Jill Stein, who ran for president in 2016 as the Green Party candidate, said on Nov. 9 that she'll seek her party’s nomination for president, potentially causing 2024 headaches for President Joe Biden and Democrats.
“The political system is broken,” Ms. Stein said in a video that announced her presidential bid. “The bipartisan establishment failed us, and we need a party that serves the people.”
She also said that “our democracy is on life support,” noting on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that she'll kick off her campaign in earnest on Nov. 21.
“Belief in our political system is at historic lows and the number of Americans who feel that neither establishment party represents them is at a record high,“ said Ms. Stein, a former doctor. ”We need real choices on the ballot, because without freedom of choice in elections, there is no democracy.
“It’s time to revive the promise of democracy”
She’s running under the Green Party’s banner again after Cornel West switched his party registration to independent. Mr. West, a lecturer and activist, is still running for the White House in 2024.
Some Democrats in 2016 blamed Ms. Stein, in part, for Hillary Clinton’s loss to then-candidate Donald Trump. While she drew about 1.4 million votes nationally, according to The Washington Post, Democrats accused her of drawing votes from then-candidate Ms. Clinton in key battleground states such as Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan.
In 2020, the Green Party’s candidate, Howie Hawkins, an environmental activist, drew only about half of the votes that Ms. Stein drew in 2016, the Post noted.
Any potential criticism from Democrats likely won’t faze Ms. Stein, her video suggests. She targeted Democrats for abandoning “working people” and claimed that they aren’t doing enough for the climate.
“Democrats have betrayed their promises for working people, youth, and the climate again and again, while Republicans don’t even make such promises in the first place,” she said on Nov. 9. “Both parties are a danger to our democracy—expanding censorship, criminalizing protests, throwing competitors off the ballot, suppressing debates, rigging their primaries.”
Ms. Stein also criticized Israel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his country’s response to multiple Hamas terrorist attacks last month. An investigation into Israeli “war crimes” and the Biden administration’s “role” should be opened, she said, saying that “these crimes must stop now.”
However, the impact of her candidacy—or outliers such as Mr. West and independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—isn’t clear. The Green Party is currently on the ballot in about 17 states.
Ms. Stein’s announcement follows on the heels of a New York Times poll that showed President Biden losing to President Trump in five of six battleground states, with a year to go until the November 2024 presidential election. That poll was taken before elections on Nov. 7, in which Republicans performed poorer than anticipated in several states, although the GOP did notch wins in multiple key areas.
The president currently trails President Trump in Nevada, Georgia, Arizona, Michigan, and Pennsylvania while he’s ahead by a slim margin in only Wisconsin, according to the poll. The outcome in all six states will help determine who wins the presidential election.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre reacted to the dismal numbers by saying polls should be taken “with a grain of salt.” She referenced polls showing Republican Mitt Romney leading Democratic then-President Barack Obama ahead of the 2012 election, which Obama won handily.
The NY Times poll also shows that there are growing concerns about the current president’s age. If 80-year-old President Biden is reelected in 2024, he would be 86 by the time he would leave office in January 2029.
About 71 percent of registered voters agreed to some extent that he’s “too old to be an effective president,” while about 39 percent made a similar statement about President Trump, the poll found.
A recent poll from Qunnipiac University also shows that in a hypothetical three-way matchup, Mr. Kennedy would get 22 percent, President Biden would get 39 percent, and President Trump would get 36 percent.
“The Democrats are frightened that I’m gonna spoil the election for President Biden ... and the Republicans are frightened that I’m gonna spoil it for President Trump,” Mr. Kennedy said in October about his 2024 prospects. “The truth is, they’re both right: My intention is to spoil it for both of them.”
