There has been little focus on the third-party candidates who have put themselves forward for the 2020 US presidential election.

Vermin Supreme speaks to police through his megaphone next to counter-protesters of an Alt-Right organized free speech event on the Boston Common on November 18, 2017 in Boston,…

Do not underestimate the impact third-party candidates can have on US elections. It is easy to get carried away with the focus on the two main parties.

The record for the highest share of third-party votes in US history is still held by Theodore Roosevelt during the 1912 election. Roosevelt won 6 states and 27 per cent of the popular vote. He came second, beating his friend and successor, William Howard Taft into third place. Taft, a Republican, only won two states and 23 per cent of the popular vote.

Angry at the Republicans for nominating Taft despite winning the most votes during the primaries, Roosevelt formed the Progressive Party, often nicknamed ‘the Bull Moose Party’ because he said he was as ‘fit as a bull moose.’ The Progressives stood for women’s suffrage and tariff reductions.

Roosevelt’s run split the Republican vote and resulted in Democrat Woodrow Wilson winning the 2012 presidential election.

So who are the independent candidates who have put themselves forward for the 2020 election?

Dario David ‘Yisroel’ Hunter

Lawyer, educator and politician Dario David Hunter is a former Democrat candidate for Youngstown City Council in the 2015 primary election. During that same year, he won a write-in campaign for a seat on the Youngstown Board of Education. He became the only Green elected officeholder in Ohio, joining the Greens in May 2018. Hunter is an outspoken critic on state report cards, nepotism, and creationism in the curriculum. He successfully sued the Ohio Department of Education for failing to provide public records in 2017.



Ian Schlakman

Ian Schlakman is also contesting the 2020 Green Party nomination for US president. He is a businessman and former co-chair of the Maryland Green Party. His running mate is Annie Chambers, a reverend and Baltimore City Resident Advisory Board Member. The party’s State Central Committee made him the only candidate to run on their gubernational ticket because nobody else put themselves forward by the March 30, 2018 deadline.

Dan Rattiner

Former New York Times journalist Dan Rattiner has declared himself as an independent candidate for the 2020 US presidential election. Rattiner has written twelve books, including In The Hamptons: My Fifty Years With Farmers, Fishermen, Artists, Billionaires and Celebrities.

Adam Kokesh, co-chair of Iraq War Veterans Against the War, speaks at a press conference to announce plans for a 15 September mass march against the war in Iraq led by Iraq war veterans…

Adam Kokesh

Libertarian and anti-war activist Adam Kokesh has announced he is running for US president. Kokesh is a former talk-show host for Adam vs the Man, which was available in a variety of formats. Kokesh appeared as a soldier in the film The Prey and as himself in numerous documentaries, such as Gray State: The Rise, and Owned and Operated. He has called for the open dissolution of the federal government.

Vermin Supreme

Supreme is renowned for wearing a boot as a hat, and carrying a large tooth brush, saying if he becomes US president, every citizen will be required to brush their own teeth. He has campaigned on a platform of zombie apocalypse awareness, and promised a free pony for every American. He participated in the ‘Pony Protest’ against Hillary Clinton’s 2017 book tour for her memoir What Happened, when she visited Concord, New Hampshire. Supreme co-wrote and starred in his own film Vote Jesus: The Chronicles of Ken Stevenson, where he plays a right-wing candidate. He is a self-proclaimed anarchist.