Not Just Trump and Harris. Who Else is Running for US President and How Can They Affect the Elections

Date: 2024-09-02 Author: Michail Kovalenko Categories: WORLD
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The US election focuses on two main candidates – Kamala Harris from the Democrats and Donald Trump from the Republicans. But they are not the only ones fighting for the presidential seat.

How Candidates from Third Parties Can Affect the Elections

The ratings of other candidates are a few percent. Moreover, candidates from third parties cannot even run in all states. Each state has unique and sometimes confusing electoral laws. "Third" candidates can run as independent candidates or from small parties, mainly from the "greens" or the Libertarian Party. In each case, the procedure differs in complexity and timing.

At the same time, such candidates can influence the voting results by drawing some of the votes to themselves. For example, in 1992, independent candidate Ross Perot received 19% of the vote. According to analysts, this took votes away from George H. W. Bush and brought victory to White Clinton. In 1912, former President Theodore Roosevelt ran on the Progressive Party ticket and came in second with 27.4% of the vote.

Independent candidates can be especially important in swing states, where the gap between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump is within the margin of error.

According to the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll, in the seven states where the 2020 elections were closest – Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona, North Carolina, Michigan and Nevada – Trump had 45% to Harris’s 43%. Meanwhile, a Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll released Aug. 30 found Harris either leading or tied with Trump in each of those states.

There are four prominent third-party candidates.

Robert Kennedy Jr.
The nephew of former President John F. Kennedy, he made his name as an environmental lawyer. But he later became known as a conspiracy theorist and anti-vaccinationist.

Kennedy Jr. first ran in April 2023, challenging President Joe Biden in the Democratic primary. When it became clear that Kennedy would not be endorsed by the party, he decided to run on his own.

During his campaign, Kennedy appealed to voters dissatisfied with both the Democratic and Republican parties. He frequently accused Biden and Trump of increasing government spending, continuing to involve the United States in foreign conflicts, and pursuing policies that benefit large corporations.

The politician promised to stop the US support for Ukraine and negotiate an end to the Russian-Ukrainian war. He also promised to impose a five-year ban on lobbying for former officials. And on his first day in office, he planned to sign an order that "any lying" government employee would lose his job.

On August 23, Kennedy effectively suspended his participation in the elections and endorsed Donald Trump. At the same time, he will remove his name from the ballot only in ten states that will likely decide the election results and will remain a candidate in other states. Kennedy became a member of the transition team, which will help Trump with appointments to key posts if he wins.

This candidate, with a national rating of about 3%, has been taking votes from Trump in recent months, so his removal from the election is most beneficial to the Republican. Some of Kennedy's supporters will vote for Trump, hoping that their candidate will get a position in power, but another group may not come to the polls at all.

Chase Oliver - Anti-Trump
A candidate from the Libertarian Party. Oliver, 38, will be the youngest participant in the presidential race. He is also the only openly gay candidate.

During the election campaign, he promotes ideas of civil liberties and strengthening local government. Chase Oliver criticizes Trump mainly for the growth of the US national debt and lockdowns during the four years of the previous presidency. However, oddly enough, such rhetoric indirectly plays into Trump's hands, because Oliver is drawing votes away from Kamala Harris.

In a recent Monmouth University poll, 1% of Democrats said they would support Oliver in the election, compared to almost no support among Republicans.

Cornel West – Leftist Thinker
70-year-old professor, one of the most influential American leftist thinkers. known for his fight for civil rights of minorities, as well as criticism of large corporations and neoliberalism. As an actor, he played in dozens of films. In particular, "West's adviser" in the films "The Matrix Reloaded" and "The Matrix Revolutions". West planned to run for the Green Party, but decided to run for office independently.

One of the key points of his program is a complete cessation of all armed conflicts where the United States supports one of the sides, including Russia's war against Ukraine and Israel's war against Hamas terrorists. West also advocates the elimination of NATO.

A recent ABC News and Ipsos poll showed that West is supported by about 1% of voters committed to Democrats. At the same time, he can take away from Kamala Harris more votes of young people with leftist views, who are not satisfied with the Democrats' support for Israel.

Jill Stein is an environmental activist
73-year-old Harvard graduate. She ran for president of the United States on the Green Party ticket in 2012 and 2016, and previously twice tried to become governor of Massachusetts, where she has been active in activism since the late 1990s.

Stein proposes a climate policy that goes further than the Green New Deal of progressive Democrats, pushing the United States to achieve net-zero carbon emissions more quickly. The candidate proposes to close most US military bases abroad and stop arms sales. Another of her proposals is to lift economic sanctions that harm civilians, including from Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua.

Like West, Stein has national approval ratings around 1%. However, a Marquette University Law School poll found that Stein received 6% of the votes of swing Democrats, her highest level of support among any group on the party spectrum. She did not take anything from any Republican group. At the same time, among American Muslims, her support is 29%, the same number supports Kamala Harris. This category of voters in the United States totals 2.5 million people, but is especially important in the "shaky" state of Michigan, where Arab-Americans live compactly.

In some states, Democrats are trying to counter the nomination of candidates from other parties so that they do not take votes away from Kamala Harris. For example, in Wisconsin, an employee of the Democratic National Committee, David Strange, tried to remove Stein by voting through the court, since the Green Party does not have representation in the state. The court refused to remove Stein. Moreover, after the incident, the green candidate said that he would continue the campaign and would not withdraw his candidacy until the elections themselves.
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