Faced with the dilemma of Donald Trump or Joe Biden in the 2024 election many Americans are desperate for a third, less divisive option.

This search for a third party candidate, something that hasn’t happened since the 1990s, is a stark reminder that in Trump and Biden the Republican and Democratic parties have chosen two unusually unpopular candidates for the election.

The looming new duel comes as the US grapples with economic stress, deep political division, the country’s controversial support for Israel’s operation in Gaza and calls for a new generation to take over American leadership.

63% of Americans agree with the statement that the Democratic and Republican parties are doing “such a bad job” of representing the U.S. that “a third major party is needed”, according to a recent Gallup poll. That’s a 7-point increase from last year and the largest percentage since 2003 when Gallup began asking the question.

No third party candidate has won a presidential election in modern US history, although they have sometimes managed to steal votes from major party candidates.

In 1992 billionaire businessman Ross Perot garnered 19% of the vote, helping Bill Clinton win the election.

Political activist Ralph Nader won less than 3% of the vote in 2000, but stole enough from Democratic candidate Al Gore in Florida that George W. Bush and consequently the elections.

Now a Reuters/Ipsos poll shows that Robert Kennedy Jr., an anti-vaccine, conspiracy-theorizing scion of the famous family, would garner 20 percent of the vote against Trump and Biden.

Kennedy is backed by American Values ​​2024, a political action committee that has raised more than $17 million for his campaign. According to the Reuters/Ipsos poll, Kennedy is winning votes from both Democrats and Republicans.

“People want better options”

“We’ve been trying to take the pulse of voters for the last couple of years and it’s been telling us the same thing over and over: people want better options,” said Ryan Clancy, chief strategist at No Labels, a cross-party group that will field its own candidate for the first time. after years of supporting congressional moderates.

To that end, the organization has reached out to former Maryland Republican Gov. Larry Hogan and U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, a conservative Democrat from West Virginia.

Clancy indicated that No Labels plans to hold a convention in April and select its candidates if a new battle between Trump and Biden appears inevitable and if it believes its candidates can win.

Other independent candidates do not seem particularly threatening. Cornel West, an African-American philosopher and activist, is running as an independent and hopes to influence the political debate in the 2024 election.

Jill Stein recently announced that she will run for the White House again with the Green Party. Both she and West are expected to garner a negligible percentage.