It is evidence. The discontent with the two main candidates for the United States elections is as noticeable as the smell of the garbage truck when it passes by emptying the bins at dawn. There are millions who are not convinced by either Joe Biden or Donald Trump, fed up with what both represent. That is why the result of the organization’s latest survey Latino Vote It seems short. 20% of Hispanics would be willing to opt for a third optiondespite the fact that five months before the elections, none of the alternative options seems to have enough support to make a dent in the elections.
Rosalynn Martínez is part of that dissatisfied mass. The idea of not granting the vote to even Biden nor to trump It seduces him more than ever. “I would give it to a third party without thinking, 100%,” says this 33-year-old Accounting graduate, daughter of a Mexican and Salvadoran mother and a resident of Whittier, California, with conviction. “The bad thing is that I don’t know any of the candidates well enough, but I still have time to find someone who can represent me.”
Of course, in this flight of voters, the most harmed would be Biden, the “least bad” option for Martínez. And clearly. Trump loses five points in the study compared to the current president’s 12 when the 2,000 respondents from key states such as Arizona, North Carolina either Pennsylvania They are presented with the possibility of choosing a third candidate.
The study shows that more than moving away from the Democratic Party itself, the frustration of the Latino electorate is evident with the current economic and geopolitical panorama. They do not want four more years of Biden and much less of Trump, who left a trail of tension and threat to institutional stability that they fear will worsen with an extension of his mandate. But what alternatives do they have? Who are the other candidates?
The one that sounds most familiar to you is Robert Kennedy Jr., apparently. Independent candidate and part of the legendary American dynasty, the 70-year-old politician takes 12% of the votes, followed by Cornel West (3%), a left-wing philosopher and African-American theologian; and Jill Steinhead of the Green Party and former candidate for governor of Massachusetts, with 2%. From the surprising candidate of the Libertarian Party, Chase Oliver38 years old, gay, anti-war activist, there is no trace in the survey.
For being the president’s nephew John F. Kennedy and son of the senator Robert Kennedy, both murdered, their option would seem to be the most similar to the ideology of the classic Latino voter, the same one who gave 59% support to Biden in 2020, 66% to Hillary Clinton in 2016 and 71% to Barack Obama in 2012. But this Kennedy is different. During the pandemic he led a campaign against vaccines and got on the train of conspiracy theories, distancing himself from the feelings of the majority of his relatives. She had an open confrontation with one of his cousins ”for going against science.” He also believes that cell phone radiation causes cancer, that chemicals in water are causing gender dysphoria, and that INC He ended the lives of his father and uncle.
In his favor he has the enormous pull generated by his campaign actions. He has legions of fans, convinced of his speech as an independent and anti-establishment man that attracts a part of the younger electorate. He is missing, however, the hundreds of thousands of signatures necessary to make his candidacy official. Theirs is still a castle in the air.
A lot more woke up seems like the speech of the green candidate, Jill Stein, a veteran in political battles, former member of the Democratic Party that in the 2012 elections it reached close to half a million votes and that in 2016 it won 1.07% of the popular vote, or almost a million and a half votes. Its main cause is the fight against climate change and putting a stop to the galloping US debt that is putting the future of pensions and programs such as Medicare and Medicaid in check.
Chase Oliver, the libertarian candidate, is also convinced he can take advantage of the erosion of the bipartisan model, although his speech clearly distances himself from the traditional creed of his party, closer to the Republican extreme right than to the center. His anti-war activism brings him closer to Democratic sentiment than to Trump’s party, whom he considers a caustic guy who has brought “increasing animosity and division.”
It is also, the first openly gay candidate of his training. He is in favor of the legalization of marijuana, weapons, the right to abortion and end military aid to Ukraine and Israel, where he believes a “genocide” is being committed. He also defends the right of immigrants to come to work in the United States. “If you come here to work and be at peace, it’s none of my business. We need to have people in this country who start small businesses and create prosperity.”
Gone are the days of candidates like Ross Perot, which won 19 million votes in 1992 and seemed to have paved the way for a third force to emerge consistently. The opportunity, once again, and thanks to the exhaustion aroused by Biden and Trump, is once again favorable.
