A Team of Their Own: Independents and third-party legislators are succeeding by staying outside of party lines.

• Author: Mahoney, John
• Position: POLITICS

Let's begin by recognizing the obvious--serving as an independent or third-party legislator in the United States is a tough gig, but getting elected in the first place is even harder. Over the past 20 years, on average, only 21 of the nation's 7,334 state legislative seats have been held by members who identify as something other than Democrat or Republican. That's less than a third of 1 percent. (Nebraska's 49 seats are not included as they are held by nonpartisan senators.)

There's no mystery behind this statistic; it is notoriously difficult for candidates not associated with either major party to get on the ballot in the first place, and even when they do, their relative lack of funding and support, compared with major-party candidates, often puts them at a severe disadvantage by the time Election Day rolls around.

Over the past five years, however, the number of members not associated with either of the two major parties has begun to grow. And that includes a slow but visible increase in the number of independent and third-party members serving in state legislatures. As of June 2018, 38 state legislators identified as either independent or a member of a third party--easily the highest in decades. This reflects a January 2018 Gallup poll that found a historic number of Americans now say they are independent (42 percent, significantly higher than those identifying as Democrat or Republican). How do these "outsiders" survive, and often flourish, in the world of partisan politics? Here's what a few had to say.

Maine Representative Kent Ackley

Ackley just finished his first term as an independent in the Maine House. A small-business owner and registered Maine guide by trade, Ackley decided to run for office in 2016 under the label "Common Sense Independent." (In Maine, independent candidates can run under three words that best fit their political philosophy.) Driven to run by a desire to serve as a true citizen legislator, in a state that has long valued its tradition of part-time, citizen-oriented politics, Ackley hoped to harness his position as an independent to strengthen civility and honesty in the Legislature, which has been sharply divided in recent years.

When elected in 2016, Ackley made up one half of the independent presence in the House. Alongside independent Representative Owen Casas, also a new member, Ackley found himself immediately thrown into a turbulent pool of partisan politics. But, following a handful of defections...