50% to 45%
Spread by which Mitt Romney won the independent vote. So now twice in the last three elections — in 2004 and 2012 — the winner has lost the indie vote, according to NBC’s First Read.
Connect:
Independent Voters Are Overrated
Poetic Justice
Pundits say that Trump’s $5,000 midterm bribe was an overreach,
And they agree that if lies were a crime, he’d be impeached.
Despite all the dividend promises he’s made,
The fact is, not one has ever been paid,
So even before the midterms, he already owes us $8,000* each.
*$5000 stimulus checks via “DOGE dividend”; $2000 stimulus checks via a “tariff dividend”; $1000-plus checks via “savings” from expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies
My theory is that where the group ‘independent voters’ used to be made up of people who actually were independent voters, that’s no longer the case. That a lot of people now calling themselves independents aren’t independent voters at all, but people with enough social awareness to be embarrassed to admit they’re Republicans — but they still quietly vote for anyone the GOP tells them to vote for.
Until independent voters are allowed to be candidates for public office, they have no choice but to vote for party candidates.