less than a week ago Vote On the day, third-party presidential candidates still represent an unknown factor in key states where dozens of Electoral College votes are on a knife edge and getting even 1% of the vote could make a big difference.

Traumatized after third-party candidates ate Hillary Clinton’s vote share in 2016, Democrats turned to groups like No Labels and the Green Party’s Jill Stein, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. early in the election cycle. He launched a full-court press to bring candidates like him to their knees. He ran as a Democrat before becoming an independent and then supporting former President Donald Trump and Cornel West.

The Democratic National Committee has pumped millions of dollars into portraying them as spoilers at best, deceptive tools of Republicans’ cheating efforts at worst. Outside groups, including centrists and progressives, formed unlikely alliances to pave the way for a head-to-head fight between Trump and President Joe Biden and later Vice President Kamala Harris.

The operators who participated in the study expressed their satisfaction with the study. No Labels, which once floated a centrist “unity ticket,” eventually folded. Kennedy dropped out and became more aligned with Trump, likely hurting the former president in states where he remained on the ballot. Stein and West remained at the bottom of the polls.

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But no one rests on their own laurels.

“Democrats don’t take anything for granted. We’ve learned the lessons of 2000 and 2016, when third-party candidates took the White House to Republicans, and we won’t let that happen again in 2024,” Lis said. Smith is the DNC’s third-party communications consultant.

Still, he said, “we’re not going to pat ourselves on the back, but we’re glad we took third-party threats seriously.” “At the beginning of this cycle, people were talking endlessly about No Labels and RFK, Jr., but both of them either couldn’t run or were completely ineffective in this race because of what the Democrats did.”

Democrats were haunted by election results in 2000 and 2016, when they claimed third-party candidates garnered enough swing state votes to deprive their candidates of victory. They decided that this danger would not be ignored this year.

The DNC has created an internal group specifically designed to send messages against third-party candidates. Progressive groups like MoveOn and center-left organizations like Third Way came together to help clear the runway for Biden, and later Harris, to confront Trump one-on-one.

No Labels’ third-party “unity ticket” was canceled after Democrats portrayed the effort as a spoiler and heavily lobbied would-be candidates not to join the campaign. Digital operations were launched to quickly highlight controversial comment candidates such as Kennedy, Stein, and West. Millions of dollars were poured into ads highlighting support from Republican operatives for supporting super PACs. And Democrats have filed lawsuits to block other candidates from appearing on ballots in swing states.

Democrats now tell ABC News they are happy their work is making a difference.

Kennedy was seen as more aligned with Trump than with his family’s political legacy, partly because of Democrats’ efforts and partly because of his views on issues such as vaccines and Covid-19. While Stein is still on the ballot in six of seven swing states, he has seen his support fall to normal levels following fears that disappointments with Biden will aid his rise. And Democrats no longer see the West as a serious threat.

“There was a different point in the race where No Labels was stronger, where RFK was stronger and where I thought the threat was a little more existential. I think the threat is still troubling, but I think Democrats are going to be more likely to appeal to voters,” said Joel Payne, MoveOn’s chief communications officer. “An alternative view may be persuaded by third-party candidates about the risks involved in parking protest votes for these candidates,” he said.

“Third parties are certainly a factor, but at this point in the race I don’t know if they’re the same factor as they were, say, six, nine, 12 months ago.”

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Yet their presence on the ballot poses risks to both parties, and there is little either can do about it.

Stein is on the ballot in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The Supreme Court rejected Kennedy’s efforts to remove himself from the ballot in Michigan and Wisconsin. Libertarian Party candidate Chase Oliver also appears on most ballots.

Democrats can unseat Stein all they want, and Kennedy can shout his support for Trump from the rooftops, but officials say he’s almost guaranteed to win marginal support. Experts said that at the end of the day, some voters are inactive and even getting 1 percent of the vote can make a difference in races that are won or lost by a landslide.

“If you’re still a Jill Stein voter and you think that’s going to have an impact on the outcome that might help Trump, then ultimately we probably won’t get you anyway. So I think 1% is probably realistic, but if Chase Oliver gets 1 percent that’s a Trump problem too,” he told Third Way co-founder Jim Kessler.

Both parties may have specific concerns about Michigan; Anger over Biden’s handling of the war in Gaza could push some members of the state’s large Arab population away from Harris and toward Stein, jeopardizing Trump’s ability to handle the election with Kennedy still on the ballot. advantage of this dynamic.

A CNN/SSRS poll released Wednesday showed Kennedy with 3% of the vote in Michigan to Stein’s 2%. West also received 1 percent in the poll, but Oliver did not receive enough support to register. In Wisconsin, Kennedy and Stein each received 1 percent, while Oliver and West did not register. In Pennsylvania, Stein and Oliver each received 1 percent.

“They’re going to pick up a few percentage points and that could affect the outcome of a close election; based on all the polls, it looks like it’s going to be very, very close,” said Bernie Porn, a nonpartisan Michigan pollster.

In an election cycle that has already seen one president leave office, two assassination attempts, 34 felony convictions and more, any question mark presents another opportunity for uncertainty.

“If the race is this tight in a lot of these states, you could see someone playing spoiler,” said GOP pollster Robert Blizzard. “I don’t believe Trump has ever gotten above 50 in Pennsylvania, Michigan or Wisconsin, but he still won those states at least once. So third parties should give room to voters who are worried about Harris and fed up with Trump. I’ll go, but what role?” I don’t know if they will play.

Yet Democrats have been the party publicly wringing their hands over the threat posed by Stein and others, loathe to relive their past traumas. And agents who spoke to ABC News on the home turf expressed satisfaction that the party was doing all it could.

“What we can do at this point is make sure that voters are doing this out of sheer laziness and that they know the repercussions of this choice. And ultimately it’s up to the voters,” Kessler said. “I’m pleased the effort is solid.”

Third-party candidates could be trend spoilers even after intense efforts by Democrats originally appeared abcnews.go.com