Understanding third party candidates.
Third Party candidates, also known as independent candidates, have been prevalent within American politics. However, many young Americans are unaware of the values and ideals of third party candidates.
“Unfortunately, I am not that informed about third party candidates. However, I know that third parties rarely make it into office,” said junior criminal justice major Taylre Oard.
Associate Professor of Political Science Maryam Stevenson teaches many of the Political Science courses at the University of Indianapolis.
“As we know, while a third party candidate has never been successful at the presidential level, they can have an effect on the ultimate outcome of the presidential election” Stevenson said
According to Stevenson, because of constitutional restraints, third parties struggle to acquire seats within both the House of Representatives and the Senate.
However, the voice of third parties is still not restrained. Many third parties have focused their agendas on domestic issues.
“Issues such as women’s suffrage, the graduated income tax, direct election of U.S. Senators, child labor laws, unemployment insurance and prohibition all originated with third parties,” Stevenson said.
Stevenson also said independent parties often represent the issues that may not be on the agendas of the two major political parties. Third parties typically struggle because of the bureaucracy within America.
“Essentially, in our political system, only one representative from every legislative district is chosen based on the candidate who wins the most votes,” Stevenson said. “Additionally, the two major parties have taken steps to minimize the effect that third parties have on elections by discouraging them via legislation regulating electoral procedures, including ballot access, campaign finance laws and media coverage.”
According to Stevenson, even though third parties have constitutional restraints as well as minimization of issues, independents still represent new ideals and applicable issues within Congress. Third parties have increased in popularity throughout time.
“Today, the most popular third party candidates are perhaps the libertarian and green parties,” Stevenson said.
