Could a third-party candidate be the only chance Biden has?
By Christopher Tidmore
Special to States-Item
The general wisdom amongst the pundit class has been that any third-party effort, particularly a ballot access drive by the “no-labels” group, would elect Donald Trump. However, new polling data suggests that it could level the proverbial playing-field—or even potentially benefit a Biden candidacy. That bolsters the argument that Jennifer Franks of the Draft Romney-Manchin PAC seeks to make. It is not a “zero-sum game” of two parties. Voters are really searching for another choice in 2024.
A new survey, conducted by USA Today and Suffolk University, discovered that President Biden’s from Black voters has fallen. After carrying 87 percent support in the demographic in 2020, Biden now has just 63 percent, the survey found. Moreover, support from Hispanic voters fell to 34 prevent, compared with Trump’s 39 percent. That signposts a large decline since 2020, when Biden earned 65 percent of the demographic group. His support from younger voters has likewise dropped as well. In 2020, Biden crushed Trump by 24 points among the group. But the survey also unveiled that Trump now leads among voters under 35 with 37 percent support to Biden’s 33 percent.
However, USA Today cited one potential source of hope for Biden. While the incumbent President has lost backing among these groups of voters, they tend to be going toward third-party candidates and not Trump. Twenty percent of Hispanic and Black voters surveyed and 21 percent of younger voters say that they shall support someone other than Trump or Biden.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Jill Stein of the Green Party, or Cornel West all are potential beneficiaries, yet all suffer from severe ballot access challenges. The more sophisticated ballot access effort undertaken by the “No labels” group might be the only initiative to make it onto the last majority of all 50 states by November. And that’s with Jennifer Franks is counting on. The Massachusetts-based consultant, who has worked for both Republicans and Democrats, has started a petition at draftromneymanchin.com to encourage Mitt Romney and Joe Manchin to run together on a “no labels” ticket for Presidency.
Retiring West Virginia Democratic US Senator Joe Manchin has openly flirted with the idea of running on the “no labels” ticket for President, joining conference calls with contributors to the ballot-access effort and openly criticizing the Biden Administration as well as Donald Trump’s candidacy. However, he has nothing but compliments for fellow retiring Utah US Senator (and former Mass. Gov.) Mitt Romney. The two appeared to testify on their joint deficit reduction legislation before the Senate Finance Committee, and Romney actually joked last month that they were really there to announce their candidacies for the Presidency!
It was an attempt at humor—or was it? The Utah Senator repeatedly has declared that he has no plans for a bid for the White House. “Two strikes and you’re out,” he has mused; yet Romney is the one man for whom Manchin would accept the number two spot on the ticket, as the West Virginia Senator has often mused. The two make a compelling combination. In many ways, Manchin resembles Louisiana’s Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards, a moderate on abortion and guns, concerned with fiscal discipline. Moreover, Mitt Romney won the Pelican State state with nearly 60% of vote in 2012, and Romney's tenure as Massachusetts Governor bears great similarity to Edwards', expanding health care and fiscal discipline.
As Jennifer Franks explained, “So my feeling on Sen. Romney saying that ‘he will not run’, or ‘does not have plans to run’, truly what he's saying is ‘he doesn't have plans to run’. But if folks remember, very interestingly, in in my great home state Massachusetts, he had no plans of running back then for governor and a group of concerned citizens that felt that there was a pathway forward to victory for him running—and showed him the numbers. As Romney is a numbers guy, the data showed that there was a path to victory, and he ended up becoming the next governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. And he did a great job for Massachusetts, so I don't believe in ‘two strikes you're out’.”
“Now is the moment and the perfect time for him to leave on a ticket by unity bipartisan ticket with Manchin,” Franks continued in an interview with StatesItem.com, “They have proven to work very, very well together across party lines, and I think this is the moment if we're ever gonna get any moment to change such directory of our country, this is it.”
As for those worried about a Romney/Manchin effort swinging the election, “The way that I would say that is not a spoiler ticket is that we're having a Republican senator and a Democratic senator coming together. Like I said before, they've proven that they can come across party lines, and they're really centrist. I mean quite frankly so this this this would be a unity ticket more, so I don't think it would be spoiler in any way. I think bringing those two together like they've proven to do throughout their career-- together working in the Senate--this would be a centrist ticket. This would be a ‘no labels’ ticket, so i don't think it would be tipping it either direction.”
“This is really just a starting point of a unity ticket, and a movement that we're creating here! There are a lot of people that have sort of had enough of both sides of the major two parties and trying to come together as a centrist group of folks that are just really fed up with how things are going--or not going really.”
Hear the entire interview with Jennifer Franks on The Founders Show.