Third party candidates aim to attract undecided voters
With unfavorable opinions piling up each week for presumptive presidential nominees Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, more voters will weigh their options outside of the Democratic and Republican Parties.
While the Libertarian Party is smaller than the Democratic and Republican Parties, it still ranks as the third largest political party in terms of registered voters and ballot access.
Gary Johnson, a former Republican governor of New Mexico, is the 2016 Libertarian presidential nominee. He earned the presidential nomination this May during the party’s convention.
Johnson is campaigning the Libertarian Party to the mainstream media as fiscally conservative and socially liberal in order to attract more outsider voters.
He believes the biggest issue in the United States right now is that “the government is too big, it tries to do too much and it spends too much money.”
Johnson said in his campaign that Democrats and Republicans are to blame for the unsustainable spending and debt of the nation.
The Libertarian candidate is also against building a wall to line the Mexican border, saying there’s “no common sense to it.” He believes that, instead of deporting millions of illegal immigrants, the U.S. should be offering easier access to work visas.
As for abortion, Johnson’s views are that a woman’s body is her own and that she should be able to make decisions for herself.
Green Party
With her phrase “I’m a physician not a politician,” likely Green Party nominee Jill Stein said she wants to fix the broken political system and rigged economy.
The Green Party is based on principles such as social justice and nonviolence, and party members believe that both are closely related to one another as a foundation for world peace.
Stein believes in free public education through the university level and that student loan debt should be forgiven. She believes a bailout for student debt can be achieved in the same way used for bank bailouts.
Stein also has strong views on climate change and getting rid of the use of fossil fuels: She argues that although Obama increased renewable energy generated in the U.S. to five percent, he has endorsed fracking that has put even more strain on the environment.
“Lethal impacts have already been set in motion that require emergency action,” Stein said to OnTheIssues.org.
The Green Party will select an official presidential candidate at their party convention this August.