Democrats are trying to block any third-party candidates from joining the race on the ballot in key battleground states as they are concerned that such campaigns could benefit former President Donald Trump in his attempts to win back the White House.
In 2016, the year that Trump won the White House, around 6 percent of all voters voted in favor of a third-party and write-in candidate. However, in 2020 when Trump lost his reelection campaign bid only 2 percent had done so.
Matt Bennett, the executive vice president of public affairs at Third Way, a centrist Democrat group trying to block No Labels attempt to join the presidential race noted that it is clear that third-party candidates Jill Stein and Gary Johnson are the reason why Hillary Clinton had lost the election in 2016. It is possible that a credible third-party candidate in the 2024 presidential election could have the same effect on President Biden’s attempts to win a second term.
No Labels is a bipartisan political organization which is supporting centrist policies.
In 2020, the decrease in third-party votes meant that the threshold that candidates needed to reach in order to win key battleground states had decreased from 47 and 48 percent in 2016 to 49 percent and 50 percent. Trump was therefore unable to win those states three years ago.
The 2020 NBC News Exit Poll found that 5 percent of national voters who had voted for a third-party candidate in 2016 had opted to vote for Joe Biden by a 2-to-1 ratio. This made an important difference in battleground states.
