Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson is now the strongest alternative candidate, but at this point he still won’t appear in any of the presidential debates announced Friday.
Advertisement
Despite unprecedented discomfort with the Republican nominee, Johnson, the Libertarian candidate and a former Republican governor of New Mexico, has so far failed to sufficiently consolidate the support of Republicans opposed to Donald Trump.
None of this, however, will matter much if Gary Johnson is unable to get on the debate stage with Clinton and Trump later this month.
His exclusion is because of a rule the commission adopted in 2000 requiring candidates to average at least 15 percent support across five national polls in order to participate in their nationally televised debates.
Johnson’s running mate is another former GOP governor, William Weld of MA. The former nominee told an audience at the Aspen Ideas Festival earlier this summer that he wishes Weld was at the top of the ticket.
According to a Washington Post-Survey Monkey 50-state poll released Tuesday, Johnson would reach or exceed the 15 percent threshold in 15 states.
“The difference between the two of us and the other candidates running for president is that we’ve been there”, Johnson says in the ad.
Four out of 10 voters believe Clinton will win the debate, compared with 31 percent who think Trump will be the victor.
A pro-Johnson super PAC aired over $550,000 in television advertisements last month, but is now not on the air. The debates are scheduled to begin September 26 at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y.
Advertisement
The endorsement was made final after Johnson, a former Republican governor of New Mexico, sat down with the editorial board last week.
