Why are third-party presidential candidates a threat to Biden in 2024?

The United States President Joe Biden’s 2024 reelection bid faces threats from third-party presidential candidates. Why?

Here you have the details.

Why are third-party presidential candidates a threat to Biden in 2024?

As the number of third-party and independent candidates for the 2024 presidential election has been increasing, many experts have wondered about the effect of third-party presidential candidates on the Democrat and Republican Presidential hopefuls.

The anticipation came this week after the U.S. President Joe Biden admitted that he probably would not have run for reelection if former President Donald Trump was not likely to be the Republican candidate.

American electoral politics have been dominated mainly by two major political parties, the Democratic and Republican parties, since 1852. These two parties have controlled Congress and won every United States Presidential election since the year.

The two parties still hold significance in the current year in every aspect, with their most popular candidates battling to win the White House in 2024.

Republican party front-runner Trump, 77, is leading the GOP nomination for the primaries amongst all the Republican presidential hopefuls.

In contrast, Democratic candidate Biden, 81, is struggling to increase his polling numbers to win the reelection.

Although Trump leads the race and currently indicates maximum voter support, according to many polls, none of them appeal to American voters to be selected as U.S. President. As such, people seem to be looking for third-party candidates as alternatives to Trump and Biden.

While no third-party candidate has won a U.S. presidential election for decades, they can still pose a significant threat to presidential hopefuls in many ways, especially Biden. How?

The first reason for the President’s being infamous is his age and health. He is the oldest U.S. president to hold the office. Biden was 78 when he entered the office in 2021.

Many people doubt whether the President will be able to complete his second term as U.S. President if he wins the 2024 election.

Biden already has low approval ratings as compared to Trump. The third-party presidential candidates could increasingly distract voters’ attention from the President by offering new and alternative policies.

Again, a third-party candidate can more easily appeal to specific populations disappointed with the Biden government’s stance on certain issues.

For example, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an American politician and environmental advocate, might draw votes from Democratic voters who wish different policies other than those proposed by the Biden administration related to environmental issues.

Most importantly, the third-party presidential candidate can cause a “spoiler effect” even if they do not win the election. Here, a spoiler is a non-winning candidate who draws significant votes from a major party candidate and causes the other party’s major candidate to win the election.

The spoiler effect has been seen in the past elections. In the 1992 presidential election, independent third-party candidate Ross Perot won 19% of the votes, helping Democrat incumbent Bill Clinton to win against Republican incumbent George H.W. Bush.

A spoiler effect can be threatening to Biden as he is the most vulnerable candidate and is facing a growing number of potential spoilers, worsening his reelection bid.