Schultz’s Independent Bid in 2020 Would Help Trump, Poll Finds

  • Former Starbucks CEO draws more votes from Democrats than GOP
  • Independent would have difficult path to win White House

Photographer: Pool/Getty Images

Lock
This article is for subscribers only.

Howard Schultz is unlikely to land in the White House if he makes an independent bid for the presidency, but he would probably pull enough votes away from a Democratic candidate to strengthen Donald Trump’s prospects for re-election.

That’s the conclusion of a survey examining the former Starbucks Corp. chief executive officer’s political ambitions conducted by Optimus, a data-science firm that’s studying the effects of independent candidates on the 2020 race.