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The vast majority of third parties that form are made from the top-down, often
because a major political figure breaks off from a major party. This creates a lack of
desirability of that party. The most successful third parties (democrats, republicans, and
populists) all formed from the bottom-up with grassroots followers and a dire need for
their presence (Two are Two). At this point in the nations history, there simply isnt a
severe-enough need for a new party to take a foothold. The Libertarians and Greens,
while representing their own causes with fervor, dont represent enough of the United
States populations beliefs to garner their vote. The main problems, however, lie with
the two established parties chokehold on the electorate.
The rise of a third party candidate is hindered in a similar way that the rise of a
new house representative is hindered by the incumbent; the people already in power
have more money, power, notoriety, and connections. The Republicans and Democrats
are simply too well-entrenched in the system for a third party to rise (Two are Two).
This fact also creates a loop: because most people know that third parties wont win,
they dont vote for them, and because third parties dont garner many votes, they dont
win, and so on. Third parties are often simply unknown to most of the public, as they
often dont appear on the ballot in every state and they dont get as much television
time. Getting into a debate, as Gary Johnson frequently pointed out, would change that.
Unless either of the third party candidates qualify to participate in a debate, they won't
garner enough attention to pull people away from the two major candidates
(Rothenberg). Third party candidates Johnson and Stein lost in a court case to reduce
the 15% polling requirement to participate in a debate, dooming their chances of
entering (Weigel). If they had succeeded, they wouldve been put into the public eye to a

Jennings 6

much higher degree and wouldve garnered a significant number of votes, even relative
to the two established parties; alas, this scenario failed to play out.
Many people are hesitant to vote third party because they believe they are
throwing their vote away, however those who end up voting for third party candidates
are doing so because they are so discontented with Trump and Hillary, not because they
chose Johnson over Trump or Stein over Hillary, so they won't affect the outcome
(Rothenberg). Furthermore, Johnson and Stein were polling far too low to garner any
significant number of votes in the first place so they simply couldnt win (Rothenberg).
By putting a vote towards a third party candidate that is almost certainly destined
to lose, the voter isnt throwing their vote away, they are removing it from the system
because they wouldnt have voted for Trump or Hillary anyway. A single vote has never
determined the outcome of a presidential or state election. Because of our winner-takeall system, one can vote guiltlessly for a third party they know will lose (Hazlett).
Furthermore, voting for a third party is much less of throwing your vote away than voting
in a non-swing state. In a one-party state like California or Tennessee, your vote doesn't
matter because it's going to go blue or red almost no matter what (Hazlett).
Disregarding the possibility of an effect on the winner of a presidential election,
third parties still affect politics. They are often based on a single issue and, if they draw
enough votes, can bring attention to that issue (Boundless). This is useful for specific
areas of concern that the big two political parties may not have noticed. In this sense,
third parties can function similarly to interest groups in that they often have a specific or
single-issue cause. If they receive enough media attention and votes, it forces the major

Jennings 7

parties in government to tend to their needs to not lose any more of those voters.
Notably, the socialist party in the 1920s had a large impact on the New Deal policies
that FDR implemented during the Great Depression. These ideas have the potential to
establish a foothold for a third party to rise (Welch). Attention was brought to a specific
issue because of a third party in the 1968 election when George Wallace of the
Segregationists garnered 13.5% of the popular vote. This led to Republicans heeding
more to the desires of the desires of the conservatively leaning democrats found in the
South to bring them farther right (Boundless).
Third parties prevalence throughout American history is undeniably influential.
Through obtaining large quantities of votes in Presidential elections to simply brining
new ideas to the forefront of American politics, they have left many marks on our
government. Due to the presence of the electoral college and the winner-take-all
system, it seems unlikely that a third party will be capable of gaining the massive
momentum required to win a presidential race. The 2016 election broke almost every
political norm in the books, but third parties winning an election wasnt one of them.
Nonetheless, Gary Johnson and Jill Stein won substantial votes in closely contested
states. Had they not been present, theres a chance the election could have turned out
very different for Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

Jennings 8

Works Cited
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Oct. 2016. Retrieved 06 Dec. 2016 from https://www.boundless.com/politicalscience/textbooks/boundless-political-science-textbook/interest-groups-7/minorpolitical-parties-58/the-impact-of-minor-parties-336-8401/
Cable News Network. Election Results 2016. CNN.com, Cable News Network, 8 Nov.
2016, www.cnn.com/election/results.
Dexter, Jim. How Third-Party Candidates Affect Elections. CNN, Cable News Network,
10 Mar. 2010, news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/03/10/how-third-party-candidates-affectelections/.
Hazlett, Thomas W. "Go ahead, throw your vote away: a math lesson for critics of thirdparty voters." Reason, Dec. 2016, p. 62+. General
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Madonna, G Terry, and Michael Young. Can Third Party Influence 2016 Presidential
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sks.sirs.com.
Remnick, Noah. Green Party Sees Opportunity Amid Wide Voter Discontent. New
York Times (Online), 6 Aug. 2016, sks.sirs.com.

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Rothenberg, Stuart. "Third Party Candidates Won't Really Matter in November."

Washington Post - Blogs. 04 Aug. 2016: n/a. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 30
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"Two are two, and all alone." The Economist, 18 May 1996, p. 23+. Global Issues in
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