Third Parties
Al Gore in 2000 and Hillary Clinton in 2016 both watched big leads evaporate into horse races at the finish line fueled by media-driven calamities, only to lose to rivals without majorities.
In 2020 third party candidates played a critical role in key battleground states. Libertarians are far closer aligned to Republican values than Democrat ideals. The Libertarian Party leader was targeted by angry Americans, who blame her for deciding who the next president will be. Dr Jo Jorgensen received 1.76 million votes, but it was where they were cast that proved vital. Across Georgia, Arizona, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin; her ballots were far greater than the gaps between Biden and Trump. For example, in Georgia the difference between the two is 14,149, but Jorgensen won 62,060 votes in the state. These Americans seemingly supported her vision of turning the US into a “giant Switzerland”. While their impact in the four key states has garnered attention, it doesn’t mean The Libertarians are all celebrating. It was their second most successful ever election, since the party formed in 1971. Former leader Gary Johnson won 4.5 million votes in 2016, but he was a former governor of New Mexico and ran alongside another ex-governor (Massachusetts) Bill Weld.
US rapper Kanye West broke down in tears on 18 July 2020 at the chaotic launch of his unlikely campaign to oust Donald Trump as president in November elections. Wearing a bullet-proof jacket marked "security," West gave a rambling speech in which he claimed he had wanted his wife, Kim Kardashian, to get an abortion and that renowned American abolitionist Harriet Tubman "never actually freed the slaves."
West told the event in Charleston, South Carolina, how he had wanted his wife to get an abortion when she was pregnant with North, their oldest daughter. He then revealed his father also had wanted to abort him. "My dad wanted to abort me. My mom saved my life. There would've been no Kanye West because my dad was too busy," West said, bursting into tears. He later shouted, "I almost killed my daughter! I almost killed my daughter!"
At another point during his speech, he said, "Harriet Tubman never actually freed the slaves, she just had the slaves go work for other white people." West's speech, clips of which went viral on social media, provoked confusion, anger and concern for the musician's mental health. The event was for registered guests only, and all attendees were required to sign a Covid-19 liability release form as well as wear masks and practice social distancing, US media reported.
Less than four months ahead of November's election, West, 43, raised eyebrows on July 4 when he announced on Twitter he would challenge Trump. He has offered virtually no details about his campaign, but the hip-hop star -- who famously wore a "Make America Great Again" cap to a 2018 Oval Office meeting with Trump -- said he no longer supports the president. Reports began circulating in US media last week that West had dropped out of the race. He missed the deadline in several states to be listed on the presidential ballot, but he is listed on the ballot in Oklahoma. By mid-September 2020, due to his late entry and the various legal that every candidate needs to jump through, he had so far succeeded in getting his name on the ballot in just 12 states.
With less than a month until Election Day, Joe Biden maintainrf his lead over Donald Trump in the presidential race. Jo Jorgensen captures 4% of registered voters while Howie Hawkins garners 1% support. At a similar stage in the presidential cycle in 2016, 14% of registered voters said they planned to vote for a third-party candidate – almost three times as high as the share of registered voters who now say they support a third-party candidate.
Jo Jorgensen pulled more votes than the margin in Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Dr. Jo Jorgensen is the Libertarian candidate for President. As the Libertarian Party Vice-Presidential Nominee with Harry Browne in the election of 1996, she campaigned in 38 states and appeared on over 300 radio shows all across America. She regularly lit up the call-in boards, bringing the Libertarian message of freedom to the listeners, and generating inquiries and new LP members. She’s been a full-time Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Clemson University since 2006 and holds a Ph.D. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology (Clemson, 2002). She graduated in 1979 from Baylor University with a B.S. in Psychology and in 1980 from Southern Methodist University with an MBA.
Jeremy “Spike” Cohen is the Libertarian Party’s 2020 Vice-presidential nominee, running with Dr. Jo Jorgensen, the LP’s presidential nominee. He promotes a vision of common-sense Libertarian solutions that will make us all more free, safe, and prosperous. Cohen started a web design company in 1999. He retired from that 3 years ago to promote libertarian ideas fulltime. His great aim is to make people more familiar with voluntary solutions and property rights.
About 1% of voters polled said they planned to support Green Party candidate Howie Hawkins. A retired Teamster, Howie Hawkins is the original Green New Dealer, the first US candidate to campaign for a Green New Deal in 2010. Howie is also one of the original Greens in the United States, having participated in the first national meeting to organize a US Green Party in St. Paul, Minnesota in August 1984. As the Green Party’s candidate for governor of New York in 2010, 2014, and 2018, each time he received enough votes to qualify the Green Party for a ballot line for the next four years. Outside of electoral politics, Howie has been a constant organizer in peace, justice, union, and environmental campaigns.
The campaign platform stated "Capitalism’s competitive economic structure yields a conflict-ridden international system that generates endless wars. Sooner or later, wars will lead to nuclear annihilation if we don’t change the system and abolish nuclear weapons. An enduring peace requires replacing capitalism with ecosocialism—capitalism’s nationalistic competitive militarism with ecosocialism’s international cooperative security. We will call for deep US military spending cuts and converting to a defensive military posture from today’s global military empire of over 800 foreign military bases. The savings will be a peace dividend to reinvest in a Global Green New Deal for economic human rights, clean energy, and regenerative agriculture around the world. "
With left-leaning voters fearing a second Trump term, the US Green Party is facing calls from Democrats to drop out of the race. "It's a very difficult year for third parties," said Lee Drutman, author of the book Breaking the Two-Party Doom Loop: The Case for Multiparty Democracy in America. "It's seen as such an incredibly high-stakes election where both Biden supporters and Trump supporters feel incredibly passionate."
"The historic role of third parties in the United States is to bring issues to the fore that are not being addressed," said Hawkins. "It's an old tradition going back to the Liberty Party, which put the question of slavery into the elections back in the 1840s." One issue that Hawkins hopes to press the Democrats on is urgent climate action. "Trump calls climate change a hoax," he said. "But the Biden climate plan acts as if it's a hoax."
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