If a third party candidate won the electoral vote and popular in 2016 what would be the reaction of many Americans?
They would wonder who in the hell actually voted for a third-party candidate and demand a recount.
I’d suspect the Russians had hijacked the election, then my alarm would probably wake me up.
Presumably the polling would forecast that win or at least the possibility of such a win, so it wouldn’t be a surprise. As for the reaction, Democrats and Trump supporters would wonder what the hell hit them. And of course warning President Johnson that he has no mandate, since obviously the public was just throwing a tantrum.
The Pubs and Dems would band together to make it even more impossibles for third parties to win.
Q: what do you call a third party that wins the presidency?
A: a party.
Since they are the ones that voted for her/him, I would imagine their reaction would be “Yahoo! My candidate won!”
As Adaher points out, we’d already know the candidate was likely to win, or at least in the running, well in advance. If a 3rd party candidate somehow went from 6% in the polls to winning the Electoral College, I think the big question would be what sort of fraud just happened.
It’s unlikely that a 3rd party candidate would draw equally from both ends of the spectrum so the reaction would probably be “Johnson is the face of the Neo-Republican party” or “Stein is the new evolution of Democrats”.
I think the main reaction wouldn’t happen until this happened:
President: Here’s my budget
Republicans in Congress: Excuse me?
Democrats in Congress: Excuse me?
There would be mass cheering and a new era of bi-partisanship. Not simply because our president was from a third party but simply because of the conditions that would be necessary for this to happen. In order for a 3rd party candidate to win he would have to be the overwhelming favorite of the majority of Americans, someone who could draw large swaths of voters from both sides, and overcome the substantial advantages that the parties have over the process. Further, he would have to get an outright majority of the EV’s in a three party race since otherwise the house would give it to the majority party.
Basically he/she would have to be the American messiah, a combination of FDR, Ronald Reagan, MLK Jr., and Lincoln all rolled into one. Or in other words, not gonna happen.
I don’t think it has to go that far. Conceivably, the candidate that wins in 2016 could have as little as 35% of the vote.
Kang and Kodos would join up to eat the President-elect.