It’s Tuesday, the traditional day for elections and for our pause-and-consider newsletter on politics and policy.

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Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images

It’s Tuesday, the traditional day for elections and for our pause-and-consider newsletter on politics and policy. We think of it as a mini-magazine in your inbox.

WHAT ABOUT A THIRD-PARTY PRESIDENT?
By Lisa Desjardins, @LisaDNews ([link removed])
Correspondent

The majority of Americans don’t love the leading options for president.

President Joe Biden, the incumbent Democrat, has a meager 39 percent average approval rating, per Five Thirty Eight. ([link removed]) And the frontrunner on the Republican side is in nearly the same hole. Donald Trump’s favorability rating is averaging 40 percent ([link removed]) .

For perspective, those numbers are close to the levels for President Richard Nixon after news broke that his own counsel had named him in the Watergate cover-up(!).

So, really not good.

(Note: We are exactly 50 years since the Watergate tapes were revealed. Here is our “Huh!” segment ([link removed]) on why that matters now.)

As we reported ourselves ([link removed]) , so much can happen between today and Election Day, but it’s no small wonder that a conversation around a third-party president is again bubbling up. And volunteers are leaning in. Scholar and progressive activist Cornel West is running ([link removed]) , and Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia may be flirting with the idea ([link removed]) .

No better time to look at the third-party landscape, starting with some historical context. We will cut to the chase: Americans, historically, stick to major parties.

Past presidents
* The only independent candidate to become U.S. president. The nation has had just one president who was unaffiliated with any political party. And that was the man who started it all: George Washington ([link removed]) .
* The last president who was neither a D nor an R. Technically, that could be President Andrew Johnson, elected in 1864 on the National Union Party ticket. However, the National Union Party was a temporary name for the Republican Party. Before him, it was President Millard Fillmore, a Whig ([link removed].) , who served from 1850 to 1853. However, the Whigs were one of two major political parties at the time ([link removed]) . So neither was a third-party president.


Past third-party candidates
* Teddy Roosevelt was the most successful. The Rough Rider won 27 percent of the popular vote running with his Progressive Party (nicknamed the Bull Moose Party) in 1912.
* But Ross Perot perhaps deserves more credit. Perot, a billionaire ([link removed]) and king of charts ([link removed]) , captured some 19 percent of the popular vote running as an independent in 1992. Let me do something rare for me, and express an opinion. I argue Perot’s achievement should rank higher in impressiveness than Roosevelt’s. The latter was an incumbent president and long known to the Americans. Perot had neither of those advantages. Come at me with your best counterarguments via email. (Editor’s note: 😳)
* Ralph Nader. It does not take double-digit vote percentages to matter. In 2000, consumer advocate Ralph Nader ran as the nominee of the Green Party. He won 3 percent of the popular vote, well down the list of all third-party showings. ([link removed]) But Republican George W. Bush won the election by the narrowest of margins — just five electoral votes. Gore won the popular vote. Ever since, debate ([link removed]) has raged ([link removed]) and studies have launched ([link removed]) over whether Nader cost Gore and Democrats the election.

Possible third-party contenders now

There are a few big names in the current third-party conversation, listed roughly from left to right on the political spectrum. (Caution: politicians love to “keep options open.” It is hard to parse who would seriously attempt this.) Consider this a working list:
* Cornel West, progressive scholar, is running for the Green Party nomination ([link removed]) .
* Joe Manchin, Democrat and senator from West Virginia, has said he won’t rule out a run ([link removed].) but would only do it “to win.” (We have covered Manchin for a long time, and are skeptical that he will run for president, but admit we can see him chewing on the idea.)
* Tulsi Gabbard, former congresswoman from Hawaii, has said recently ([link removed]) that she will “consider all options.” Gabbard is hard to categorize. Last year, she left the Democratic Party ([link removed]) and has not joined another. Thus, that is her most recent affiliation. But she regularly has media appearances ([link removed]) with conservative outlets. We are keeping her in the middle of our spectrum but want to note that her position is more individual.
* Larry Hogan, Republican and former Maryland governor, has been thinking about the possibility of a run ([link removed]) with the group “No Labels,” (more on that below) though he also says his primary goal is to keep Trump from becoming the Republican nominee.
* Jon Huntsman, Republican and former Utah governor. He is also considering a run ([link removed]) , with the group No Labels.
* Liz Cheney, Republican and former congresswoman from Wyoming, said this month she is not ruling it out ([link removed]) .
* Libertarian TBD. The Libertarian Party will also nominate its own candidate. Like Gabbard, they do not necessarily fit in a right-to-left spectrum. But libertarians in Congress are generally conservative Republicans, with their own independent views.

OK, what is No Labels?

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Watch the segment in the player above.

* The nonpartisan group No Labels has generated a waterfall ([link removed]) of headlines ([link removed]) with its plan to put a third-party candidate on the ballot across the country.
* No Labels ([link removed]) has said they are launching a $70 million effort ([link removed]) , aiming to change the American political map by uniting dissatisfied voters across the spectrum.
* But some have warned that the effort will instead simply benefit Trump. That includes former House Democratic Leader Dick Gephardt, who spoke to the PBS NewsHour ([link removed]) about this.
* What’s ahead? The attention on this will only rise. But the major tests will come next year, when independent and third-party candidates need to meet the requirements to get on the ballot in each state and the District of Columbia.

More on politics from our coverage:
* Read: Donald Trump says he’s been informed he’s the target of a Department of Justice investigation ([link removed]) into efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
* One Big Question: How do voters feel about the 2024 candidates ([link removed]) so far?
* A Closer Look: A year since the suicide and crisis hotline 988 started helping callers, here’s what experts want to see next ([link removed]) .
* Perspectives: NPR’s Tamara Keith and Amy Walter of the Cook Political Report discuss third-party candidates ([link removed]) and fundraising totals in the 2024 presidential race.

#POLITICSTRIVIA
By Cybele Mayes-Osterman, @CybeleMO ([link removed])
Associate Editorial Producer

The group No Labels, which is trying to run a third-party candidate in the 2024 presidential election, announced Monday ([link removed]) that it would enter its own “unity ticket” into the race if President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump are the nominees of their respective parties ([link removed]) by Super Tuesday.

A No Labels candidate would join a long history of third-party attempts to break up the two-party system. Only a few such candidates have garnered enough support to receive Electoral College votes.

Our question: Who was the last third-party candidate to win electoral votes?

Send your answers to [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) or tweet using #PoliticsTrivia. The first correct answers will earn a shout-out next week.

Last week, we asked: During the 2000s, former Sen. Fred Thompson had an acting role as a district attorney on what long-running TV drama?

The answer: NBC’s “Law & Order.” ([link removed]) The late Tennessee senator and Watergate attorney played District Attorney Arthur Branch ([link removed]) on the police procedural for five seasons.

Congratulations to our winners: Ed Witt and Joseph Callery!

Thank you all for reading and watching. We’ll drop into your inbox next week.
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