Poll: Democrats have reason to fret Schultz

While only 26 percent of voters who approve of Trump’s job performance as president are very or somewhat likely to consider a third-party candidate, a larger percentage of Trump disapprovers, 41 percent, would consider voting for an independent. By party, nearly a third of Democrats, 31 percent, say they would consider a third-party candidate — greater than the 25 percent of Republicans who would consider voting for someone other than the two major-party nominees.

But the data don’t suggest Schultz, the billionaire ex-CEO of Starbucks, could do more than play spoiler in the 2020 presidential race. While 35 percent of all voters in the new poll say they’d consider a third-party candidate, only 12 percent say they’d be very likely to look outside the two major parties. And survey data and experts alike dispute Schultz’s rationale for his possible campaign: that a critical mass of unrepresented voters in the political center could be marshaled into an electoral majority by a moderate voice.