As the prospect of a Donald Trump nomination becomes increasingly likely, many conservatives have been floating the idea of a conservative mounting a third party challenge. But then comes the trickier part — figuring out who that challenger should be. Following the conversation on the Right over the past week, I’ve begun to wonder, are we already at the beginning of the invisible primary for the third party nominee?

The arguments for a third party are quite obvious — many principled conservatives cannot stomach Trump’s toxic blend of racism, liberalism and unseriousness, and will not vote for him. I’ve personally declared that were he the nominee, I would either vote for a third party conservative if available, or stay home. But in addition to the principled reason, many conservatives feel it’s important to have somebody at the top of the ticket giving conservatives a reason to go to the voting booths, or else GOP Senate and House candidates would be collateral damage of the anti-Trump protest.