Third party (U.S. politics)

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Third party, or minor party, is a term used in the United States' two-party system for political parties other than the Republican and Democratic parties.

Third parties are most often encountered in presidential nominations. Third party vote splitting exceeded a president's margin of victory in three elections: 1844, 2000, and 2016. No third-party candidate has won the presidency since the Republican Party became the second major party in 1856. Since then a third-party candidate won states in five elections: 1892, 1912, 1924, 1948, and 1968. 1992 was the last time a third-party candidate won over 5% of the vote and placed second in any state.[1]

Competitiveness

With few exceptions,

presidential elections and the single-seat plurality voting system for Congressional elections have over time helped establish the two-party system (see Duverger's law). Although third-party candidates rarely win elections, they can have an effect on them through vote splitting
and other impacts.

Notable exceptions

Main articles:
List of third-party performances in United States presidential elections, and Third-party and independent members of the United States Congress

Greens, Libertarians, and others have elected state legislators and local officials. The Socialist Party elected hundreds of local officials in 169 cities in 33 states by 1912, including Milwaukee, Wisconsin; New Haven, Connecticut; Reading, Pennsylvania; and Schenectady, New York.[6] There have been governors elected as independents, and from such parties as Progressive, Reform, Farmer-Labor, Populist, and Prohibition. After losing a Republican primary in 2010, Bill Walker of Alaska won a single term in 2014 as an independent by joining forces with the democratic nominee. In 1998, wrestler Jesse Ventura was elected governor of Minnesota on the Reform Party ticket.[7]

Sometimes a national officeholder that is not a member of any party is elected. Previously, Senator Lisa Murkowski won re-election in 2010 as a write-in candidate after losing the Republican primary to a Tea party candidate, and Senator Joe Lieberman ran and won reelection to the Senate as an "Independent Democrat" in 2006 after losing the Democratic primary.[8][9] As of 2023, there are only three U.S. senators, Angus King, Bernie Sanders and Kyrsten Sinema, who identify as Independent and all caucus with the Democrats.[10] Sinema may have left the Democratic Party in 2022 because she thought she could not win a democratic primary race in 2024.[11]

The last time a third-party candidate carried any states in a presidential race was

Bull Moose Party ticket in 1912.[1] The only three U.S. presidents without a major party affiliation upon election were George Washington, John Tyler, and Andrew Johnson, and only Washington served his entire tenure as an independent. Neither of the other two were ever elected president in their own right, both being vice presidents who ascended to office upon the death of the president, and both became independents because they were unpopular with their parties. John Tyler was elected on the Whig ticket in 1840 with William Henry Harrison, but was expelled by his own party. Johnson was the running mate for Abraham Lincoln, who was reelected on the National Union
ticket in 1864; it was a temporary name for the Republican Party.

Barriers to third party success

The presidential election results for all Libertarian Party candidates from 1972 to 2020.

Winner-take-all vs. proportional representation

See also: Duverger's law

In

Electoral College
, and the Constitutional provision for the House of Representatives to decide the election if no candidate receives a majority, serves as a further disincentive to third party candidacies.

In the United States, if an interest group is at odds with its traditional party, it has the option of running sympathetic candidates in

1916 election
, he supported the Republicans.

Micah Sifry argues that despite years of discontentment with the two major parties in the United States, that third parties should try to arise organically at the local level in places where ranked-choice voting and other more democratic systems makes it easier to build momentum, rather than starting with the presidency which would be incredibly unlikely to succeed.[13]

Spoiler effect

Strategic voting often leads to a third-party that underperforms its poll numbers with voters wanting to make sure their vote helps determine the winner. In response, some third-party candidates express ambivalence about which major party they prefer and their possible role as spoiler[14] or deny the possibility.[15] The US presidential elections most consistently cited as having been spoiled by third-party candidates are 1844, 2000, and 2016.[16][17][18][19][20][21] This phenomenon becomes more controversial when a third-party candidate receives help from supporters of another candidate hoping they play a spoiler role.[22][23][24]

Ballot access laws

Nationally,

Green Party gained access to 44 state ballots in 2000 but only 27 in 2004. The Constitution Party appeared on 42 state ballots in 2004. Ralph Nader, running as an independent in 2004, appeared on 34 state ballots. In 2008
, Nader appeared on 45 state ballots and the D.C. ballot.

