With both Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton sporting record unpopularity with voters, many millennials are deciding that neither candidate meets their standard for the nation’s highest office.
These millennials are opting to support third party candidates, namely Libertarian Party nominee Gary Johnson and Green Party nominee Jill Stein. Some polls have millennial support for these candidates in the double digits. One poll even showed Gary Johnson edging out Trump with over 20% support among voters under 29 years old.
This is surprising considering Johnson received just one percent of the vote in 2012 while Jill Stein only mustered about a third of a percent.
Many young liberals have been spurred to action this election cycle by the excitement Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders’ campaign generated with his progressive challenge to Hillary Clinton in the Democratic Primary. The #BernieOrBust movement, composed of Sander’s most die-hard supporters has found a new home in Jill Stein’s campaign, refusing to support Clinton in November despite Sander’s endorsement of her in July.
One such Stein supporter, recent Towson University graduate Sam Levin says that his support for Stein was inspired after he witnessed a “rigged” system which led to the defeat of the Sanders campaign in the Democratic primaries.
Like so many others, Levin idolized Sanders and was angered by revelations that some officials within the Democratic National Committee were plotting against him. The DNC is supposed to remain completely neutral in presidential primaries.
Another Stein supporter, Towson University student Evan Draine briefly left the Green Party and registered as a Democrat just to vote for Sanders. Draine has since switched back his registration to Green and is fully supporting Jill Stein, whom he considers the only acceptable option on the ballot.
“By either voting for Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton we are subjecting ourselves to an evil.” Draine said. “They both have very extensive faults. Donald Trump talks a bad talk, which I in no way agree with, however Hillary Clinton’s track record shows that she walks a bad walk. For a so-called “Progressive”, she has voted for or endorsed policies and issues that I do not consider progressive one bit. For example, Hillary was in favor of TPP, was in favor of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and DOMA, voted in favor of the Iraq War, more military intervention in Libya, and the 2008 Wall Street bailout. While Jill Stein has shown extremely progressive views/positions,” he said.
Neither Levin nor Draine expressed any concern that support for Stein might swing the election to Trump. Their criticisms of Clinton were based off policy disagreements and their perception that she is untrustworthy, which placed them deeply in the base of candidates like Sanders and Stein.
Supporters of both Gary Johnson and Jill Stein indicated a similar disdain for the two party system.
Chandler Kozlowski, a senior at the University of Maryland claimed that his vote was both a protest vote and a vote of confidence for the Libertarian Johnson.
“I consider my vote both a protest vote and a vote for (Johnson). I am voting in protest of the two-party system, I am voting for Gary Johnson because I genuinely believe he is best fit for the job.” Kozlowski said.
Kozlowski also indicated that no candidate in either of the two main parties would have had his vote had they defeated Clinton or Trump in the primaries.
“I watched every debate from both parties. Watching all of these ultimately pushed me to register as a Libertarian.” He said.
The millennials interviewed for this story largely indicated that they intended to vote third party in down ballot races. This could mean trouble for Democrats who are hoping to boost their turnout in such races in order to take back control of one or both chambers of Congress.
For many millennials, 2016 is the first election in which they will be eligible to vote. Many are starting their political lives on the path of the third party voter. It remains to be seen if 2016 will be a watershed moment for third parties in America. Even if they don’t see record numbers this year, 2016 could build in long lasting support for third parties thanks to the unpopularity of both Republican and Democratic candidates.