It’s not terribly surprising, considering both Trump and Biden have remarkably low approval ratings. Trump’s favorability ratings consistently hover around 30%, while Biden’s are at an also paltry 40%.
Among those voters open to non major party candidate, 21% favored Senator Bernie Sanders, with former Congresswoman Liz Cheney getting 10% and Senator Joe Manchin at 7%.
Liz Cheney is unlikely to run in a general election and will most likely run in the GOP primary. She made a multi million dollar buy to blast out anti Trump ads in New Hampshire. Still, she hasn’t ruled out a run completely.
Bernie Sanders, needless to say, has.
But Manchin seems the most likely be the independent entrant. Facing stiff competition in his home state of West Virginia, Manchin may decline to run for re-election since the GOP recruited popular Governor Jim Justice to jump in the race.
Having been the key person to craft a more conservative “Build Back Better” bill, Manchin certainly sits at the right flank of the Democratic Party. He’d most likely take more votes away from Biden.
Manchin was asked about the efforts of No Labels, an well financed group advocating for a third party president. Could he be their candidate?
“You better have Plan B. because if Plan A shows that we’re going to the far reaches of both sides, the far left and the far right, and that people don’t want to go to the far left and the far right, they want to be governed from the middle. I’m not ruling anything in, I’m not ruling anything out.”
One candidate News Nation didn’t poll?
Dr. Cornel West, since he just announced his candidacy under the People’s Party banner.
But it spells good news for him as he is officially off and running, and is the only declared major third party candidate.
Running under a non major banner major may prove to be a difficult task, but never say never. In 1992, billionaire Ross Perot ran under the Reform Party banner and got 19%. But he dropped out mid campaign due to, as he put it, intense media scrutiny on his daughter and her upcoming wedding. He then decided to get back in, but momentum had dissipated. Some pundits feel that had Perot not have dropped out, he could have won.
The most viable route would be running under the Libertarian or Green Party banners. They have automatic ballot access in 80% of states. If you don’t have ballot access, you’ll have shell out tens of millions of dollars to get signatures to appear on the ballot.
But as candidates grow ever more weary of Biden-Trump ad nauseum, they might be willing to sign that petition to get a third party person on the ballot, and ultimately, vote for that unicorn third party candidate. Time will tell.
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