AP Photo/Koji Sasahara
Howard Schultz at the Tokyo ribbon cutting of Starbucks' first store outside of North America, in August 1996.
- On the latest episode of Business Insider Today on Facebook Watch, INSIDER CEO Henry Blodget breaks down why Howard Schultz running for president in 2020 would be bad for democrats.
- Schultz, a "life-long democrat," wants to run as an independent. He also says he wants nothing more than to see President Trump unseated.
- But his run could do the opposite. If he runs as an independent rather than a democrat, it could split the democratic vote and swing the election in favor of Trump.
Starbucks billionaire Howard Schultz has announced his candidacy for President. He's running as an Independent, because he thinks both political parties are broken.
A lot of Americans probably share that view.
But at Schultz's first public campaign appearance, a heckler had a message for him:
"Don't help elect Donald Trump!"
And that's the problem.
Most analysts think that Candidate Schultz would get more votes from people who would otherwise vote for the Democratic nominee than from those who would vote for the Republican.
This is what happened in previous elections. In 1992, for example, Independent candidate Ross Perot captured nearly 19% of the popular vote. Some analysts estimate that Perot took more votes from Democrat Bill Clinton than Republican George H. W. Bush.
Clinton still won that election. But 8 years later, some analysts blamed Green Party candidate Ralph Nader for Democrat Al Gore's loss to George W. Bush.
Both political parties have shifted away from the center in recent years. But the Republicans, arguably, have moved farther to the right than Democrats have moved to the left.
So a "centrist" Independent like Howard Schultz, the theory goes, would likely take more votes from Democrats.
That's why many Schultz critics are already calling for him to quit.
Yes, many Americans want a third major political party, one that represents Americans who love America but want it to work better for all Americans, not just the wealthy.
Unfortunately, right now, our political system is built around only two major parties.
The best way to defeat a candidate from one party is to vote for the candidate from the other.
So if you want to see President Trump fired in 2020, you should probably urge Howard Schultz to go home.
Watch the latest episode of BI Today, where INSIDER CEO Henry Blodget breaks down why Howard Schultz could help re-elect Donald Trump in 2020: