Harambe, a gorilla that was shot dead at a Cincinnati zoo, is tied with Jill Stein in Texas. And Deez Nuts, the presidential meme most of of us laughed about and soon forgot, is doing better than the Green Party candidate. Last Tuesday, Public Policy Polling released a survey showing the results.

On a more serious note, the poll showed Donald Trump only leads Hillary Clinton by 6 points in the Lone Start State and Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson did marginally better than Deez Nuts and Harambe the dead gorilla at 6%. Johnson, Deez Nuts, and Harambe pulled numbers identical to the percentage of Texans who are undecided or believe the election is either irrelevant or pointless and they refuse to choose.

Jim Williams, an analyst at Public Policy Polling, told The Guardian last August disillusionment with politics is so prevalent that “You could call [the third party candidate] anything” and draw between 7% and 8% support.

Deez Nuts is Brady C. Olson, a fifteen-year-old boy from Wallingford, Iowa. In October he announced his candidacy as a joke on Facebook. Last year he came at 9% in a poll of North Carolina voters.

Disillusionment in the political system is at record levels in the United States. Both Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders, who lost the Democratic nomination to Hillary Clinton last month, are considered anti-establishment although both are registered and running under the banner of establishment parties.

The turnout for the 2014 midterms was the lowest since the end of the Second World War. A paltry 36.4% of eligible voters cast ballots. Voter participation during the 2012 presidential election was just over 54.9%, close to the 51.1% turnout in 1948.

Distrust and disapproval of establishment politicians are at an all-time high. A national poll held by The Winston Group earlier this year found 43% of Democrats, Republicans, and independents rejected their representatives while only 33% approved. A poll conducted by the group in 2003 found the reverse with nearly 60% of voters approving and 33% disapproving.

“Voters still don’t think much of Congress, and that includes the members they elect themselves,” Rasmussen Reports explained in July. “A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that just 11% of Likely U.S. Voters think Congress is doing a good or excellent job. That’s unchanged from February. Fifty-seven percent (57%) say Congress is doing a poor job, down slightly from 60% in February, but generally in line with previous surveys.”

With numbers like this, is it any wonder voters would throw their support behind a teenager and a dead gorilla?

Sources:

Public Policy Polling

The Guardian

Rasmussen Reports