Poll: Voters want independent, third-party candidates on debate stage
- Seventy-eight percent of voters plan to watch presidential debates
- RFK Jr. is fighting for a spot on the debate stage with Trump, Biden
- About 65% believe third-party candidates should be allowed to participate
Testing widget old system
(NewsNation) — While a rematch is already set for President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, one presidential candidate is trying to get into the ring with them and, according to a recent NewsNation/Decision Desk HQ poll, most Americans think someone in his position should be allowed to.
The poll found that most American voters (65%) believe third-party candidates, such as Robert F. Kennedy Jr., should be allowed to participate in presidential debates.
According to Decision Desk, independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is gaining more support from young voters, as well as Hispanic and African-American voters.
Kennedy, however, has been waging his own war to share the debate stage, as he pulls support away from both Biden and Trump.
Trump has geared up his attacks against Kennedy on Truth Social lately, saying he doesn’t have the numbers. He also refused to acknowledge Kennedy’s request to debate him at the Libertarian National Convention.
The clock is ticking. The deadline to qualify for the June 27 debate is just around the corner and Kennedy says he’s confident he can still meet CNN’s requirements.
A CNN spokesperson sent NewsNation the following statement:
“As an independent candidate, under applicable laws RFK, Jr. does not (qualify). The mere application for ballot access does not guarantee that he will appear on the ballot in any state. In addition, RFk, Jr. does not currently meet our polling criteria, which, like the other objective criteria, were set before issuing invitations to the debate.”
Kennedy said his campaign has had lengthy conversations with CNN and claims they’ve “been very coy about what exactly happened.”
“The law says they have to use objective criteria and pre-existing criteria,” Kennedy said. “They can’t decide on the criteria with the campaigns in order to exclude other campaigns. Otherwise, it’s an illegal campaign contribution.”
The Decision Desk poll shows that most voters (78%) plan to tune in for the 2024 debates.
Just slightly more than half of voters say they would be influenced a “great deal” or “fair amount” by the debates.
