In November 2022, the Americans Coming Together Party ran three legislative candidates in West Virginia. The party is a centrist party. One of its nominees, S. Marshall Wilson, polled 39.7% of the vote in a two-person race, against a Republican opponent. That is the highest percentage for a minor party legislative candidate in West Virginia in at least 95 years.
Definitely NOT a centrist party. Have you read their platform (https://www.actpartywv.org/about)? They are clearly to the right of the GOP. Mr. Wilson was running in essentially his old district where he had previously been elected as a Republican before changing his registration to “Independent,” and then to his newly created party. He had significant name recognition, but West Virginia, as most states, prints party labels on the ballots, thus more uninformed voters just selected the familiar “REP” than the unknown entity “ACT” causing him to fail to win back his old seat.
In a 2-way race, these numbers are meaningless anyway. Last November, the “Upwising Party” flake Robin Mills collected 19.59% of the vote for state senate versus only Charles Trump. Essentially just a “none of the above” protest vote.
SOURCE: https://results.enr.clarityelections.com/WV/115844/web.307039/#/summary?category=C_2
Back in 2012, Daniel Litten, the Constitution Party nominee, scored 19.23% for state senate versus current senate president Craig Blair.
SOURCE: https://apps.sos.wv.gov/elections/results/results.aspx?year=2012&eid=13&county=Statewide
There are plenty of other examples for anyone interested in scrolling through the WVSOS election results data.
Definitely NOT a centrist party. Have you even bothered to read their platform? Clearly to the right of the GOP: https://www.actpartywv.org/about
Not saying there’s anything wrong with that; just pointing out the facts.
Also, it was a 2-way race with no Democrat running and in a district that was basically the same one previously held by Mr. Wilson, so the numbers don’t really mean anything. 39% of basically anti-Republican votes. Libertarian Austin Lynch got 31.31% in a 2-way for 12th State Senate here versus a Repub. Even the “Upwising Party” flake, Robin Mills, collected 19.59% for State Senate 15th versus Republican Charles Trump.
One out of five legislative races here last year (23 out of 117) had no Democrat running.
My point of view for a few years is where third parties should focus their efforts provided they have ballot access is areas that are effectively one-party. West Virginia in recent years has clearly become that as the Democratic Party has died outside of Joe Manchin.
Once you get rid of all the cheating, multiple and ineligible votes etc, and take into account all the people who don’t vote out of disgust with the leftist control of politics, govt, media, education, entertainment, etc, the real center is way to the right of the Republicans. Trump brought a lot of people out to vote for the first time, or for the first time in a long time, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Good point, Bob