Early voting for the November 8th election starts this Thursday the 29th. And going into these federal midterms and state elections, there’s been some talk about “is it time for a new third party in this country?” Well one effort is about not to create a new third party, but to revive an old one from a long time ago. Connor VlaKancic is the Illinois U.S. Senate candidate from the Abraham Lincoln 1864 National Union Party. VlaKancic says Lincoln was in the middle of the Civil War with some folks that agreed with him, but didn’t like his party, so he got creative.
AUDIO: He did it, in 1864, because he knew he could not get reelected as a Republican candidate. His biggest supporters were Democrats who wanted him to defeat the Confederacy, but they were Democrats; they just could not bring themselves to pull the lever on any Republican. So Lincoln created a National Union Party because he wanted to unite the nation. He was a clever man.
As to what the modern National Union Party stands for, Vlakancic gave us one example. They would like the primary elections to be about one thing: whether or not the incumbent is retained.
AUDIO: Mind you, this is the incumbent. So they represent all the people, not just the members of their political party. And they’ve got to get a “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” in the primary election. If it’s “thumbs up;” hey, you’ve proven your worth, everybody in the state wants you to continue, you’re in for another term. If it’s “thumbs down,” you’re history. And the November election will be all of the Republicans, and all of the Democrats, and all of the Union Parties, and all of the Green Peace and everything.
VlaKancic says having multiple candidates in the general election would be handled by going to the Ranked Choice Voting System currently used in Alaska.
The two major party candidates for Illinois U.S. Senator are incumbent Democrat Tammy Duckworth, and Republican challenger Kathy Salvi.
