https://wsj.com/politics/elections/why-third-party-candidates-th…
When voters are given options beyond Biden and Trump, the president tends to bleed the most support, and Joe Manchin could complicate things further.
President Biden and Donald Trump, the likely contenders for the White House next year, are about evenly divided in polling. In a head-to-head race, many polls find an outright tie, with few voters undecided.
Most voters, however, will have several choices beyond Trump and Biden—a fact that isn’t reflected in many public-opinion polls. When polls do offer a larger slate of options, Biden often loses the most support to those additional candidates or to “undecided” status, giving Trump an edge.
For Democrats, that prospect took on new urgency Thursday as Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia, renewed speculation that he would try to run for president with the group No Labels, which says it wants to fund a bipartisan ticket. Manchin said he would abandon re-election plans for the Senate and instead explore the national appetite for “creating a movement to mobilize the middle and bring Americans together.”
Biden loses slightly more ground than Trump in several other polls in which voters are presented both a two-candidate ballot and then a ballot with four or more options.
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