Third-Party Candidates Made Little Headway In NC 2020 Election

Third-party candidates hoped to capitalize on the expanded political divide this election. But as Hunt Wasden reports, that support didn't happen in North Carolina. 

In North Carolina, Libertarian party candidates took a hit in most statewide elections this year. 

The party's gubernatorial candidate Steven DiFiore only managed to capture 1% of the vote, which is half of the percentage point captured by the party's candidate in 2016. 

Similarly, at the top of the ballot, presidential candidate Jo Jorgensen lost two-thirds of the support enjoyed by her predecessor Gary Johnson in 2016. And while this cycle also saw the first Constitution and Green party candidates on the ballot, both fared even worse than Jorgensen. 

This discrepancy was not limited to North Carolina though, as Jorgensen captured barely more than a third of the percentage of the nationwide popular vote as Johnson in 2016. 

The best performance in a statewide race was by the U.S. Senate Libertarian candidate, Shannon Bray, who pulled about 3 percent.