“A vote for the Libertarian,” Madison Cercy tells the Washington Times, “or a protest vote from any Republican who sits this one out, is a vote to hand the U.S. Senate to the democratic socialists.”
Cercy, a spokeswoman for Ken Paxton’s US Senate campaign in Texas, is responding to a Rasmussen poll that shows Paxton trailing Democratic candidate James Talarico by 1%, with 5% of likely voters undecided … and 4% planning to support Libertarian Ted Brown.
It’s not just Texas. In Kansas’s Senate race, Libertarian David Graham also draws 4% in polling, with incumbent Republican Roger Marshall trailing Democrat Adam Hamilton by 2%. In Montana’s 1st US House district, Libertarian Nick Sheedy enjoys 5% support, with Republican Aaron Flint enjoying a razor-thin 1% lead over Democrat Sam Forstag.
In every election cycle, Republicans and Democrats start playing the “spoiler” card whenever a race looks uncomfortably close.
Usually it’s Republicans griping about Libertarians and Democrats grousing about Green Party candidates, on the supposition that those two “minor” parties’ voters would, in the “normal” course of things, vote Republican and Democrat respectively.
That supposition is probably incorrect — many third party voters simply won’t vote if they don’t see options they prefer on their ballots, and others might vote opposite the assumptions of the big players’ strategists.
The incorrectness doesn’t bug me nearly as much as the arrogance.
For more than a century, the Republican and Democratic parties have used ballot access laws and debate exclusion criteria to rig elections, making it as difficult and expensive as possible for “third party” and independent candidates to even appear on ballots.
Then when Republicans and Democrats lose, or look like they may lose, the whining begins.
“Why, the nerve! How dare anyone but us seek political office? Those other guys can’t win — we’ve busted our butts to make sure of that! But here they come, ‘stealing’ our votes and ‘spoiling’ the rightful outcomes! There oughta be a law! Oh, wait, there is … why isn’t it working?”
Note to political candidates:
Votes don’t belong to you, and aren’t “stolen” by other candidates.
Votes belong to voters and have to be earned — in those voters’ judgment — by you or by those other candidates.
Additional note to the Texas GOP:
You nominated a guy who was impeached on 20 counts by a legislature controlled by your own party. Those counts included abuse of office and accepting bribes. You nominated a guy who plea-bargained his way out of a felony indictment for securities fraud. You nominated a guy who committed voter fraud at least twice by voting “from” an address he didn’t live at.
Stop blaming the Libertarian for your nominee’s deservedly poor standing with the voters. James Talarico may not deserve to win the race, but Ken Paxton definitely deserves to lose it. Texas could, and unfortunately almost certainly will, do a lot worse than Ted Brown. If he saves you from six years of Paxton, he deserves a medal.
Stop whining about “spoilers” already and start trying to earn support instead of just demanding it.
Thomas L. Knapp (X: @thomaslknapp | Bluesky: @knappster.bsky.social | Mastodon: @knappster) is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.
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