If you have a question about how American government and politics ... and sometimes we refer to third party candidates as independent. They are not the same, though as a practical matter neither ...

The last third-party candidate to win a state was former Alabama governor George Wallace, who picked off five states in the 1968 contest running on the American Independence Party ticket.

There, Wallace could demand that the other candidates support him on his issues before he would deliver the presidency. First, Wallace’s American Independent party had to get on the ballot ...