Swamp Notes: The Three Party Problem
FT News Briefing
Forhecz Topher
4.4 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 3 August 2024
⏱️ 14 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Only two political parties — the Republicans and the Democrats — have controlled the White House since 1853. However, candidates from other parties still run in presidential elections. The FT’s Washington reporter, Steff Chávez, and US business and politics correspondent, Alex Rogers, join this week’s Swamp Notes to explain how third-party candidates could impact the 2024 US presidential race.
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Swamp Notes is produced by Ethan Plotkin, Sonja Hutson, Lauren Fedor and Marc Filippino. Topher Forhecz is the FT’s executive producer. The FT’s global head of audio is Cheryl Brumley. Special thanks to Pierre Nicholson and Manuela Saragosa.
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The UK's energy partner. |
| 0:06.0 | Learn more at equinore. |
| 0:08.0 | Aquinore. |
| 0:10.0 | American Politics is a duopoly. Since 1853 the White House has either been |
| 0:17.2 | occupied by a Democrat or a Republican and that's it. But even though third-party candidates can't win the White House, |
| 0:26.0 | they can certainly make someone else lose it. |
| 0:29.0 | This is Swamp Notes, the weekly podcast from the FT news briefing where we talk about all the things happening in the 2024 U.S. presidential election. |
| 0:40.0 | I'm Mark Filipino and this week we're asking could third party candidates shake up the presidential race |
| 0:45.7 | Here with me to discuss is Alex Rogers. He's the FT's US business and politics correspondent |
| 0:50.3 | Hey Alex hey Mark and we've also got Steph Chavez, the F.T.'s Washington reporter. |
| 0:55.6 | Hi, Steph. |
| 0:56.6 | Hi, Mark. |
| 0:57.6 | So Steph, we're going to start with you. |
| 0:59.1 | Who are the big third party candidates running in the race? |
| 1:01.8 | Well, so we actually have a field of five candidates. |
| 1:05.0 | It's Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, of course, |
| 1:07.0 | and then there are three independent candidates. |
| 1:09.0 | They are Cornell West, Jill Stein, and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. |
| 1:14.7 | Cornell West, he's a leftist academic, |
| 1:16.9 | he's an activist, also a theologian. |
| 1:19.7 | And when he announced his candidacy, |
| 1:21.5 | he said it was, quote, to end the iron grip of the ruling class and ensure true |
... |
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