This works because almost all the US uses first-past-the-post elections for the Presidential general election. So you get outcomes like this:
Scenario 1:
Biden: 10 votes
Trump: 9 votes
Kennedy/Stein/West: 0 votes
Biden wins the state
Scenario 2:
Biden: 9 votes
Trump: 9 votes
Kennedy/Stein/West: 1 vote
Tied vote, decided by game of chance/lawsuit
Scenario 3:
Biden: 8 votes
Trump: 9 votes
Kennedy/Stein/West: 2 votes
Trump wins the state
This is why you see huge financial support from Republican billionaires for third party candidates who have no chance of winning.
I think it’s more that the Republican party recognizes what an albatross Trump has become and are trying to mitigate the damage to down ballot Republicans by old-school Republicans staying home because they’re fed up with Trump.
They do? He’s their candidate and they sure seem to be embracing almost everything he does. I don’t really think there’s much that supports this viewpoint
k- then what’s your theory on why Republican donors would support a third-party candidate?
Because it will pull Biden voters away more than it will pull Trump voters away
What third party candidate do you think would pull more voters from Biden than Trump?
I mean yeah I’ll bite https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/third-party-candidate-spoiler-trump-biden/
Please re-read my question.
Please re-read my answer since you clearly didn’t read it at all.
I’ll give you another chance to prove your functionally literate.