That’s a stretch, but still: If the Republicans were willing to hear from 10 candidates at the first primary debate last summer (with seven more appearing at a prior forum), then let’s respect the wishes of a dissatisfied electorate and open up the first general election debate to Johnson. He gave up the spliffs himself some years ago, but swears by the marijuana pills he consumed to cope with the pain of his injuries from a paragliding accident.
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Among major party supporters, 49 percent of Democrats and 48 percent of Republicans favor including Johnson in the September 26 debate at New York’s Hofstra University.
Mr Johnson says his goal is to win the presidency outright, but there’s another path to the presidency for a third-party candidate. Only 18 percent thought the vice presidential debate between Sen.
A poll by nonpartisan firm Morning Consult found 52 percent of voters polled think Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson should be included in the upcoming presidential debates. Johnson says he is the ideal alternative. If they don’t support Trump and can’t bring themselves to back Clinton, voting for Johnson, a former governor of New Mexico, could be a viable alternative.
The rules require that a candidate obtain at least a 15 percent average in most national polls in order to qualify for the debate stage.
“There has never been a better time to be a Libertarian”, said Guy McLendon, chairman of the Calcasieu Parish Libertarian Party. In recent national polling, Johnson has 7.4 percent support and Stein has 3.1, according to averages compiled by RealClear Politics. Stein now sits at about 3.1% in an average of polls selected by Real Clear Politics. As a researcher, I would ask how big an effect that would have to be to get the kind of outcome he said. It is higher, by one reckoning, than that of any other third-party candidate, at this point in the campaign, since 1948.
Just two minor-party presidential candidates will be on the OR ballot this year. Although Ms. Mucci has some experience with libertarianism, this would be her first third-party presidential vote.
That would give each of those debates a third voice that many Americans would welcome, considering the remarkably elevated public “disapproval” numbers that polls have always been showing for both Mr. Trump and Mrs. Clinton. He hates regulation and taxes and wants people to be free to marry whomever and smoke whatever they want.
“Although Gary isn’t the ideal Libertarian, he holds the idea that we need to allow people to make choices, even if we might personally disagree with those choices and as long as they don’t harm others”, said Blanco.
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“This closer it gets to 20 percent, the more our chances of winning go up”, Barr said. But if they managed to make it onto a debate stage in a year when the two major party candidates both have historically low favorability ratings who knows what could happen. Ultimately, he said, the issue would be left to the states.
