Trump’s Threat of a Third-Party Run Is Undercut by ‘Sore Loser’ Laws
(Bloomberg) -- Donald Trump hates losing so much that he has suggested he will mount a third-party campaign if he doesn’t win the Republican presidential nomination.
But he can’t win that way either, thanks to “sore loser” laws in six states he would need to return to the White House.
Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas, as well as Arkansas and Alabama, have laws that bar a candidate defeated in a major-party primary from running as an independent or on a third-party ticket in the general election. That would put Trump at the general-election starting gate with a deficit of 91 electoral votes of the 270 required to capture the White House.