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Meet the third-party candidate running against Cruz, O'Rourke

Neal Dikeman is a libertarian running for U.S. senate. It's no secret he probably won't win, as he's not even polling, but that doesn't mean he can't still have an impact on Texas politics.

HOUSTON - The U.S. senate race between incumbent republican Sen. Ted Cruz and democratic Rep. Beto O’Rourke has garnered plenty of national attention.

However, there is another guy fighting for that spot, too.

His name is Neal Dikeman, and he’s a libertarian. It’s no secret he probably won’t win, as he’s not even polling, but that doesn’t mean he can’t still have an impact on Texas politics.

Dikeman is a Houston native and is a capitalist and entrepreneur. Although he has no previous political experience, he says he was motivated to run by his family.

“I’ve got a 3-year-old and a 5-year-old, Clara and Quinn, they are my cause," he said. "I got tired of our elected officials just kicking the can down the road to them."

Libertarians typically cut across party lines. Dikeman’s top issues, “Healthcare reform. Dealing with the federal debt and deficit. And then, the third one would be, a need for a natural privacy protection act. Something that quantifies exactly where the line stops with government intervention into your lives, into your data...into your privacy," he said.

Voters won’t see Dikeman signs on front lawns or ads on TV. He simply doesn’t have the funding. Voters also won’t see him in a debate against his opponents, although he’s tried.

“I’ve talked to both campaigns they each somehow, at the same time, think that my voters would come more out of their side than the other guys," he said.

Third party nominees rarely win but can influence policy, as KHOU political analyst Bob Stein explains.

“FDR, for instance, adopted many of the liberal policies that were advocated by socialists,” Stein said. “Minimum wage, 40-hour work weeks, health insurance, Social Security. You eventually see third parties moving the two parties.”

Stein says with enough votes, they can even throw elections. Although, in this senate race, he says it’s unlikely.

“This election is all about voting for the party, and I have very little doubt that a third-party candidate, libertarian, or for that matter, any party, is going to have any traction in this general election," he said.

Dikeman hopes to do exactly that.

“We expect that our vote count will be greater than the margin of victory,” Dikeman said. “And that’s pretty exciting, because that tells us we can have an impact.”

Dikeman says his political run isn’t about winning this election. It’s about the long game.

“We are doing this to send a message. Third parties for 200 years, the main role has been to make the main parties listen and that’s what we are going to do," he said.

Stein says the fact that Dikeman even made it onto the ballot as a third-party candidate is a win in itself, as Texas law makes it very tough to get there.

You can learn more about Dikeman and his policies here.

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