At this point in the 1992 election cycle, George H.W. Bush’s approval rating was over 80 percent. A little more than a year later, he trailed the independent candidate Ross Perot in national polls.
So it is probably premature to confidently assess whether there’s an opening for Howard Schultz, a prospective third-party presidential candidate and the former chief executive of Starbucks. Well-funded, vigorous third-party candidates don’t come around often, and sometimes it’s not evident that electoral systems are vulnerable until someone tries to break them.
But at least for now, there is little reason to think a Schultz bid would end differently from the other independent or minor-party bids of the last 150 years (none won).
And there is at least some reason to think it could help President Trump’s uncertain path to re-election. CONT.
Nate Cohn, New York Times