Debate rules

Presidential debates between the nominees of the two major parties first occurred in 1960, then after three cycles without debates, resumed in 1976. Third party or independent candidates have been in debates in only two cycles. Ronald Reagan and John Anderson debated in 1980, but incumbent President Carter refused to appear with Anderson, and Anderson was excluded from the subsequent debate between Reagan and Carter. Independent Ross Perot was included in all three of the debates with Republican George H. W. Bush and Democrat Bill Clinton in 1992, largely at the behest of the Bush campaign.[citation needed] His participation helped Perot climb from 7% before the debates to 19% on Election Day.[26]

Perot did not make the 1996 debates.[27] In 2000, revised debate access rules made it even harder for third-party candidates to gain access by stipulating that, besides being on enough state ballots to win an Electoral College majority, debate participants must clear 15% in pre-debate opinion polls. This rule has continued being in effect as of 2008.[28][29] The 15% criterion, had it been in place, would have prevented Anderson and Perot from participating in the debates in which they appeared. Debates in other state and federal elections often exclude independent and third-party candidates, and the Supreme Court has upheld this practice in several cases. The Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) is a private company.[30]

Major parties adopt third-party platforms

They can draw attention to issues that may be ignored by the majority parties. If such an issue finds acceptance with the voters, one or more of the major parties may adopt the issue into its own

Southern Strategy" to win the support of conservative Democrats opposed to the Civil Rights Movement and resulting legislation and to combat local third parties. This can be seen as a response to the popularity of segregationist candidate George Wallace who gained 13.5% of the popular vote in the 1968 election for the American Independent Party. In 1996, both the Democrats and the Republicans agreed to deficit reduction on the back of Ross Perot's popularity in the 1992 election. This severely undermined Perot's campaign in the 1996 election.[citation needed
]

However, changing positions can be costly for a major party. For example, in the US 2000 Presidential election Magee predicts that Gore shifted his positions to the left to account for Nader, which lost him some valuable centrist voters to Bush.[31] In cases with an extreme minor candidate, not changing positions can help to reframe the more competitive candidate as moderate, helping to attract the most valuable swing voters from their top competitor while losing some voters on the extreme to the less competitive minor candidate.[32]

Current U.S. third parties

Main article: List of political parties in the United States
This list does not include political organizations that do not run candidates for office but otherwise function similarly to third parties. For non-electoral political "parties", see here.
Green parties are the largest in the U.S. after the Republican and Democratic parties. Shown here are signs of their 2016 campaigns
, respectively.

Largest

Top 5 U.S. political parties by registration (2022)
Party No. registrations[33] % registered voters[33]
Democratic Party 47,130,651 38.73%
Republican Party 36,019,694 29.60%
Libertarian Party 732,865 0.6%
Green Party
 234,120 0.19%
Constitution Party 128,914 0.11%

Smaller parties (listed by ideology)

This section includes only parties that have actually run candidates under their name in recent years.

Right-wing

This section includes any party that advocates positions associated with

American conservatism, including both Old Right and New Right
ideologies.

State-only right-wing parties

Centrist

This section includes any party that is independent, populist, or any other that either rejects left–right politics or does not have a party platform.

State-only centrist parties

Left-wing

This section includes any party that has a left-liberal, progressive, social democratic, democratic socialist, or Marxist platform.

State-only left-wing parties

Ethnic nationalism

This section includes parties that primarily advocate for granting special privileges or consideration to members of a certain race, ethnic group, religion etc.

Also included in this category are various parties found in and confined to

Native American reservations, almost all of which are solely devoted to the furthering of the tribes to which the reservations were assigned. An example of a particularly powerful tribal nationalist party is the Seneca Party that operates on the Seneca Nation of New York's reservations.[34]

Secessionist parties

This section includes parties that primarily advocate for Independence from the United States. (Specific party platforms may range from left wing to right wing).

Single-issue/protest-oriented

This section includes parties that primarily advocate

protest votes
rather than to mount serious political campaigns or advocacy.

State-only parties

Third-party presidential election results (1992–present)

Only the top 3 third-party candidates by popular vote are listed.

1992

Main article: 1992 United States presidential election
Candidate Party Votes Percentage Best state percentage
Ross Perot Independent 19,743,821
18.91%
Maine: 30.44%
Andre Verne Marrou
 Libertarian 290,087
0.28%
New Hampshire: 0.66%
Bo Gritz Populist 106,152
0.10%
Utah: 3.84%
Other
 269,507
0.24%
 —
Total
 20,409,567
19.53%
 —

1996

Main article: 1996 United States presidential election
Candidate Party Votes Percentage Best state percentage
Ross Perot Reform 8,085,294
8.40%
Maine: 14.19%
Ralph Nader Green 684,871
0.71%
Oregon: 3.59%
Harry Browne Libertarian 485,759
0.50%
Arizona: 1.02%
Other
 419,986
0.43%
 —
Total
 9,675,910
10.04%
 —

