How would, say 2020, be affected by the following events? What about 2016?

[West_Midlander]

1. What if one major party (Democratic or Republican) payed little attention to the presidential nominee (or didn't run one at all), instead focusing entirely on Congressional races?

2. What if all the third parties/write-in voters united behind one third party, centrist candidate? What if turnout surged and compounded to this candidate's support?

[Former Senator Haslam2020]

The only scenario in 2020 for our time I can think of is If the Democrats ha a brokered convention and say after several ballots was forced to nominate Keith Elision, and he's trailing in the polls so badly the Presidential Election's basically already called for Trump. The Democrats would spend most money trying to save the Democrats from the coming landslide.

In scenario 2, I could see Mark Cuban doing something like that. He's a liberal, a libertarian, and a conservative molded into a more moderate, more "sane" (according to the media) version of Donald Trump.

[West_Midlander]

Thanks for the response! I suppose an abstention from fielding a presidential challenge (and focusing efforts instead on Congressional/state races) would probably only serve to potentially benefit third parties with no chance at all of taking the presidency.

What kind of success do you think someone like Mark Cuban would have at a presidential run? (Percentage/any EVs?)

[Libertarian in Name Only]

Thanks for the response! I suppose an abstention from fielding a presidential challenge (and focusing efforts instead on Congressional/state races) would probably only serve to potentially benefit third parties with no chance at all of taking the presidency.

What kind of success do you think someone like Mark Cuban would have at a presidential run? (Percentage/any EVs?)

I'd tend to think his ceiling would be somewhere around Perot 1992, a pretty good showing nationwide but not good enough to win any state. I'd say he could get at least 3-4% at worst.