In Trump-Biden rematch, 38% open to third-party option: poll

Were the presidential election held today between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, 38% of Americans would consider a third-party candidate, a recent survey has found.

In a head-to-head matchup, Biden leads Trump 43% to 42% in the latest Rasmussen Reports survey. Should there be a strong third-party option, however, at 38% of likely voters would consider such a candidate, including 42% of Democrats and 35% of Republicans.

Conducted from Sept. 11-13, the survey questioned 979 likely voters and has a margin of error of +/- 3%.

At present, only a handful of longshot candidates, such as intellectual Cornel West, have announced presidential bids outside of the two traditional political parties. West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin and Utah GOP Sen. Mitt Romney have attracted some speculation as potential third-party figures, however. Neither have indicated they will seek the White House.

Trump leads Biden by 0.4% in the RealClearPolitics polling average, which includes the Rasmussen Reports survey.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.