Independents are the least likely to vote and the most difficult to reach

Pure independents – those who do not identify closely with either party – are another matter. Although relatively small in number, pure independents are distinctive in ways that pose real challenges to campaigns seeking their support.

Perhaps most importantly, pure independent voters are simply less likely to vote than those who express any degree of partisan attachment. In the 2020 presidential election, reported turnout among pure independents was about 20 percentage points lower than turnout among other voters, including independents who lean toward a party.

An underlying reason could be that pure independents tend to be genuinely put off by partisan conflict and party labels. Declaring independence in a survey is a way people can distance themselves from the partisan fray. For instance, a series of imaginative experiments conducted by politics scholars Samara Klar and Yanna Krupnikov found that self-described independents preferred photos of neighborhoods that did not show political yard signs than the same photos of the same neighborhoods with homes displaying political yard signs.

For these study subjects, independence is not simply the absence of party allegiances but an identity with its own meaning. They reject party labels and partisan rancor, which means that the kinds of messages that can motivate the Democratic and Republican bases may strike independents as more unwanted partisan vitriol.

The research indicates that at least some pure independents seek to avoid political conversation or interaction of almost any kind. They therefore pose a serious dilemma for campaign strategists: The very voters they need to mobilize to create a winning coalition might be the most difficult to reach.

Independents are distinct from other voters in a number of other ways that are also likely to raise the blood pressure of candidates and their campaigns. People who identify themselves as independents, even if they lean, tend to be less engaged in politics and pay less attention to campaigns than people who identify as partisans. They are also less likely to partake in partisan social media. All told, independents are less likely to use online sites and platforms where campaigns can reach them.