The Voters Are Leaving The Clubhouse
Washington treats party loyalty like a lifetime gym membership: the only difference is you keep paying even if they don’t show up. To their jobs, or to represent what you voted for—because they told you they’d do it. Increasingly, Americans are canceling their membership.
For examples of the above, look no further than Democrats (including this one) who currently don’t recognize John Fetterman based on the platform he ran on in 2022.
Susan Collins has used Maine’s independent streak as political oxygen during near-death political experiences, leveraging imagery of past, female, open-minded Republicans—Sens. Margaret Chase Smith and Olympia Snowe—to claim she’s the same. She is not. She also plays on goodwill created by Angus King, independent former Governor and current Senator from the Pine Tree State. Meanwhile, Collins skips to Trump’s tune, voting to confirm Roe opponent and credibly accused assaulter Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.
But what can be argued began with Ross Perot in 1992, when he at one point led then-President George H.W. Bush and Democratic challenger Bill Clinton in the race for President, has only continued to grow as the Republican Party has become enmeshed in authoritarianism and corruption and the Democratic Party has failed to win all of those alienated by failing to stand up strong enough as an entity to fight the fascism in our midst.
So independence, and independents, have never been more popular. Gallup found that a record 45% of U.S. adults identified as independents in 2025, compared with 27% each for Democrats and Republicans. Now that measures political identity, rather than voter registration, which states track differently. But the registration rolls tell their own story: Colorado’s unaffiliated voters crossed the 50% threshold in September 2025. Independence has become a major feature of American politics, and it isn’t going away, it seemingly will only continue to grow.
Perot Brought The Rebellion Into Our Living Rooms
Ross Perot didn’t invent independent politics, but his 1992 presidential campaign gave the modern revolt against the two-party system a national stage. Nearly 20 million Americans—18.9% of voters—chose the Texas businessman over George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton when the votes were counted. Armed with charts and a folksy charm—and let’s not forget billions of dollars--Perot went after both parties, indeed the entire system, demonstrating how much demand existed outside their gates. His later Reform Party campaign received 8.4% in 1996. The presidential breakthrough never came, because, if we’re being honest, he was a bit kooky. But the appetite he tapped endured. Independent identification subsequently reached levels Perot’s era never saw, with independent identification first surpassing 40% in 2011, and typically remaining at or above since. You could call Perot an early warning system.
We’ve Already Elected Those Outside The Parties To High Office
Americans have repeatedly demonstrated that independence can survive contact with an actual ballot. King won Maine’s governorship as an independent in 1994. Bernie Sanders, an independent, and Mayor of Burlington, VT before he ran for Congress, became the longest-serving independent member of Congress in U.S. history. His fellow Vermonter, Jim Jeffords, joined a trend of moderate Republicans leaving the increasingly Party of Un-Lincoln to become independents, when he left the GOP as a sitting Senator and caucused with Democrats in 2001. Jesse Ventura beat both major parties to become Minnesota’s governor in 1998, running on the Reform Party ticket. And Michael Bloomberg spent part of his New York City mayoralty as an independent after leaving the Republican Party in 2007. These men hardly shared one ideology. That’s the point: independence is a relationship to party power, not a single position on the political spectrum.
In the 2010s this trend continued, with Lincoln Chafee, onetime Republican Senator and scion of a moderate Republican family, elected Governor of Rhode Island in 2010. Meanwhile, Bill Walker became the independent Governor of Alaska in 2014. Charlie Crist left the GOP for the remainder of his term in office when, as the sitting Governor of Florida, he lost a GOP Senate primary to the more conservative Marco Rubio (he eventually became and ran as a Democrat). Meanwhile, Sanders and King kept getting reelected to the Senate.
Some Don’t Fit Either Party
Before we get to the ones you’ve inevitably heard the media talking about, there are some other intriguing runs. Colorado Senate candidate Bob Chew is a case in point. He was a Republican but left the party because his moderate politics didn’t match MAGALand. Chew’s a Navy veteran and built his own company from the ground up, so he has a natural connection to veterans and entrepreneurs. He has three major advantages: He has funds, with over $1.1 million on hand, a good sense of humor—as he’s gone a bit viral for doing things like breaking furniture in ads paid for by those funds—and then there’s the figure I showed you earlier: over 50% of Coloradans are now registered independents. Of course, on the downside, former Governor and current Democratic Senator John Hickenlooper has name recognition and incumbency, neither are easy to beat.
In Tennessee, Lauren Pinkston, a former Lipscomb University professor who impresses with her speeches on the stump is running for governor as an independent. She’s been hammering Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn, also running for governor. Pinkston has some Democrats not confident in the Democratic Party’s prospects in The Volunteer State—they’ve been shut out in recent years—intrigued by her political talents as a candidate with an anti-Republican wave building.
