

Kennedy as soon as known as the 2 main events a “uniparty.” Then he determined to hitch certainly one of them.
Photograph: Kenny Holston/Redux
For an excellent a part of the 2024 election cycle, one of many main persevering with narratives was the loathing Individuals had for the 2 main political events. In 2023 and the primary half of 2024, polls constantly confirmed voters eager for extra choices than the Democratic and Republican events had been offering. A few of that disdain could have been generated by the actual choices on supply: two chronically unpopular previous males named Biden and Trump. However that’s all of the extra cause it seemed for some time like there may very well be a bumper crop of non-major celebration presidential candidates.
There was the No Labels motion, which for some time was making elaborate claims of viability (or at the very least important visibility) for a bipartisan ticket in states throughout the nation. There was an impartial Robert F. Kennedy Jr. marketing campaign that at one level was polling at round 20 p.c in quite a few states. Progressive educational and activist Cornel West launched his personal indie candidacy. And the well-established Libertarian and Inexperienced events had been planning probably formidable campaigns as properly.
One after the other, nonetheless, and over an prolonged time frame, the non-major celebration threats receded. No Labels expended a whole lot of its shadowy storehouse of {dollars} and vitality making an attempt to achieve poll entry (with Democrats particularly battling them each step of the way in which), after which struggled to search out the suitable matching set of candidates (one from every celebration). In April 2024 the group introduced it was not going to sponsor a presidential ticket. Kennedy had his personal poll entry issues, and appeared to lose steam when Kamala Harris changed Joe Biden because the Democratic nominee and refreshed the major-party competitors. Shedding assist nearly hourly, Kennedy solicited provides of post-election energy from each Democrats and Republicans. In August, he dropped out of the race and endorsed the very best bidder for his assist, Donald Trump, regardless of his earlier denunciations of the most important events as a uniformly corrupt “uniparty.” West had all types of monetary issues and by no means actually mounted a reputable marketing campaign. The Libertarians had an inner warfare over their perspective in the direction of the MAGA motion, leaving nominee Chase Oliver with a diminished base. And the Greens’ Jill Stein appeared to be haunted by her status as a 2016 spoiler who thwarted Hillary Clinton’s efforts to turn out to be the primary girl within the Oval Workplace.
In the long run, the non-major celebration menace light, with the strain to decide on between Harris and Trump elevated by the big stakes of the competition and the very shut race being proven by the polls. With greater than 97 p.c of the nationwide widespread vote counted, Trump leads Harris by 1.8 p.c (50.1 to 48.3 p.c); collectively they gained 98.4 p.c of the vote, leaving simply 1.6 p.c to the remainder of the sector, lower than the notably low 1.9 p.c they acquired 4 years earlier, and much lower than the 5.7 p.c they gained in 2016. Unhealthy because the Libertarian and Inexperienced performances had been in 2020, they did considerably worse in 2024. The Libertarian share of the vote dropped from 3.3 p.c in 2016 (with Gary Johnson because the presidential candidate) to 1.2 p.c in 2020 (with Jo Jorgensen on the prime of the ticket) to a mere 0.4 p.c–and a fifth-place end–with Oliver in 2024. The Greens yo-yo’d a bit; that they had 1.1 p.c with Stein in 2016, 0.3 p.c beneath Howie Hawkins in 2020, after which managed to complete third with simply 0.5 p.c in 2024. Kennedy’s zombie candidacy remained on the poll in 33 states, regardless of his endorsement of Trump, and he end fourth only a hair behind Stein.
So a 12 months which seemed so sturdy for defiers of the Democrat/Republican duopoly wound up being wretched for them. You can argue the non-major celebration candidates had been notably weak this 12 months, or that the extraordinarily shut polls made the danger of “losing” votes on non-viable choices particularly acute. However wanting forward, it’s more and more clear that it takes much more than not being any individual else (whether or not than any individual is Donald Trump or Kamala Harris) to garner a major vote for president.