Guest columnist: Mulling the possibilities of a third-party presidential candidate in 2024

I read with interest the column by the Lakeland Ledger's Bruce Anderson in the July 30 edition of the Times-Union. He discussed the new “No Labels” party and the possibility of Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) running for president on that ticket, indicating that such a candidate had no chance of winning. Anderson noted third-party candidacies of Teddy Roosevelt in 1912, George Wallace in 1968 and Ross Perot in 1992, and how those candidates all fell short.

I think Mr. Anderson has missed a very important point. In all three of those races, both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party ran experienced, proven candidates who had been presidents, vice presidents or governors who appeared trustworthy to the voters at the time of the election. This made it very hard for a third-party candidate to gain traction.

This would not be the case if Sen. Manchin’s two opponents were President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump. President Biden seems to be demonstrating significant cognitive difficulties that will only continue to worsen with time. In addition, the Democratic Party has apparently been overtaken by extremist elements who advocate packing the Supreme Court; support for minors getting sex change operations without parental consent; and other policies well outside what the American people want.

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Former President Trump had an erratic presidency with unforced errors too numerous to count. Regardless of whether he committed actual crimes or not, he proved once and for all on Jan. 6, 2021, that he is a danger to the republic and cannot be trusted with the presidency.

The media (both mainstream and conservative) will most likely try to squelch any third-party candidacy, as that would threaten their preferred candidate. However, if President Biden and former President Trump become the nominees, I believe that there will be a very large portion of the population extremely dissatisfied with that choice.

In that circumstance, I would expect that if Sen. Manchin starts to get high enough in the polls that the public perceives there is at least a small chance he could win, that would create an avalanche of support and he would become unstoppable. I think the American public would be fine with throwing both parties out of power in favor of putting a trusted, cognitively intact and emotionally stable person in the White House.

Peter True, Jacksonville

This guest column is the opinion of the author and does not necessarily represent the views of the Times-Union. We welcome a diversity of opinions.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Here's how Sen. Manchin could win in 2024 as third-party candidate