Howard Schultz, the former chief executive of Starbucks, cannot win the presidency as an independent candidate. Is there any chance a third-party candidate could contest the presidency and win? As long as the United States has an Electoral College and winner-take-all process for presidential elections, third-party and independent candidates will have a hard time finding any traction. There have been times in American history, though, when third-party candidates have upended the political landscape, winning entire regions of the country, although never the presidency. But unlike Schultz, those candidates weren’t self-proclaimed “independents” railing against “divisiveness” from the center; they were polarizers who built support by cultivating personal followings and sharpening ideological, cultural and geographic divides.

Source: New York Times January 31, 2019 16:52 UTC