Third Party Ticket Will Help Who? The Clinton 1992 and 2016 Experiences

Clinton, Bush and Perot 1992 Presidential Debate

The public is not happy with the 2024 presidential choices. It looks like a good year for independent candidates. Bill and Hillary Clinton each ran in years that were good for independent candidates. Ross Perot (Reform Party) received 19% of the national vote in 1992. He won no states’ electoral votes but a fractured Republican Party was not able to reelect its incumbent nominee, George H.W. Bush.

In 2016, both parties had contested primaries and the two nominees had high negative ratings. The vote for the two leading independent candidates, Green Party Jill Stein and Libertarian Gary Johnson reached more than 4 percent.

In the three states Clinton lost, Stein gained more votes than the margin. Clinton lost Michigan by 10,704 votes (Stein received 51,463); she lost Pennsylvania by 44,292 (Stein 49,941), Wisconsin by 22,748 (Stein 31,721).

Of course, in the 2000 election Florida was the ultimate battleground won by George W. Bush with 537 votes. Ralph Nader and his Green Party received 2.7 percent of the vote nationally, including 97,488 in Florida.

New polling suggest that a quarter of voters say they will vote for an unnamed third-party candidate against Biden and Trump. Younger voters and self-described independents say they will vote for a third-party candidate by more than 30 percent.