Does MVP support third-party Presidential candidates?

Previously, we had written an overly-simplistic response to this question. At that time, we wrote:

“No. We do not, and we will not. We don’t expect any of our partners to endorse third-party candidates. And we would not support groups to get out the vote for such candidates.”

The truth is more nuanced. We support over 500 organizations including many that lead with issues rather than candidates or parties, and/or that lead with negative partisanship (e.g. why Trumpism is bad). We also support the Working Families Party (a third party that leverages fusion voting to avoid the spoiler problem of voting in a two-party system) and a wide range of movement organizations that engage in both “inside” and “outside” strategies vis-a-vis the Democratic Party. And, we recently supported a Swap Your Vote effort, which strategically enables swing state voters to register third-party protest votes in blue states (and even to double-swap two third-party votes for a Harris vote in a swing state). 

At the end of the day, as pragmatic progressives who want to create real change, our goal is to build the biggest winning coalition for progressive change and to support electoral outcomes that will most strategically and realistically advance those goals, while protecting our freedom to organize and protest. Ultimately, we believe in providing a way for donors to support the real power-building of grassroots organizing within and beyond elections, because real change and power are long-term and must include policy change as well as electoral victories.