On Tuesday, a little-known candidate who won a few thousand votes in the Texas primary extended an already bitter Democratic race by more than two months.
In Texas, candidates must win at least 50 percent of the vote to win their party nomination. If no one gets at least 50 percent, the top two finishers advance to a runoff. On Tuesday, Rep. Henry Cuellar, a longtime South Texas Democrat, received the most votes in his primary but missed the 50 percent threshold and pushed him into a runoff against Jessica Cisneros, a progressive immigration attorney.
As of Thursday afternoon, Cuellar had received 48.4 percent of the vote and Cisneros 46.9 percent. A third Liberal candidate, Tannya Benavides, had 4.7 percent. Attempts to reach Benavides were unsuccessful. She didn’t even come close to qualifying for the May runoff, but she garnered just enough votes to keep either candidate from winning the primary outright.
They’re called spoiler candidates, but it’s not necessarily a fair description.
Big-party candidates who do not win enough support are in many ways just as responsible for their losses as little-known candidates who receive only a fraction of the vote. But spoiler candidates have helped shape American politics, for better or for worse. A third-party candidate in Georgia told us he was the target of Republican ire — even death threats — for running for the 2020 Senate.
Candidate Shane Hazel, a Libertarian, received 2.3 percent of the vote in the November 2020 Georgia general election.
David Perdue, the incumbent Republican Senator, came less than half a percentage point below the 50 percent mark. Jon Ossoff, a Democrat, also advanced to the runoff — and won the Senate seat. Ossoff’s victory alongside that of fellow Georgia native Raphael Warnock gave her party control of the Senate.
While Hazel and his supporters were thrilled that a rowdy campaign had affected a Senate marquee race, he doesn’t describe himself as a spoilsport. He may have angered Republicans for helping thwart a Perdue victory, but he said his intent was to give voters a voice, not just send a race into a runoff.
