A 35-year-old Texas man has legally changed his name to “literally anyone” and announced he will run for the 2024 US presidential election.
The man formerly known as Dustin Eby is a military veteran who teaches seventh grade math at Watauga Middle School in Tarrant County, Texas. But this week, he decided to give the world a history lesson, and his dissatisfaction with his two re-election candidates, former President Donald Trump and current President Joe Biden, led him to a historically doomed presidential mission. He announced his candidacy for the election.
In an interview with Texas station WFAA, Els said the idea for the name change started as a joke last year. He started taking the issue seriously because there were few other options “for people like me who are tired of constant power grabs between two major political parties that are of no benefit to ordinary people.” This is because I noticed that.
Els legally changed his name at a Tarrant County courthouse on January 12, and it also appears on his driver's license. But it would need 113,000 signatures from non-primary voters in Texas to appear on the presidential ballot. Since it is unlikely that he will receive enough signatures, guardian He is reportedly campaigning for people to write his name.
Being on the ballot isn't about yourself as a person, he said in an interview, “It's literally about someone else as an idea.”
Els believes there should be options other than the two candidates, one a billionaire and the other a lifelong politician. Because they don't share the same experiences as the majority of the country. He wonders whether Trump and Biden are “still in touch with people like me and people like you.”
Additionally, Els said many of the people he speaks to vote “against one of the major candidates, not the person they support.” They may not like Biden, but if they despise Trump, they will vote for him, he explained. He hopes that putting his name on the ballot will be a way for “disenfranchised” people who want a different choice in president to say “neither”.
Instead of voting for the “lesser of two evils,” Els said, “we should have the option to vote for the person who represents us.”
Can third-party candidates actually win elections?
The sentiment behind Mr. Els' presidential bid is not lost on many. There is growing interest in third-party candidates. In fact, an October Gallup poll found that 63% of U.S. adults say the Republican Party and Democratic Party “are so inadequate at representing the American people that we need a third major political party.” ”I agree with that.
There are more than 54 political parties in this country, including the most active parties such as the Green Party, the Reform Party, the Libertarian Party, and the Natural Law Party, and 37 of them have candidates running for president of the United States. Masu. But historically, because of how the country's two-party system has developed, third-party candidates It is said that there is a tendency to lose.
Leading third-party candidates who have run include Ross Perot, who ran as an independent in 1992, and Ralph Nader, who ran for president four times under the Green Party in 1996 and 2000. included. Reform Party in 2004. They all ended in failure.
On March 8, the Associated Press reported that No Labels, a group that supports third-party presidential candidates, had decided to field a presidential candidate in the 2024 election, but its luck ran out. Earlier this week, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie decided not to run as a third-party candidate with No Labels, joining Sens. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin of West Virginia who declined to participate. He joins a list of other big-name candidates, including members of Congress. centrist party.
Christie is grateful for the “encouragement I've gotten to run as a third-party candidate,” and feels like it's an important conversation that could negatively impact the overall outcome of the election. He said he thought so. “If my candidacy in any way, shape, or form helps Donald Trump become president again, that is not the way forward,” he wrote. statement With X.
And Third Way's report shows how third-party candidates can affect election outcomes.
The report states that it is “almost impossible for third-party candidates to actually win elections outright” and that candidates instead often “act as spoilers.”
Still, dreams of a more empathetic third party are in play in many parts of the country, as evidenced by the decision to change Else's name to cope with a two-party-dominated ballot. And he wants his name on the ballot to be “a beacon for all who share the same sentiments.”
