There aren ' t any races where a third party run makes more sense than a solid primary run . Literally none . You talk about the Democrats like it is a concerted institution with a core leadership structure . It is not . It ' s a membership organization . You get more of a say by being an influential member than by doing their opponents ' work for them . If you can ' t win a local Democratic primary there is no way in hell you ' re winning a general election . Even the Vermont Progressive Party mostly fizzled out after the Democrats opened up the primary process to popular election . Sanders persists as an independent mostly through inertia and having built up a network around himself personally before that happened .