Support for a third major political party is higher than ever in the U.S., according to a new Gallup poll. Sixty-two percent of those polled say the Democratic and Republican parties "do such a poor job representing the American people that a third party is needed."
Support for a third party has grown most dramatically in recent months among the GOP, rising from just 40 percent last September to 63 percent today.
On its face, this might seem like good news for those anti-Trump Republicans who are reportedly mulling the idea of assembling a "center-right breakaway party" in an attempt to wrest America's conservatives from the grips of former President Donald Trump. Alas, it's not a more moderate party that America's disaffected voters want. "More Republicans want the party to move to the right than to the center," Gallup's Jeffrey M. Jones writes.
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The idea of an anti-Trump faction was hastily rejected by a number of party leaders who fear that splitting the GOP would risk paving the way for Democrats to make inroads. Instead they're hoping to "reform the party from within," according to Reuters.
Republican strategist Alex Conant told Reuters recently that any new political movement would fizzle without a charismatic leader. He added: "If somebody was going to start a third party that was going to gain some traction, it would be Trump."
The Gallup survey polled 906 adults between Jan. 21 and Feb. 2. Its margin of sampling error is ±4 percentage points. Read its full results here.
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