This page of Candidate section of the Centrist Independent Voter website provides information about specific candidates who we think are worthy of your consideration because of positions they have taken or groups they are a part of. If you have a candidate that you would like us to consider, please contact us.
This page, also, provides advice for centrist independent voters on voting strategy during the primary elections.
To see the Centrist Independent Voter’s endorsements for 2022 visit: 2022 Primary Endorsements or 2022 General Election Endorsements
At the end of the Candidates Section of the website you will find a Rogues Gallery of Senate and House Members who, for one reason or another, seem too irredeemably extreme (left or right) to warrant consideration.
The reasons for a candidate showing up in the Rogues Gallery are varied but include: a Trump endorsement, particularly for non-incumbents; endorsement by the progressive “Working Families Party”; support for Vladimir Putin; and voting against the bi-partisan aid package for Ukraine. It is possible for a candidate to show up in the Rogues Gallery and be redeemed in some other way.
A Note on Strategy as a Centrist Independent Voter
Remember, as independents, we should feel free to move strategically between the parties. If you live in a solidly Democratic district, we recommend voting for the most centrist candidate in the Democratic party primary and to act similarly if you are in a heavily Republican district. The key is to make sure that, when the general election comes, there is a centrist candidate on the ballot. Depending on your jurisdiction, this might require registering as a Democrat in some years and as a Republican in others. In some states like Virginia, with open primaries, that is as simple as picking up the Democratic or Republican ballot as you enter the polling place. In some other states, it may take some pre-planning. Failure to participate in party primaries because you are an independent just hands over the control of those parties to the extremists.
In 1992, James Carville coined the phrase “It’s the Economy, Stupid” as a clever way to keep the campaign of Bill Clinton focused on that issue. For centrist independent voters the analogous phrase might be: “It’s the Primaries, Stupid.” In both cases it’s an oversimplification, but it is important to remember that one can’t vote for a centrist candidate, in the general election, if there isn’t one on the ballot.
The following states, per Wikipedia, have open or semi-open primaries, for the presidential primary:
- Alabama
- Arkansas
- Colorado
- Georgia
- Indiana
- Massachusetts (Primaries open for “unenrolled”/unaffiliated voters only)
- Minnesota
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Montana
- New Hampshire (Primaries open for “undeclared”/unaffiliated voters only)
- North Carolina (Primaries open for unaffiliated voters only)
- North Dakota
- Ohio (semi-open)
- Oklahoma (Only Democratic primary is open to Independent voters as of November 2015)
- South Carolina
- South Dakota (Only Democratic primary is open to Independent voters as of November 2018)
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Utah (for the Democratic Presidential Primary)
- Vermont
- Virginia
- Washington
- Wisconsin
Candidates Worthy of Your Consideration
None of the following recommendations is an outright endorsement. Some of these candidates disqualify themselves for consideration based on other things. For the Centrist Independent Voter’s endorsements for 2022 see: 2022 Primary Endorsements or 2022 General Election Endorsements. If you have strong feelings or relevant information about candidates, please contact us or add the information to the blog.
We recommend the following candidates for your consideration, based on their participation in the Problem Solvers Caucus in the House of Representatives:
Participation in this group is a good indication, but no guarantee, of a candidate’s willingness to adopt centrist positions.
Democratic Co-Chair: Josh Gottheimer [NJ-5]
Republican Co-Chair: Tom Reed [NY-23]
Members of the Problem Solvers Caucus for the 117th Congress include:
New members are italicized.
Mark Amodei [NV-02]
Don Bacon [NE-02]
Carolyn Bordeaux [GA-07]
Michael Bost [IL -12]
Salud Carbajal [CA-24]
Ben Cline [VA-06]
Lou Correa [CA-46]
Jim Costa [CA-16]
John Curtis [UT-03]
Debbie Dingell [MI-12]
Brian Fitzpatrick [PA-01]
Michael Gallagher [WI-08]
Andrew Garbarino [NY-02]
Jared Golden [ME-02]
Tony Gonzales [TX-23]
Anthony Gonzalez [OH-16]
Vicente Gonzalez [TX-15]
Jenniffer Gonzalez-Colon [PR-AL]
Josh Harder [CA-10]
Jaime Herrera Beutler [WA-03]
Steven Horsford [NV-04]
Chrissy Houlahan [PA-06]
Bill Johnson [OH-06]
Dusty Johnson [SD-AL]
David Joyce [OH-14]
John Katko [NY-24]
Young Kim [CA-39]
Conor Lamb [PA-17]
Susie Lee [NV-03]
Elaine Luria [VA-02]
Tom Malinowski [NJ-07]
Peter Meijer [MI-03]
Daniel Meuser [PA-09]
Stephanie Murphy [FL-07]
Tom O’Halleran [AZ-01]
Jimmy Panetta [CA-20]
Scott Peters [CA-52]
Dean Phillips [MN-03]
Tom Rice [SC-07]
Brad Schneider [IL-10]
Kurt Schrader [OR-05]
Elissa Slotkin [MI-08]
Chris Smith [NJ-04]
Lloyd Smucker [PA-11]
Darren Soto [FL-09]
Abigail Spanberger [VA-07]
Pete Stauber [MN-08]
Bryan Steil [WI-01]
Haley Stevens [MI-11]
Thomas Suozzi [NY-03]
Van Taylor [TX-03]
Fred Upton [MI-06]
We recommend the following Republican Senators for your consideration, because they supported the Bi-Partisan Infrastructure bill. All 50 Democratic Senators voted for the bill.
Roy Blunt, Missouri
Richard Burr, North Carolina
Bill Cassidy, Louisiana
Shelly Moore Capito, West Virginia
Susan Collins, Maine
Kevin Cramer, North Dakota
Mike Crapo, Idaho
Deb Fischer, Nebraska
Lindsay Graham, South Carolina
Chuck Grassley, Iowa
John Hoeven, North Dakota
Mitch McConnell, Kentucky
Lisa Murkowski, Alaska
Rob Portman, Ohio
Jim Risch, Idaho
Mitt Romney, Utah
Dan Sullivan, Alaska
Thom Tillis, North Carolina
Roger Wicker, Mississippi
We recommend the following candidates for your consideration based on their membership in the Blue Dog Coalition in the U.S. House of Representatives. The Blue Dog Coalition is made up of fiscally conservative Democrats. (Source: Wikipedia)
Arizona
- Tom O’Halleran, Representative from AZ-01
California
- Lou Correa, Representative from CA-46
- Jim Costa, Representative from CA-16
- Mike Thompson, Representative from CA-05
Florida
- Charlie Crist, Representative from FL-13
- Stephanie Murphy, Representative from FL-7
Georgia
- Sanford Bishop, Representative from GA-02
- Carolyn Bourdeaux, Representative from GA-07
- David Scott, Representative from GA-13
Hawaii
Illinois
- Brad Schneider, Representative from IL-10
Maine
- Jared Golden, Representative from ME-02
New Jersey
- Josh Gottheimer, Representative from NJ-05
- Mikie Sherrill, Representative from NJ-11
Oregon
- Kurt Schrader, Representative from OR-05
Tennessee
- Jim Cooper, Representative from TN-05
Texas
- Henry Cuellar, Representative from TX-28
- Vicente Gonzalez, Representative from TX-15
Virginia
- Abigail Spanberger, Representative from VA-07