3rd-party choice like me could win in 2020
We must repair our broken two-party system
Today, I ask you to join me in imagining a better America.
It begins by repairing our broken two-party system, which is why I am seriously considering running for president of the United States as a centrist independent. I will spend the next few months deciding by traveling the country and listening to Americans.
Millions of voters already crave a better choice. Fifty-seven percent of Americans say a “third major party is needed,” according to Gallup. It’s even higher among millennials. Gallup also reports that 39 percent of Americans already identify as independents. While independent voices are diverse, they share a dissatisfaction with the status quo and a desire to fix it.
A formidable third choice for president also has a chance to succeed for the first time since George Washington because this precise moment in history is uniquely perilous, and brimming with possibility. The toxic mix of social and fiscal challenges, extreme ideological divisions and political dysfunction threatens to deteriorate the greatest democracy in human history. How can elected officials solve complex problems such as unaffordable health care, a crumbling national infrastructure, a debilitating national debt, unequal access to education and employment, and disappearing middle-class jobs if our leaders cannot hold a productive conversation — or even keep the federal government open?
The 2020 election gives us an exciting opportunity to stop this chaos. Donald Trump is unfit for office and must not be president for another term. A successful run by a centrist independent could not just replace him, it could simultaneously fix a broken system that prioritizes special interests over those of working Americans.
I promise I won’t seek the presidency unless I believe it is possible to win, and for me to govern well. If I run, I will be on the ballot in all 50 states. As I weigh a race, I’ll be listening, learning and understanding what people need.
For now, I ask that people get to know me. I grew up in Brooklyn’s public housing projects. My father was a working-class guy who got fired from his job delivering diapers after an accident. He had no health insurance, and our family had no savings. His body healed, but his spirit remained shattered. I’ve never forgotten that.
I became the first in my family to go to college and joined Starbucks in 1982, when it only had four stores. I have lived the American dream thanks to hard work, a little luck, kindness from strangers, and countless people who helped me build Starbucks. Today, the company has nearly 30,000 stores. It has employed over 3 million people worldwide over almost five decades, and is Fortune magazine’s fifth most admired company.
I did not set out to build a big company. I set out to create the kind of company my father never got a chance to work for, one that treated people with dignity. That’s why Starbucks offered health insurance and stock ownership to parttime workers more than 20 years ago, when that was unheard of. It’s why the company gives baristas a chance to get a tuition-free college education. This spring, more than 3,000 employees will have graduated. Many, like me, are the first in their family to go to college.
A business is not a proxy for the country. Even so, the intentions of Starbucks do reflect the business of our country, which has long been to try to balance humanity and prosperity. I hope you will consider my potential entry not just because I built a successful business, but also because of what I learned along the way: the importance of the dignity of work, the power of community, what’s possible when people come together for a shared purpose.
To those who say an independent run would help ensure Trump’s re-election, I say the two parties’ failures have created the opportunity for a centrist independent to succeed. To suggest that either party could lose because of a third choice is intellectually dishonest. I am considering a run because Republicans and Democrats are not yet doing the job they were elected to do.
And to those who insist that a third choice cannot succeed, I say that to insist something cannot be done is as unAmerican as you can get. Together, we have what it takes to reimagine “us.”