Democrats are reportedly sounding the alarms as third-party candidates begin to pick up steam ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
According to NBC News, the Democratic National Convention is reportedly building a team to tackle third-party and independent presidential candidates, which the Biden Administration views as a threat to President Joe Biden’s re-election chances.
The official committee will be led by former Pete Buttigieg campaign staffer and Democratic operative Lis Smith who plans to counter third-party efforts using an "aggressive communications component” and legal action. DNC veterans Mary Beth Cahill and Ramsey Reid will also be a part of the operation.
“We’re facing an unprecedented election and we know the GOP is already working to prop up third-party candidates like Robert Kennedy Jr. to make them stalking horses for Donald Trump,” Matt Corridoni, spokesperson for the new team, told the outlet. “With so much on the line, we’re not taking anything for granted. We’re going to make sure voters are educated and we’re going to make sure all candidates are playing by the rules.”
Third-party candidates are the Democrat’s “Single biggest threat that helps put Trump back in the White House.”
Joe Trippi, a veteran Democratic strategist, said that it is not Biden’s age or the mooting legal convictions facing former President Trump. Instead, he said that Democrats are panicking over Independent candidates such as 2024 candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Trippi plans to run smear campaign ads in battleground states against third-party candidates, saying that “The Trump people know he needs strong third parties.”
Democrats blamed third-party candidates for their losses in 2016 and 2000 when Green Party candidates such as Stein and Ralph Nader ran for president.
“Trump needs to split the anti-Trump coalition. If we’re united, we win. If we’re not, he wins,” Pat Dennis, president of American Bridge— a Democratic opposition research group said. “We see [Kennedy and No Labels] essentially as an arm of the Trump campaign and we intend to treat it as such.”
According to a RealClearPolitics (RCP) averaging poll, when Independent candidates are on the ballot, Trump does slightly better than Biden.