In a rare moment from the White House, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre addressed the factual inaccuracy of his remarks.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
“The claims made on that tape is false,” she said during a briefing in July. “It is vile, and they put our fellow Americans in danger.”
While Democrats are focused on how Kennedy’s candidacy threatens Biden, the long-shot Democrat has been polling well with Republicans, with his anti-vaccination policies potentially influencing their outlook. Opinion polls from FiveThirtyEight show Republicans like Kennedy more than Democrats do.