'If You Can Keep It': The Role Of Third-Party Candidates In The 2024 Election

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🗓️ 6 May 2024

⏱️ 38 minutes

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Summary

Third parties and third-party candidates are not a new phenomenon in American politics. But this year, the stakes of their candidacies are especially high.

The list of third-party candidates running this year includes Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Cornel West, both of whom are running as Independents. Jill Stein returns to the campaign trail as a representative of the Green Party.

What role do third parties play in elections? And how could they influence this year's presidential one—even if they don't win it?

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Transcript

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0:00.0	In this country, some truths aren't self-evident. In NPR's Black Stories, Black Truths,
0:07.2	a collection of stories as wide-ranging and real as the people who tell them,
0:12.0	we celebrate the Black experience for all its soul and
0:16.1	richness. Search NPR, Black Stories, Black Truths, wherever you get podcasts.
0:23.0	I'm Jen White.
0:30.0	I'm Jen White.
0:31.0	Joining me in studio is One A's Todd Zwillick and it's time now for another
0:35.8	installment of if you can keep it. And in this weekly series as always we're
0:40.3	leaving the horse race to the side. Instead, we're focused on the stakes of
0:44.8	this election for people, for the country, especially for our democracy.
0:48.8	And today we're talking about an issue many of you are excited to discuss third parties and third party
0:54.4	candidates. This election I am voting third party because I don't want to support
1:00.7	Trump and I'm also really upset with the Biden administration. So I'll be
1:04.8	voting for Jill Stein because she is brave enough to speak up for what's going on in Palestine.
1:12.8	She was actually recently arrested for protesting
1:16.2	at a recent university.
1:17.8	I have not voted for Democrat or Republicans 1998.
1:22.4	I am socially very liberal but fiscally very conservative. Thus I
1:29.1	vote for a libertarian. I just don't think that Trump or Biden are great for this country.
1:36.0	This country requires real honest and systemic changes.
1:40.0	We need someone that can tell us forward away from the continued in constant war.
1:45.0	There's only one candidate that I can think of and that's Mary Ann Williamson.
	...

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