https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_voter (source)

Who are “Independents” or more accurately “Independent voters?”

An independent voter, often called an unaffiliated voter in the United States, is a voter who does not align themselves with a political party. An independent is variously defined as a voter who votes for candidates on issues rather than on the basis of a political ideology or partisanship;a voter who does not have long-standing loyalty to, or identification with, a political party; a voter who does not usually vote for the same political party from election to election; or a voter who self-describes as an independent.