Does the official answer makes a run on sentence?

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However much United States voters may agree that there is waste in government and that the government
as a whole spends beyond its means, it is difficult to find broad support for a movement toward a minimal
state.
(A) However much United States voters may agree that
(B) Despite the agreement among United States voters to the fact
(C) Although United States voters agree
(D) Even though United States voters may agree
(E) There is agreement among United States voters that

OA is (A) .
My question is that However is an conjunctive adverb used to introduce an independent clause.
If we see the whole sentence, it makes 2 independent clauses :-
1st Independent Clause = However much ...means
2nd Independent Clause = it is difficult ....
Whenver we join 2 related independent clauses we should use semi-colon and not comma. If we use comma
we will create a run on sentence that is wrong.
Then how is this Official Answer correct?.
Am i missing something here?
Source: — Sentence Correction |

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by GmatVerbal » Sun Dec 18, 2011 8:29 pm
phrase "However much ..." is a dependent clause similar to Although and Even though.

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by avik.ch » Mon Dec 19, 2011 12:40 am
You cannot join two clause with a comma - be it dependent or independent !!

If both are independent you need a conjunction.

If one is a dependent and one is a independent then you need a subordinator.

Here "however much...." is a dependent clause. For more on this refer to gmatverbal discussion in this thread.

https://www.beatthegmat.com/compared-wit ... tml#434346

Hope this helps !!

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