CNN’s chief data analyst Harry Enten on Monday smacked down billionaire Elon Musk’s proposal to form his own political party.
“This entire thing makes very little sense to me. It makes about as much sense as selling sand in the desert,” said Enten of the former White House official’s plan.
Enten argued that just 4% of all voters could be part of a potential base for such a party, pointing to May polling from Marquette Law School on those who have a favorable view of Musk and an unfavorable view of the GOP.
He emphasized that a majority of voters who like Musk already like the Republican Party.
Musk — weeks after an intense feud with President Donald Trump — over the weekend announced his plans to form the “America Party” based on his opposition to the president’s “big, beautiful” tax bill, which was signed into law Friday.
Trump responded on his Truth Social platform by declaring that Musk has gone completely “off the rails,” arguing that third parties are only “good” for creating “complete and total disruption and chaos.”
Enten, when later asked about next year’s midterms and how third-party candidates perform in congressional races, stressed that such politicians have done “horrible, awful” and “terrible” over the past 50-plus years.
Just 0.2% of all winners in congressional races since 1970 were elected to Congress from a third party (a figure that includes independents and write-ins), according to Enten.
That’s approximately 24 out of over 13,000 winners, he said.
“The bottom line is, third party, independents, they just don’t succeed,” Enten said.
“Donald Trump is right when he’s talking about the fact that third parties, simply put, don’t work.”