21 Lessons Learned
Opinion by Ben Everidge
perspectives learned for 21st century independents from the 2024 campaign trail …
As an independent candidate for the United States Senate in 2024, I learned a few valuable lessons to consider if you are contemplating being or supporting a future independent candidate for office yourself.
Let’s start with this as a base point, which bodes well for the future but not so much for the present.
Political scientists have been fond of saying of late that if “independent” were an organized political party, it would dominate American politics. That’s quite a statement today when you consider the longevity of America's two major political parties.
Even more astoundingly, extreme political positions, obstructionism, parochialism, legislative paralysis in Washington and many of our state capitals, and selfish perspectives at the expense of the public good have resulted in some 43% of Americans concluding today that they consider themselves politically independent voters.
Such voters think of themselves as independents regardless of current registration instead of being considered traditional Republicans or Democrats. This finding is courtesy of one remarkable Gallup poll in January 2024, which foretells a political realignment whose impact is yet to be measured but is in progress.[i]
For context, let me share with you what type of independent candidate I was for Florida. I am a moderate-to-center-right voter and describe myself as fiscally conservative and socially rational. In a state that tends to vote increasingly more center-right-to-conservative, my Republican opponent, the incumbent, sat on the extreme right-wing side of the political spectrum. In contrast, my Democrat opponent sat on the extreme left-wing side of the political spectrum. Much of the political center from moderate-to-center-right and moderate-to-center-left was left to me to promote. Where do those voters go now?
