Third-Party Candidates Hold Appeal, But Received Slightly Less Votes This Election

RICHMOND, Va. – Third-party presidential candidates received less than 2% of the overall vote in 2024, slightly less than they received in 2020. Support for the alternative candidates dropped significantly compared to the 7.8 million votes they received in the 2016 election.

President-elect Donald Trump has received over 76 million votes, with some states still counting, and Vice President Kamala Harris has received over 73 million, according to unofficial NBC numbers as of Nov. 15. Harris picked up just 226 electoral college votes to Trump’s 312.

The third-party candidates have received approximately 2.75 million votes, or 1.7%.

While there were many third-party candidates across the board, the candidates who received the most votes, in order, include Jill Stein, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Chase Oliver, Claudia De La Cruz and Cornel West. All, except Kennedy, appeared on the Virginia ballot.

Stein, who ran for the third time as a Green Party candidate, and Independent Kennedy each received 0.5% of the votes so far. Oliver, with the Libertarian Party, was not far behind with 0.4%.

Kennedy, who was No. 4 in terms of total votes among all candidates, officially dropped out of the race in late August and told his supporters to redirect their votes to Trump. Trump announced on Thursday that Kennedy is his pick for head of Health and Human Services.

Amanda Wintersieck is an associate professor of political science at Virginia Commonwealth University and director for the Institute for Democracy, Pluralism, and Community Empowerment. Third-party candidates in the presidential election can help “draw attention to issues that voters in the middle might care about more than persons on either end,” she said.

Because third-party candidates are unlikely to win the presidential election, they may act as “spoilers.” These candidates tend to have a “much greater rate of success” when they run for office in state or local elections, according to Wintersieck.

“While it’s important that people vote with their conscience, it’s also important to know that there’s not one or two or three issues that plague our society,” Wintersieck said. “There’s dozens of pressing issues that have to be dealt with.”

Around 58% of Americans state support for a third major party, according to Gallup.

No third-party candidate has received an electoral vote since George Wallace received 46 in the 1968 election, according to the National Archives. He received 9.9 million votes.

Young Voters Often Drawn to Third-Party

Over 40 million members of Generation Z were eligible to vote in the 2024 Presidential election, according to the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning at Tufts University. Over 8 million in that bloc recently reached voting age.

As each new generation reaches the voting age, they bring their own set of ideals and morals.

Gen Z adults are more racially and ethnically diverse and also identify as LGBTQ+ at much higher rates than older Americans, according to a Public Religion Research Institute study. They are also less likely than older generations to affiliate with an established religion.

More than half of Gen Z teens do not identify with a major party, but most share their parents’ party affiliation, according to PRRI data. And 43% do not identify with either of the two major political parties.

Many Gen Z college students feel pressure to pick a political party even if the two-party candidates do not fully represent their “priorities or personal values,” according to a study done with IGNITE. The organization helps younger women engage with community and political office. IGNITE warned that the Gen Z vote could not be taken for granted.

Daniel Tome, a Gen Z voter who is enlisted in the Air Force, agreed there is pressure to pick a party.

“When you look at the political system we have now, it's mainly just two options, Democrat or Republican, and if you have viewpoints that aren't extreme to one side or the other, there's nothing you can really do,” Tome said.

Pressure to Not Risk a Vote

VCU political science major Grace Blair saw heated words online for people who supported third-party candidates.

The online sentiment was that third-party support equals votes for Trump, according to Blair.

“I think using third-party voters as a scapegoat to not pressure the Democratic Party that put us in this position is the problem,” Blair said.

Maeve Hickey, a third-year VCU public relations student, also defended third parties. Harris could not have overcome the deficit even if all third-party votes had gone to her, Hickey said.

“So, you know, her loss isn't really on them,” Hickey said.

Norvi Chamagua Delgado, a student at Germanna Community College in Fredericksburg, said those who voted for third-party candidates impacted the election results.

“Some people put a lot of their eggs into the wrong basket,” Chamagua said.

Since the third-party candidates weren’t on the ballot in every state, they could not have won, and therefore played a role in the election results, according to Chamagua.

In the battleground state of Michigan, if a majority of the third-party votes had gone for Harris, she would have won the state. In a scenario where those votes had gone to Harris, she would have picked up Michigan’s 15 electoral votes – but still not enough to get her the needed 270 threshold.

Stein released a statement the day after the election and said, “Democrats have no one to blame but themselves for another disastrous Trump win.”

The Democratic Party’s failure to have a strong anti-genocide message and lack of climate policies inspired “a whole new multiracial, multigenerational coalition of voters, organizers, and activists to join forces with the Green Party,” according to Stein.

Millions of eligible voters refuse to vote for either establishment party, with a third of eligible voters not participating in 2020, according to Stein.

“These are exactly the people our agenda speaks to,” Stein stated. “The vast majority of voters are calling for a political alternative like the Green Party that serves the greater good instead of the warmongers and economic elites.”

This was the third presidential race for Stein, and she has not run for any local or state office.

Oliver wants to see more libertarian candidates run for president in the coming years, according to a statement referred to Capital News Service by his team. Oliver, whose presence on the Georgia ballot for a U.S. Senate seat caused a runoff election, and who has helped maintain national interest in the Libertarian party, said he does not plan to go away.

“I am staying in the fight,” he stated.

By Ava Poelns 
VCU Capital News Service

Capital News Service is a program of Virginia Commonwealth University’s Robertson School of Media and Culture. Students in the program provide state government coverage for a variety of media outlets in Virginia.