More Democrats would consider a third-party presidential candidate: poll

More Democrats than Republicans indicated they would consider a third-party presidential candidate if President Biden and former President Trump are the two 2024 major party nominees, according to a new poll. 

The NBC News poll found that 44 percent of registered voters said they would be open to considering a third-party candidate in the event of a rematch of the 2020 presidential election, while a majority — 53 percent — said they would not consider it. 

Polling from past elections has found a similar amount of respondents saying they would definitely or probably consider voting for a third-party candidate.

An NBC poll taken in March 2016 found 46 percent said they would consider another candidate in the race between Trump and eventual Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Another poll in April 2012 found 40 percent would consider a third party in the race between then-President Obama and the eventual GOP nominee, Utah Sen. Mitt Romney.

But Democrats in the recent poll were more likely than Republicans to signal they were open to it, with 45 percent of Democrats saying they would consider another candidate. A little more than half of Democrats said they would not consider it. 

About a third of Republicans said they would consider a third-party candidate, while 63 percent said they would not. 

Pollsters also found majorities of a few notable Democratic-leaning groups said they would consider a third-party candidate. That includes 58 percent of Hispanic voters, 57 percent of voters ages 18 to 34, 55 percent of voters who supported Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) or Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary race, and 52 percent of Black voters. 

Polling has shown that a majority of voters want neither Trump nor Biden to be their party’s nominee for president in 2024, despite their significant leads in polls for their respective party’s primaries.

A bipartisan group called No Labels has been organizing an effort to put forward a third-party “unity” ticket made up of a Democrat and a Republican if the two major parties nominate “unreasonably divisive” candidates. 

Democrats have raised warnings that third-party efforts like those of No Labels could undermine Biden’s reelection efforts. An Emerson College poll released last week showed that a third-party candidate would pull down Biden’s support below Trump’s. 

No Labels pledged earlier this month to end its third-party efforts if polling showed Biden “way” ahead of Trump next spring. 

The NBC poll was conducted from June 16-20 among 1,000 registered voters. The margin of error was 3.1 points.