Democrats fear a 'bipartisan' 3rd-party ticket could give Trump a victory in 2024

08 December 2022

If the 2022 midterms are any indication, President Joe Biden would have a good chance of defeating former President Donald Trump in 2024 if he seeks reelection and Trump is the Republican nominee. A long list of Trump-backed MAGA candidates lost statewide races in the midterms, from Georgia to Pennsylvania to Arizona to Michigan.

But a new report from the centrist Democratic think tank Third Way warns that a major bipartisan third-party ticket, if one comes about, could take enough votes away from Biden or another Democratic presidential nominee in 2024 to act as a spoiler and help put Trump back in the White House in January 2025.

Reporting for Axios in an article published on December 8, journalist Alexi McCammond explains, “Democrats are trying to stop outside groups from forming a bipartisan presidential ticket in 2024, warning voters that the effort is political malpractice. Why it matters: A third party could hand the presidency to Donald Trump, warns a new report from Third Way, shared first with Axios. The report details epic failures from past political efforts and warns about the unique dangers of an emerging outsider candidate.”

Third Way doesn’t represent the progressive Pramila Jayapal/Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez/Ayanna Pressley wing of the Democratic Party, but rather, is a voice for centrist Blue Dog Democrats. However, Third Way believes that a moderate anti-Trump third-party candidate would only divide the anti-Trump vote in 2024.

In its report, Third Way argues, “If a third-party candidate blew past historic precedent and managed to win enough electoral votes to keep any candidate from getting to 270, then the outcome would be decided in the House of Representatives, which is controlled by Republicans and where Donald Trump would prevail.”

McCammond notes that the bipartisan group No Labels “has been working to build a $70M operation supporting a third-party option in 2024.”

Ryan Clancy, a No Labels spokesman, told Axios, “Our citizen leaders from around the nation have no interest in fueling a spoiler. But if the public urgently wants and needs another choice, we’ll make sure they have it.”

Third Way, in its report, argues that “anything but a staunchly conservative third-party candidate” would hurt the Democratic nominee in 2024.

Aliza Astrow, who authored the report, told Axios, “Jill Stein and Gary Johnson weren’t that well financed, so there is a lot of concern this time around that there might be a better financed third-party candidacy that comes on the scene with $50M.”

Johnson, a former New Mexico governor and ex-Republican, was the Libertarian Party’s presidential nominee in 2012 and 2016 as well as the Libertarian nominee in New Mexico’s 2018 U.S. Senate race. Stein was the progressive Green Party’s presidential nominee in 2012 and 2016.

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