Question

What can third parties hope to attain by running for office and/or promoting their political ideology?

Answer 1

Third parties may also help voter turnout by bringing more people to the polls. Third party candidates at the top of the ticket can help to draw attention to other party candidates down the ballot, helping them to win local or state office.

Answer 2

In America, "third parties" are those political parties that are not part of the country's two major political parties, the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. Some examples are the Green Party, the Libertarian Party or the Constitution Party.

Given the bipartisan system that the nation has, third parties have practically no chance of accessing government positions, except in the case of local governments, where they sometimes access minor positions.

Therefore, these political parties usually do not have hopes of accessing the presidency, governorships or even Congress, but on the contrary, their nominations are motivated to install debate topics in American society, "taking away" votes from the closest majority party to its ideals, or to influence politicians of the majority parties to adopt some of their ideas.