“Third-party and independent candidates like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are making an unusually strong showing in early polls of this fall’s presidential race – a finding that not only highlights a strain of dissatisfaction with Joe Biden and Donald Trump but also adds further uncertainty to what is shaping up to be a close contest between them,” CNN reports.
“Across five national polls released in March and April – from Quinnipiac University, Fox News, Marquette Law School, NBC News and Marist College – Kennedy received an average of 13% support for his independent presidential bid when his name was explicitly included in the survey question, with independent candidate Cornel West and Green Party candidate Jill Stein taking an average of 3% each. Given the narrow margin between Trump and Biden, who are effectively deadlocked in many surveys, even a fraction of that support could prove crucial to the election’s outcome.”
“Historical precedent, however, suggests that third-party and independent candidates’ election performances rarely live up to their polling.”
