The Independent Party is a ballot-qualified in Connecticut for all statewide offices except President. In this year’s U.S. Senate race, two factions of the party support different candidates for the party’s U.S. Senate nomination. If they can’t agree, the Secretary of State won’t print anyone on the November ballot as the party’s nominee, and then it will lose its ballot status for the office of U.S. Senate for the 2018 election.
The two major party nominees are incumbent Democrat Richard Blumenthal, and Republican Dan Carter. One faction of the Independent Party wants to also nominate Dan Carter, so that he would be on the November ballot twice, under both the Republican label and the Independent label. This faction of the party is centered in Danbury, where the Mayor is an Independent Party leader even though he is a registered Republican.
The other faction, centered in Waterbury, wants the Independent Party to run its own nominee for U.S. Senate, John R. Price, who is not the nominee of any other party. See this story.
In 2012 the Independent Party nominated Rocky Anderson for President (who was the Justice Party nominee around the remainder of the U.S.). But in the 2012 U.S. Senate race, the Independent Party nominated the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate, Linda McMahon. Anderson and McMahon had very little in common politically, but that showed the two factions of the Independent Party, at least in 2012, were able to get along with each other. Thanks to Joshua Van Vranken for the link.
It seems every minor party has two rival factions.
The Natural Law Party never had any factions. But, generally, factions have existed in U.S. parties, major and minor alike, for a long time.
Parties that had instances when the ballot-qualified state party wouldn’t place on the November ballot the national convention choice for president include Republican, Democratic, Libertarian, Constitution, Socialist, Prohibition, American, Peoples Party of 1976, and probably more that I can’t remember just now. Darcy Richardson would probably remember more examples.
Yeah, I guess that might the reason for minor parties, that they are doomed to failure…