A 35-year-old man from Texas has officially modified his name to “Literally Anybody Else” and announced he’s running for office US presidential election 2024.
The man, formerly generally known as Dustin Ebey, is an Army veteran and teaches Seventh grade math at Watauga Middle School in Tarrant County, Texas. But this week he decided to offer the world a history lesson and announced his candidacy for the presidency — historically a doomed mission — out of frustration with the 2 repeat candidates, former President Donald Trump and current President Joe Biden.
The idea to vary the name got here about as a joke last yr, Else said in an interview interview with Texas socket WFAA. He began taking the matter seriously because he realized there have been few other options “for people like me who are just tired of this constant power grab between two parties that just doesn’t do any good for the average person.”
Else legally modified his name on Jan. 12 at a Tarrant County courthouse, and it’s even reflected in his name Driver’s license. But he needs 113,000 signatures from voters outside Texas primaries to pass Presidential election. Since it’s unlikely that he’ll receive enough signatures, per a Guardian reportHe advocates for people to jot down on his behalf.
The election is not about him as an individual, he said within the interview, “it’s literally about someone else as an idea.”
Else believes there must be an option beyond the 2 candidates – one a billionaire and the opposite a lifelong politician – because they do not share the identical experiences as nearly all of the country. He questions whether Trump and Biden are “still in contact with people like me or people like you.”
Additionally, Else said that many individuals he speaks with can be “more likely to vote against one of the main candidates than for someone they support.” They may not like Biden, he explained, but they’ll vote for him in the event that they despise Trump. He hopes putting his name on the ballot is usually a way for “disenfranchised” individuals who want a unique presidential election to say “neither.”
“We should have the opportunity to vote for people who represent us,” Else said, relatively than voting for the “lesser of two evils.”
Can third-party candidates actually win an election?
The sentiment behind Else’s presidential candidacy was not lost on many individuals. The preference for a third-party candidate is growing. In fact, 63% of U.S. adults agree that the Republican and Democratic parties “represent the American people so poorly that a third major party is needed,” in keeping with a Opinion poll under the direction of Gallup in October.
The country is home to greater than 54 political partiesAmong essentially the most lively are the Green Party, the Reform Party, the Libertarians and the Natural Law Party. 37 of them had candidates running for the US presidency. But up to now, third-party candidates are inclined to lose due to evolution of the country’s two-party system, in keeping with one report from Third waya public policy think tank based in Washington DC
Among the influential third-party candidates who’ve applied is Ross Perot, who ran as independent in 1992, and Ralph Nader, who made 4 presidential candidacies under the Green Party in 1996 and 2000; the Reform Party in 2004; and as an independent in 2008. They were all unsuccessful runs.
On eighth of March No labelsA gaggle that supports third-party presidential candidates has decided to field a presidential candidate within the 2024 election, in keeping with The Associated Press reported, but his luck ran dry. Earlier this week, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said decided against it a 3rd No Labels candidacy, joining an inventory of other notable candidates, including Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema and West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, who refused to affix the centrist party.
While Christie said he appreciated “the encouragement I received to pursue a third-party candidacy” and felt it was a very important conversation, he believes it could possibly be damaging to the general election final result. “If my candidacy would in any way help Donald Trump become president again, then that is not the way forward,” he wrote in a letter opinion on X
And the Third Way report also shows how third-party races can impact election results.
It is “almost impossible for a third-party candidate to actually win the election,” and candidates as a substitute often act “as spoilsports,” the report said.
Still, dreams of a more sympathetic third party are afoot across much of the country — as Else’s name-changing decision to tackle the two-party-dominated ballot shows. And he hopes his name on the ballot will likely be a “beacon for everyone who shares the same opinion.”
