The spoiler candidate

The November 5, 2024, race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump will decide who will be the next occupant of the White House. And it has become a choice between two vastly different visions for America.

What could happen if other candidates, either a Democrat or Republican, enter this picture, to sit in the Oval Office? Candidates from the Green, Libertarian, and the Peace and Freedom Party, for example, are also on the ballot; they could become spoilers. 

Remember the past election when Ross Perot ran as an independent third-party candidate in the 1992 presidential race; he received almost 19% of the popular vote. America has not seen an outsider get a double-digit percentage vote since then. In 1968, George Wallace was another candidate outside the two main parties. Perot received no delegates but came second in two states. In the process, he succeeded in helping Bill Clinton get elected over then-incumbent President George H. W. Bush. A similar scenario may play out again but this time even a 1-2% vote for a third party will matter, and it will only impact Kamala Harris negatively.

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This 2024 presidential race is too close to call, and it may boil down to the “swing” states namely Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin to determine who the next president will be. Winning the popular vote across the country is great for any candidate, but it does not determine the final winner, as Hilary Clinton found out in 2016 in her loss to Donald Trump. The electoral college and the number of delegates decide the outcome. In each state (besides Maine and Nebraska) all delegates usually go to the winner.

In this presidential election, a vote for a third-party candidate in the swing states may be crucial. Within such a scenario some communities are considering voting for Jill Stein of the Green Party as a protest vote due to the Biden administration’s foreign policies. The American economy has been doing well recently, the stock market is up and unemployment in America currently is quite low.

A tight race

Democrats and the Harris-Walz should be confident of a victory, right? These indicators alone plus the mercurial personality of the former president should put them in a strong position over the Trump-Vance ticket. But that has not happened. This remains a very tight race.

America’s support for Israel during its war on Gaza is not helping Vice President Harris in her quest to become President. Many young, left-leaning progressive voters are not willing to vote for her, including segments of the American Muslim and Arab American communities. They are not happy that the Biden administration has functioned as an enabler in what they see as the genocide of the Palestinian people by the Netanyahu regime in Israel. The Gaza war has gone on for too long and the human suffering there, and the killing of women and children are impacting hearts and minds around the world.

The least that the Biden administration could have done is deliver a ceasefire by now. It could not. But is it fair to blame Kamala Harris for the continuing war in Gaza? Is she currently the president in charge? The answer is no!

The decision-makers

Vice Presidents do not formulate international policy. They go along with what the president decides. They are more like passengers in the same car, which in this case is driven by America’s strategic interests. President Biden is not in the running for this race, Kamala Harris is. Either she or Donald Trump will be making the big decisions next year.

This writing intends to steer undecided voters back to the two mainstream parties, especially in the swing states. Jill Stein is a wonderful choice, but she has no chance of occupying the White House after this election. People can keep up the pressure on getting a ceasefire in Gaza as they wish. But let us not forget important domestic concerns in our decision-making during this election. Issues like healthcare, housing, social security, the environment, and the future of our children or grandchildren.

Photo by Sora Shimazaki: https://www.pexels.com/photo/a-man-putting-his-vote-inside-the-box-5926269/

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