For years, independent voters have been treated as a rounding error by political operatives, a demographic to be decoded every four years and then promptly forgotten. That is getting harder to do.
IVN Editorial Board
A Gallup survey released in January 2026 found that a record 45% of Americans now identify as political independents, the highest level since Gallup began tracking party identification in 1988. Democrats and Republicans each sit at 27%. For the first time, independents are not just a plurality. They are the story.
And a growing number of journalists, podcasters, and commentators are starting to tell it.
Media Turns to Independent Voter Project for Its Expertise on Independent Voters
The Independent Voter Project and its media arm, IVN, have been at the center of a recent wave of coverage that spans mainstream regional papers, national podcasts, and emerging political commentary shows, all grappling with the same underlying question:
If nearly half of all Americans reject the two-party label, why does the entire political system still operate as if they don't exist?
The SoCal News Group, whose papers include the San Diego Union-Tribune, LA Daily News, OC Register, Press-Enterprise, and eight other regional outlets, ran a story exploring whether Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco's election probe could serve as a national blueprint for independent oversight of the electoral process. The fact that a piece about election accountability ran simultaneously across a dozen Southern California papers reflects just how much urgency there is around these issues right now.
Lifehacker, a publication not typically in the business of electoral analysis, weighed in with a piece asking whether the midterm elections could be canceled, a question that would have seemed absurd a few years ago and now lands in the middle of a mainstream readership. That's a measure of how far outside the traditional political press the conversation has spread.
The podcast circuit has been equally active. The Independent Voter Project's own Chad Peace has been making the rounds with a clear and consistent message: the binary party system is not a neutral fact of American life. It is a design choice, and it is one that rewards polarization.
On the All About Nothing podcast, Peace laid out the mechanics of how ranked-choice voting and open primaries interact, and why one without the other often fails to deliver on its promise. On Make It Make Sense, he broke down how primary systems are structurally rigged against the growing majority of voters who don't belong to either major party. The PredictIt podcast cut to the chase with a title that said it directly: "Both Parties Are Terrified of Independent Voters."
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Appearances on Fusion Party, Patriot Party, State of Gold, Local Matters, San Francisco Experience, and WCPT 820 round out a media blitz that cuts across ideological audiences: conservative, progressive, libertarian, and everything in between.
That's the point. Independent voters are not a monolith. They may or may not be moderates, and they are not apathetic. They are people who have looked at what the two-party system offers and decided it isn't working for them.
What the Numbers Actually Mean
The 45% figure is striking, but the generational data behind it is what should be keeping party strategists up at night. Gallup found that 56% of Gen Z adults and 54% of millennials now identify as independents.
Unlike previous generations, these younger voters are not "aging into" party affiliation. They are holding onto their independence as they get older, and they are entering adulthood as independents at rates that are historically unprecedented.
This is not a protest. It is a structural shift. Each new generation entering adulthood is more likely to reject party labels than the one before it. If that pattern holds, and there is no strong evidence it won't, independents will not plateau at 45%. They will keep climbing.
What do they want? The answer, consistently and across geography, is straightforward: solutions to the cost of living, housing, healthcare, and economic security. Not messaging. Not tribal victories. Actual results.
Independent voters are not ideologically confused. They are institutionally dissatisfied. They have watched both parties prioritize their own survival over the problems voters actually face, and they have drawn the obvious conclusion.
The System Rewards Polarization on Purpose
Understanding why candidates ignore independent voters requires understanding how the system is built. In 16 states with closed primaries, more than 16.5 million independent voters are barred entirely from participating in taxpayer-funded primary elections.
In heavily gerrymandered districts across the country, a tiny slice of the most partisan primary voters effectively decides the outcome before most voters ever get a say.
Chad Peace
This is not an accident. The two-party system is structured to reward candidates who turn out their base and punish those who try to govern from a broader coalition. The incentives run in exactly the wrong direction for voters who want compromise and results.
A politician who works across the aisle risks a primary challenge. A politician who performs outrage for their base gets rewarded with funding and loyalty.
That is what Peace means when he says the system rewards polarization. It is not a bug. It is how the machine is calibrated.
The reforms IVP has championed, like nonpartisan primary election models that include open primaries and ranked choice ballots in the general election, are attempts to recalibrate those incentives.
California's Top Two primary, which IVP sponsored in 2010, ensures that all voters, regardless of party registration, participate on a single ballot, and the top two vote-getters advance to the general election. San Diego's Measure K, also authored by IVP, went further, requiring all city elections to go to a November runoff so the broadest electorate gets the final say.
The results where these reforms have been implemented are instructive.
Alaska's Top Four primary with ranked choice voting has produced broader coalitions, higher engagement from underrepresented communities, and more pragmatic governance.
The opposite is also instructive: in places where primaries remain closed and maps remain gerrymandered, the cycle of polarization and disengagement continues.
Shawn Griffiths
Why This Moment Is Different
Previous surges in independent identification, like the 43% recorded in 2014, came and went without fundamentally changing how either party operates. So why should this moment be any different?
A few things have changed. The generational composition of independents is now structurally different, with the largest cohorts of young voters in history arriving already independent rather than converting later.
The media landscape is more fragmented, which means niche shows and regional papers are covering these issues in ways that aggregate into genuine national attention.
And the stakes of the 2026 midterms, with both parties aware that the House could swing, are forcing campaigns to pay closer attention to voters they have historically taken for granted.
There is also a growing public understanding of how primary systems work, and why they produce the candidates they do. That is not an accident either. It is the result of years of education work by organizations like IVP, and it is showing up in coverage that goes beyond horse-race politics to explain the structural roots of voter frustration.
For more on IVP's work on election reform and independent voter rights, visit independentvoterproject.org.
About The Author
Susan von Seggern is one of the most well-known and well-liked publicists in Los Angeles for her work as a major label publicist, CEO of a boutique PR agency, time spent in political PR, and her globe-trotting exploits in corporate PR. Her return to consulting for events, corporate, cause, and cultural clients have exposed countless journalists and influencers to Susan’s honest, positive and tenacious PR style. Susan knows that she can take her interesting, newsworthy and active clients to new highs of media coverage, creating strategies that employ the latest PR tactics such as podcast pitching and hyper-local coverage with tried-and-true methods including events, press releasing and sustained media outreach.