Why Libertarian Jo Jorgenson, Green Party's Howie Hawkins Got Such Little Attention In 2020

The 2020 election looked like a two-person race from the very start, with the Libertarian and Green Party nominees barely generating any media visibility and with no real electable independent candidate.

The poor showing from third-party candidates may be a testament to the polarizing campaigns of the two drastically different front-runners, President Donald Trump and challenger Joe Biden.

"Our extreme partisan polarization means that there's not much room to run on the outside of either party," Thad Kousser, a professor of political science at the University of California-San Diego, told The Hill.

As a result, third-party and other alternative candidates struggled to raise funds for their campaigns, and are now polling well-below their 2016 predecessors.

The 2020 third-party and independent field features Green Party presidential nominee Howie Hawkins and Libertarian nominee Jo Jorgensen. There's also rap mogul Kanye West, who is only on the ballot in 12 states as a member of the Birthday Party.

“I think when you have two candidates that are clear, give voters a really clear choice between two different directions for the country, that makes it harder for third parties to make a traditional pitch that there's no real difference between these two major parties,” Kousser said.

David Barker, the director of the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies at American University, argued that voters' hatred for Trump is working against third-party candidates.

“The hatred of Trump overrides everything,” Barker said, “And so they're willing to put those things aside and really eschew even thinking about voting for a Green Party candidate or another third-party candidate in the way they did in 2016 because it is such a strong goal to get rid of Trump.”

In some instances, these candidates are not even on the ballot in critical swing states. In Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, two crucial swing states, Hawkins didn't even appear on the ballot.

However, Jorgensen met all states’ ballot-access requirements and was an option for voters when filling out their ballots.

As of late Tuesday night, Jorgensen and Hawkins accounted for only 1% of the total popular vote, the New York Times reported.

Third-party candidates did well in the 2016 election. Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson gained over 3% of the popular vote, and the Green Party’s Jill Stein got 1%. Altogether, candidates who did not represent either of the two main parties got nearly 5% of the popular vote.