Three’s a crowd: No Labels sur­ren­der under­scores dif­fi­cul­ty third par­ties face in Novem­ber

A pres­i­den­tial elec­tion rematch in 2024 between Joe Biden and Don­ald Trump has helped pave the way for renewed inter­est in third-par­ty can­di­dates. The most dom­i­nant inter­lop­er is Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is cur­rent­ly polling at a healthy 11.7%, and is being tak­en seri­ous­ly, par­tic­u­lar­ly by the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Nation­al Com­mit­tee. This cycle has also seen No Labels threat­en, and then fail, to field an alter­na­tive can­di­date, which nonethe­less points to vot­ers seek­ing an alter­na­tive to the sta­tus quo. This Wash­ing­ton Exam­in­er series, Three’s a Crowd, will look at how and why third-par­ty can­di­dates could play a major spoil­er come Novem­ber. Part two will take a …