Democratic presidential candidate Jim Webb has announced that he is considering an independent presidential run. He will be discussing his announcement on Tuesday at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. The campaign is saying that Webb will “discuss his candidacy, the campaign and his views of the political parties in the current election cycle.”
TKNN reached out to the Webb campaign regarding the thinking behind Webb’s decision. TKNN has not heard back at the time of publication.
Webb has been struggling in the Democratic primary. He has been hovering around zero to one percent nationally. Ideologically, Webb is a moderate and some of his positions do not line up with where the Democratic Party is heading. Webb served in the Reagan Administration as Secretary of the Navy before resigning. He became a Democrat in 1988.
An independent run could cause complications for the Webb campaign. While it would clear him of a primary fight, it would be more cost and people intensive. The campaign would have coordinate ballot access, rather than relying on the help of the party. Webb is also struggling with name recognition which would hurt a national presidential run. While Webb’s name recognition would have received a bump from the record-setting debate on CNN, it is still much lower than other presidential candidates. Webb may be competitive in Virginia though, where he was elected to the Senate.
During the Democratic debate, Webb criticized the questioning. He said that too much focus was paid on frontrunners Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. Webb complained openly several times during the debate about his relative lack of time.