The party “No Labels” is seeking to appoint a pair of candidates. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is interviewing vice-presidential potential picks. And who knows what Cornel West is up to. But one thing we can see from the data is that contrary to popular opinion, third parties can be spoilers, but are more likely to hurt challengers, not the incumbents.

It’s easy to conclude otherwise. Third parties and major independent challengers ran in 1912, 1924, 1948, 1968, 1980, 1992, 1996 and 2000. In a majority of cases (1912, 1968, 1980, 1992, 2000), the party in power or incumbent lost those contests.

John A. Tures is a professor of political science at LaGrange College in Georgia. He can be reached at jtures@lagrange.edu. His Twitter account is @JohnTures2.