Over 60% of Americans believe 3rd political party needed
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The majority of the rise came from Republicans, with 58% wanting a third choice, up from 45% last year.
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A voter checks in at Suffield Middle School on primary election day, Aug. 9, 2022, in Suffield, Connecticut. (AP)
According to a Gallup poll issued Wednesday, 63% of Americans say "a third major party is needed" since the Democratic and Republican parties are doing "such a poor job" of representing them.
This is a new high since Gallup began monitoring the subject in 2003 and a seven-point gain from 2022, however, it is comparable to the 62% recorded in 2021.
The majority of the rise came from Republicans, with 58% wanting a third choice, up from 45% last year. Nonetheless, independents are the most inclined to desire a third party, with 75% saying so this year.
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This comes shortly after Kevin McCarthy was ousted as speaker of the US House of Representatives in a historic rebellion by far-right Republicans furious at his cooperation with Democrats.
For the first time in its 234-year history, the House backed a resolution "to vacate the office of the speaker" with a 216-210 vote setting the stage for an unprecedented contest to replace McCarthy a year before the presidential election.
The ouster was supported by only a handful of right-wing Republican hardliners. However, the House was almost evenly divided and with Democrats joining eight rebel Republicans rather than riding to McCarthy's rescue, he had no way to survive. No other speaker has been ousted in US history.
The 58-year-old had sparked fury among conservatives when he passed a bipartisan stopgap funding measure at the weekend backed by the White House to avert a government shutdown.
In July, a report by Bloomberg revealed, citing results from a poll conducted by Quinnipiac University, that the next presidential elections could present a third-party candidate that is likely to impact a possible rematch between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.
According to the poll results, nearly half of eligible voters, namely 47% of polled individuals, said they would consider voting for a third-party candidate for the next presidential elections.
