The Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics at the University of Kansas recently held a fascinating discussion on the importance of the rise in voters registered as independents and candidates running outside the mainstream party system. According to the event description:

Jim Jonas welcomes Kyle Bailey for his penultimate discussion group installment of the semester. Bailey owns over a decade of over a decade of experience managing and fundraising for independent candidate campaigns, referenda campaigns, and advocacy organizations. In 2016, he managed the statewide referendum campaign that won Ranked Choice Voting in Maine. This year, Bailey is leading a people’s veto campaign on the June 2018 ballot to restore ranked choice voting in Maine after it was repealed by Maine Legislature last year.

The Robert J. Dole Institute’s spring 2018 discussion groups are focusing on independent or unaffiliated voters, now the largest voting bloc in many states. As a result, this years discussion groups are focusing on the following:

Can independent and third party candidacies seize upon this shift in party identification? How could they shape the future of U.S. politics? Dole Fellow Jim Jonas leads a discussion group series examining election reform and independent candidates in Kansas and the nation. Jonas is a political communications consultant with nearly two decades of experience in independent political reform and campaigns. In 2014, Jonas served as the campaign manager for Greg Orman’s independent campaign for U.S. Senate in Kansas.

The Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics is “dedicated to promoting political and civic participation as well as civil discourse in a bipartisan, philosophically balanced manner”. The Dole Institute was created to celebrate the legacies of Senator and one-time Republican Presidential Candidate Bob Dole and his wife Elizabeth Dole, who was also a Senator.The video is about 60 minutes. Take a look: