If I learned one thing during my days with Ross Perot and his United We Stand, America and the Reform Party, any viable third party has to start at the grass roots level or at the bottom. We were top driven, we relied on Perot's money.
One has to start off at the local level, concentrating on county commissioners, mayors, city and town councils, state representatives, dog catcher if you will. These races cost next to nothing and can get you a foot in the door. Forget about the presidency, congress and the senate. Any new party isn't ready for that and doesn't have the cash or name recognition to compete.
Say over a ten year span, you get folks elected locally, then move on to the House of representatives, some districts and then to state, Governorship's, Senator, secretary of State, AG and the like.
Only after success at first the local level and then state should one move on to the presidency. No third party will have the billion dollars plus to compete there.
This is where the Libertarians get it wrong. They run for the presidency and for some senate seats while forgetting the local level offices. The money spent in 2016 was Hillary Clinton 1.191 billion, Trump 646.8 million while all third parties combined spent 6 million.
Money is incomplete for 2020, but so far Biden 1.38 billion, Trump 864 million with Libertarian Jo Jorgensen at 3 million.