Dan Osborn Made Republicans Sweat—In Nebraska
Then came Dan Osborn, the mechanic, Navy veteran and union leader who challenged Republican Sen. Deb Fischer in Nebraska two years ago. Written off, laughed at, assumed to be no threat because only a wealthy self-spender like Bloomberg or Perot was believed to be able to do it, not a unionized industrial mechanic. Yet, in 2024, Osborn won 46.5% to Fischer’s 53.2%, losing by just 6.7 percentage points in a state Trump carried by roughly 20. Not a nail biter, yet he made what should’ve been a laugher (or Laffer?) of a race quite competitive running well ahead of Kamala Harris.
Osborn’s appeal opened the eyes of some Democrats, not to mention potential independent candidates out West, where both major parties are about as popular as hookworm. Here was a working person talking about working people, without asking voters to embrace the national Democratic brand first. Now Osborn’s running again, this time against Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts, and in the last poll available not only had a 3-point lead, but Ricketts was at a dreadful 42%. He has billions. And he’ll need them to have a chance to climb out of that hole.
A mechanic challenging an oligarch provides an almost unbeatable contrast at a moment in our history when billionaires, or the “Epstein Class,” are so reviled. And Osborn’s being joined in this odyssey by others who also don’t fit neatly in a box. Yet all are moderate enough so that even though they’re independents, with no Democrat in their contests, they’ll become de-facto Democrats for those voters. This includes Brian Bengs—a Navy and Air Force veteran who previously ran as a Democrat—taking the independent path in South Dakota, and with poll numbers that also show him within the margin of error or even slightly ahead. And In Idaho, where former Democratic legislator and Army veteran Todd Achilles is challenging Sen. Jim Risch.
Then there is Seth Bodnar, former University of Montana president and Green Beret, full of energy and charisma. Which I saw when I interviewed him on Blue Amp Media. Bodnar’s also running for the Senate as an independent, but unlike in those other states, his race was complicated when a Democrat jumped in against the wishes of the party. So even with his bio and talent, he’ll have a tougher time of it. Yes, many know he’s the Democratic Party choice. He’s been endorsed by former Democratic Senator Jon Tester and former President of NARAL Pro-Choice America and recent Montana Democratic Party Chair, Nancy Keenan. But it’ll be a challenge not losing low-info Democrats to a vote for the party line. Though Bodnar’s confident he’ll do it.
Democrats Weighed The Independent Route
The calculation extends to candidates who ultimately chose to keep the Democratic label. In Kansas, Rev. Adam Hamilton, now the Democratic Senate nominee challenging Roger Marshall, seriously considered running as an independent. He chose the Democratic route partly to avoid splitting the opposition vote, while describing himself as independent-minded. That decision captures both the opportunity and the danger: an independent candidacy can expand a coalition, but a crowded ballot can divide it. A poll recently showed him down only 1 point to Marshall, and with Marshall inventing new ways to be boring each day and Hamilton responsible for building the largest Methodist Church in Kansas and the country, this will be interesting.
Nobody should confuse this trend with the rise of one third party, or assume independent voters are all centrists which has been a corporate-media tick for a generation. Most independents still lean toward one major party. But the opportunities are real. Gallup’s 2025 figures also show that majorities of both Gen Z adults and millennials identify as independent. One can earn their support through candidates they trust and by talking about what matters to their lives.
For Democrats facing entrenched Republicans, that may sometimes mean backing a credible independent who can reach voters a Democrat cannot. It also may mean looking at an independent in cases where they can win, and especially where the Democratic candidate isn’t even getting the support of their own party apparatus (see Montana).
We must judge all candidates on their records, their values, and whether they will defend democracy. But dismissing them because they lack a “D” would be political malpractice. Perot showed that millions wanted another choice. Osborn showed with his right race, another choice can put an otherwise un-winnable election absolutely within reach.
That's great because the more people that vote the better Democracy works. But Cliff, we don't need people doing what you said you were going to do in Michigan and not vote in the Senate race. That is exactly how Trump got back into office after the failure he wass the 1st time, because people would not vote for Trump and would not vote for a Black Woman. Fact is if everyone was blind, no one would be black so what happened we had 6 million Democrats that are still racist enough or masogynist enough to not eliminate Trump and now we are in this mess. GO VOTE CLIFF!
This is wonderful however we need to remain united in order to remove the pedophilic criminals that are now the GOP platform and that means unfortunately we really truly only have a choice between democratic and republican voting… as it stands right now. We absolutely need to make some changes later downstream, which includes an eradication of the GOP, which now has baked into its brand, rape, sex, trafficking, pedophilia, and blatant self enrichment and criminal overall. The fact that the Republican part instead of squashing this bug when it Rear, it’s ugly Head decided to embrace it fully and defend. It is the reason why the party is cooked. So I would advise running on a Democratic ticket and be sure that you are not taking any Corporate pack money that you are on board with eradicating citizens United, the electoral college, taxing the oligarch parasite class appropriately as we did in the 60s and 70s up until Reagan came up with the trickle down economics that we know doesn’t work and starves poor the middle classes into extinction. Let’s stay united because this is this midterm our last effort to save ourselves truly, and get rid of the orange antichrist and all the evil that unfortunately the GOP now stands for.