US Libertarian Party presidential candidate Gary Johnson says Democratic presidential Hillary Clinton and Republican ticket Donald Trump are political “dinosaurs” and vows to dismantle America’s two-party political system.
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To qualify for the stage, a candidate needs to be polling at 15 percent or higher in an average of five major national polls and qualify for the ballot in enough states to have a mathematical chance to win the presidency.
Using the average of five U.S. polls, Clinton scored 43 per cent, Trump 40.4 per cent, Johnson 8.4 per cent and Stein 3.2 per cent, the commission said.
Johnson’s running mate, former MA governor Bill Weld, will not take part in the vice-presidential debate, which will be contested by Democrat Tim Kaine and Republican Mike Pence at Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia on 4 October.
No third-party candidate has enough support to merit inclusion in the first USA presidential debate, leaving Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump a clear field to vie for support, organizers said Friday.
“The CPD may have excluded us from the first debate, but we can still get on the stage in October”, he said in an email to supporters and reporters. Johnson and Stein both failed to meet that threshold for the first presidential and only vice presidential debate on the schedule.
Though Johnson and Stein will likely mourn the opportunity to be in the first debate, it’s not too late to earn debate participation down the line.
Libertarian Party presidential candidate Gary Johnson will appear on the ballot in all 50 states plus the District of Columbia, a feat no third party candidate has achieved in 20 years.
Vice Presidential candidates Tim Kaine and Mike Pence also subsequently qualified for the vice presidential debate on October 4th. The rule makes it very hard for third-party candidates.
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That question is created to not have people answer “I don’t know yet”, and it punishes any new candidate if their party does not have an established base of voters who always vote the party ticket. The League of Women Voters calls the commission “a fraud on the American voter, as it sets arbitrary polling requirements to prevent the Republican and Democratic parties from having any competition”.