2000

Main article: 2000 United States presidential election
Candidate Party Votes Percentage Best state percentage
Ralph Nader Green 2,882,955
2.74%
Alaska: 10.07%
Pat Buchanan Reform 448,895
0.43%
North Dakota: 2.53%
Harry Browne Libertarian 384,431
0.36%
Georgia: 1.40%
Other
 232,920
0.22%
 —
Total
 3,949,201
3.75%
 —

2004

Main article: 2004 United States presidential election
Candidate Party Votes Percentage Best state percentage
Ralph Nader Independent 465,650
0.38%
Alaska: 1.62%
Michael Badnarik Libertarian 397,265
0.32%
Indiana: 0.73%
Michael Peroutka Constitution 143,630
0.15%
Utah: 0.74%
Other
 215,031
0.18%
 —
Total
 1,221,576
1.00%
 —

2008

Main article: 2008 United States presidential election
Candidate Party Votes Percentage Best state percentage
Ralph Nader Independent 739,034
0.56%
Maine: 1.45%
Bob Barr Libertarian 523,715
0.40%
Indiana: 1.06%
Chuck Baldwin Constitution 199,750
0.12%
Utah: 1.26%
Other
 404,482
0.31%
 —
Total
 1,866,981
1.39%
 —

2012

Main article: 2012 United States presidential election
Candidate Party Votes Percentage Best state percentage
Gary Johnson Libertarian 1,275,971
0.99%
New Mexico: 3.60%
Jill Stein Green 469,627
0.36%
Oregon/Maine: 1.10%
Virgil Goode Constitution 122,389
0.11%
Wyoming: 0.58%
Other
 368,124
0.28%
 —
Total
 2,236,111
1.74%
 —

2016

Main article: 2016 United States presidential election
Candidate Party Votes Percentage Best state percentage
Gary Johnson Libertarian 4,489,341
3.28%
New Mexico: 9.34%
Jill Stein Green 1,457,218
1.07%
Hawaii: 2.97%
Evan McMullin Independent 731,991
0.54%
Utah: 21.54%
Other
 1,149,700
0.84%
 —
Total
 7,828,250
5.73%
 —

2020

Main article: 2020 United States presidential election
Candidate Party Votes Percentage Best state percentage
Jo Jorgensen Libertarian 1,865,535
1.18%
South Dakota: 2.63%
Howie Hawkins Green 407,068
0.26%
Maine: 1.00%
Rocky De La Fuente Alliance 88,241
0.0006%
California: 0.34%
Other
 561,311
0.41%
 —
Total
 2,922,155
1.85%
 —

2024

Main article: Third party and independent candidates for the 2024 United States presidential election

In 2023 and 2024, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has polled higher than any third-party presidential candidate since Ross Perot[35] in the 1992 and 1996 elections.[36][37][38]

