One of the great unknown variables in the 2016 race for the White House is how third parties such as the Libertarian and Green parties will perform. Could either siphon enough votes away from Clinton and Trump to provide a margin of victory for the Democrat or Republican?
This much seems somewhat certain: Republicans who cannot stomach Trump are likely to be drawn to the small government message of Libertarian Gary Johnson. On the other hand, those who were ardently in the Bernie Sanders camp may decided that Jill Stein of the Green Party is their best option. But will either of the third parties draw enough support to reshape the election results?
Donald Trump said yesterday that he thinks it would be great if lots of voters cast their ballots for Green Party Presidential candidate Jill Stein:
“I think a vote for Stein would be good — that’s the Green Party. Because I figure anyone voting for Stein is gonna be for Hillary. So I think vote for Stein is fine.”
But what about Gary Johnson and the Libertarians, who could take votes away from Trump? On that matter, Trump commented that he didn’t “quite get” the appeal of the “other guy,” meaning Johnson.
Just because Trump doesn’t get the appeal doesn’t change the fact, however, that large numbers of registered Republicans who do not want to vote for Hillary Clinton may indeed see Johnson as the logical alternative. And it’s also not inconceivable that lots of GOP members could also vote for Clinton. If both Clinton and Johnson get votes that would have gone to any other Republican but Trump, Trump is toast early on Election Night when the returns roll in.
No matter the math or the path to his defeat, Trump must be beaten in November.
Featured Image Via Gage Skidmore for Flickr available under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic License
