Far-Left Firebrand Cornel West Ditches Green Party, Runs for President as Independent

Political activist Cornel West as seen in a 2016 file photo. Scott Olson/Getty Images

Former Harvard University professor and far-left activist Cornel West said Thursday he will leave the Green Party and continue his 2024 presidential campaign as an independent.

“People are hungry for change. They want good policies over partisan politics. We need to break the grip of the duopoly and give power to the people,” Mr. West, a self-described “non-Marxist socialist,” wrote on X.

“I’m running as an Independent candidate for President of the United States to end the iron grip of the ruling class and ensure true democracy!”

This is the second time the far-left firebrand changed his party affiliation since he announced his presidential bid in June. He initially entered the race as a candidate of the People’s Party, a 5-year-old organization that devoted most of its time to unsuccessful attempts to invite Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Ver.) to become its leader.

Less than two weeks later, however, Mr. West switched to the Green Party, which is older and enjoys relatively more national recognition.

Mr. West is a well-known author and a former professor at Harvard and Princeton universities. He previously criticized former President Barack Obama as a “war criminal” and supported Mr. Sanders, a democratic socialist, in his presidential bids in 2016 and 2020.

According to his campaign website, Mr. West’s platform is mostly dedicated to advancing progressive causes, such as rising national minimum wage to $27, creating a wealth tax on “all billionaire holdings and transactions,” nationalizing the fossil fuel industry, and cancelling all the oil drilling and pipeline construction projects across the nation.

When it comes to education, the former Harvard philosopher proposes to cancel “all student loan debts,” make all state and community colleges tuition-free, rise minimum wage of $80,000 for all public school teachers, and codify the use of “race, ethnicity, and class” as a consideration in admissions—a practice that not too long ago was declared unconstitutional by the nation’s highest court.

Mr. West also has a foreign affairs agenda that aims to “dismantle the U.S. empire,” which involves slashing the military budget, closing overseas bases and operation centers, disbanding NATO, ending all aid to Ukraine and instead promoting peace talks, ceasing military funding to Israel, and lifting the embargo on Cuba.

3rd Party Bid Causes Jitters Among Democrats

While a West ticket is an obvious longshot, some Democrats expressed concerns that he may act as a spoiler to President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign.

David Axelrod, a former Obama administration strategist, blamed Hillary Clinton’s failed presidential bid in 2016 at least partially on Green Party candidate Jill Stein, who ended up getting about 460,000 votes, or about 1 percent of the popular vote, during that election.

“In 2016, the Green Party played an outsized role in tipping the election to Donald Trump,” Mr. Axelrod wrote in July on Twitter, now rebranded as X.

“Now, with Cornel West as their likely nominee, they could easily do it again,” he wrote. “Risky business.”

Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison, a close ally of President Biden, also reportedly called on progressive voters to focus on denying a Republican presidency.

“This is not the time in order to experiment. This is not the time to play around on the margins,” Mr. Harrison said in July during an interview with former White House press secretary Jen Psaki, now a host at MSNBC.

“We got to reelect Joe Biden. We got to reelect Kamala Harris,” he told the audience. “Because there is no third party candidate that will win this election. That’s never happened in the history of this country and ain’t gonna start in 2024.”

Similar concerns have been raised in some Republicans by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is teasing a major announcement on Oct. 9. It is widely speculated that he may abandon his pursuit for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination in favor of an independent or third-party run.

Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, argued last week on his radio talk show that Republicans would be more willing to vote for Mr. Kennedy as a third-party candidate over Democrats, and could pull votes from the Republican Party.

“Far more of the ‘I don’t trust the government’ brigade would vote for RFK Jr. if he were run as a Libertarian,” Mr. Kirk said, adding that “Libertarians being on the ballot almost always hurt Republicans. We know this. We see it in so many different states.”