References

  1. ^ a b O'Neill, Aaron (June 21, 2022). "U.S. presidential elections: third-party performance 1892-2020". Statista. Retrieved May 25, 2023.
  2. ^ Arthur Meier Schlesinger, ed. History of US political parties (5 vol. Chelsea House Pub, 2002).
  3. ^ Masket, Seth (Fall 2023). "Giving Minor Parties a Chance". Democracy. 70.
  4. ISSN 0190-8286
    . Retrieved September 25, 2023.
  5. JSTOR 1962968
    . Retrieved April 12, 2020.
  6. ISBN 9781844676798
    .
  7. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived
    from the original on December 16, 2017. Retrieved December 31, 2018.
  8. ^ "Senator Lisa Murkowski wins Alaska write-in campaign". Reuters. November 18, 2010. Archived from the original on November 16, 2018. Retrieved December 31, 2018.
  9. ^ Zeller, Shawn. "Crashing the Lieberman Party - New York Times". archive.nytimes.com. Archived from the original on September 21, 2018. Retrieved December 31, 2018.
  10. ^ "Justin Amash Becomes the First Libertarian Member of Congress". Reason.com. April 29, 2020. Archived from the original on October 10, 2021. Retrieved May 13, 2020.
  11. ^ https://www.npr.org/2022/12/09/1141827943/sinema-leaves-democratic-party-independent
  12. ^ Naylor, Brian (October 7, 2020). "How Maine's Ranked-Choice Voting System Works". National Public Radio. Archived from the original on November 26, 2020. Retrieved December 4, 2020.
  13. ISSN 0028-6583
    . Retrieved July 21, 2023.
  14. ISSN 0190-8286
    . Retrieved July 21, 2023.
  15. ^ Means, Marianne (February 4, 2001). "Opinion: Goodbye, Ralph". Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Archived from the original on May 26, 2002.
  16. ISBN 978-0-313-36591-1
    .
  17. S2CID 237457376
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  18. doi:10.1561/100.00005039. Pdf.
  19. S2CID 43919948
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  20. ^ Roberts, Joel (July 27, 2004). "Nader to crash Dems' party?". CBS News.
  21. ^ Haberman, Maggie et al (September 22, 2020) "How Republicans Are Trying to Use the Green Party to Their Advantage." New York Times. (Retrieved September 24, 2020.)
  22. ISSN 0362-4331
    . Retrieved July 21, 2023.
  23. ^ Schreckinger, Ben (June 20, 2017). "Jill Stein Isn't Sorry". POLITICO Magazine. Retrieved June 7, 2023.
  24. ^ "Russians launched pro-Jill Stein social media blitz to help Trump, reports say". NBC News. December 22, 2018. Retrieved May 11, 2023.
  25. ^ Amato, Theresa (December 4, 2009). "The two party ballot suppresses third party change". The Record. Harvard Law. Archived from the original on June 23, 2012. Retrieved April 16, 2012. Today, as in 1958, ballot access for minor parties and Independents remains convoluted and discriminatory. Though certain state ballot access statutes are better, and a few Supreme Court decisions (Williams v. Rhodes, 393 U.S. 23 (1968), Anderson v. Celebrezze, 460 U.S. 780 (1983)) have been generally favorable, on the whole, the process—and the cumulative burden it places on these federal candidates—may be best described as antagonistic. The jurisprudence of the Court remains hostile to minor party and Independent candidates, and this antipathy can be seen in at least a half dozen cases decided since Nader's article, including Jenness v. Fortson, 403 U.S. 431 (1971), American Party of Tex. v. White, 415 U.S. 767 (1974), Munro v. Socialist Workers Party, 479 U.S. 189 (1986), Burdick v. Takushi, 504 U.S. 428 (1992), and Arkansas Ed. Television Comm'n v. Forbes, 523 U.S. 666 (1998). Justice Rehnquist, for example, writing for a 6–3 divided Court in Timmons v. Twin Cities Area New Party, 520 U.S. 351 (1997), spells out the Court's bias for the "two-party system," even though the word "party" is nowhere to be found in the Constitution. He wrote that "The Constitution permits the Minnesota Legislature to decide that political stability is best served through a healthy two-party system. And while an interest in securing the perceived benefits of a stable two-party system will not justify unreasonably exclusionary restrictions, States need not remove all the many hurdles third parties face in the American political arena today." 520 U.S. 351, 366–67.
  26. ^ "What Happened in 1992?", Open Debates, archived from the original on April 15, 2013, retrieved December 20, 2007
  27. ^ "What Happened in 1996?", Open Debates, archived from the original on April 15, 2013, retrieved December 20, 2007
  28. ^ "The 15 Percent Barrier", Open Debates, archived from the original on April 15, 2013, retrieved December 20, 2007
  29. ^ Commission on Presidential Debates Announces Sites, Dates, Formats and Candidate Selection Criteria for 2008 General Election, Commission on Presidential Debates, November 19, 2007, archived from the original on November 19, 2008, retrieved December 20, 2007
  30. PMID 6157090, archived from the original
    on January 1, 2008, retrieved December 20, 2007
  31. JSTOR 42955889
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  32. S2CID 54056894
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  33. ^ a b Winger, Richard (December 27, 2022). "December 2022 Ballot Access News Print Edition". Ballot Access News. Retrieved March 19, 2023.
  34. ^ Herbeck, Dan (November 15, 2011). Resentments abound in Seneca power struggle Archived November 18, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. The Buffalo News. Retrieved November 16, 2011.
  35. ^ Nuzzi, Olivia (November 22, 2023). "The Mind-Bending Politics of RFK Jr". Intelligencer. Archived from the original on March 6, 2024. Retrieved March 6, 2024. The general election is now projected to be a three-way race between Biden, Trump, and their mutual, Kennedy, with a cluster of less popular third-party candidates filling out the constellation.
  36. ^ Benson, Samuel (November 2, 2023). "RFK Jr.'s big gamble". Deseret News. Archived from the original on November 21, 2023. Retrieved November 21, 2023. Early polls show Kennedy polling in the teens or low 20s
  37. ^ Enten, Harry (November 11, 2023). "How RFK Jr. could change the outcome of the 2024 election". CNN. Archived from the original on November 20, 2023. Retrieved November 21, 2023.
  38. ^ Collins, Eliza (March 26, 2024). "RFK Jr. to Name Nicole Shanahan as Running Mate for Presidential Bid". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on March 26, 2024. Retrieved March 26, 2024.

Further reading

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