Forty percent of American voters today identify as independents. While some experts argue that few are truly independent – three-quarters of them lean toward one of the major parties – they are undoubtedly influencing the way our politics is shapeshifting.

In fact, independents have changed the course of the nation for 200 years. On the latest episode of The Purple Principle, co-hosts Rob Pease and Jillian Youngblood talk to Dr. Omar Ali, a historian of third-party and independent Black politics at UNC-Greensboro, about how the anti-slavery Republican party took the White House only six years after its founding, how an insurgent candidate beat the legendary Chicago political machine, and much more.

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