Some Democrats Worried About Cornel West’s Third-Party 2024 Bid

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

Democratic officials and strategists have publicly expressed reservations about former Harvard University professor Cornel West’s 2024 presidential bid.

“This is not the time in order to experiment. This is not the time to play around on the margins,” warned Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison, a close ally of President Joe Biden, over the weekend, according to reports.

After Hillary Clinton was defeated by former President Donald Trump in the 2016 campaign, some Democrats claimed that Green Party nominee Jill Stein caused Mrs. Clinton to lose the presidency. Mrs. Stein drew 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,” wrote David Axelrod, a former Obama administration strategist, in a Twitter post. He echoed Mr. Harrison’s statement in saying that “with Cornel West as [the Green Party’s] likely nominee, they could easily do it again. Risky business.”

As he runs a progressive campaign seeking the Green Party nomination, Mr. West’s platform is centered around left-wing proposals, and some have said that he could cut into President Joe Biden’s 2024 bid among younger voters and black voters. Mr. West, who is black, also has been sharply critical of the United States and NATO involvement in Ukraine following Russia’s invasion last year.

In comments over the weekend, Mr. Harrison said that he believes Mr. West is only running to stay relevant. “What we see is a lot of folks who want to be relevant and try to be relevant in these elections and not looking at the big picture,” he said, reiterating: “We got to reelect Joe Biden.”

However, not all Democrats believe Mr. West will be a detriment to Mr. Biden’s chances.

Rep. Ro Khanna (R-Calif.), the former campaign co-chair of Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-Vt.) 2020 campaign, told Politico that the third-party candidate may “ultimately help” Mr. Biden, saying that he “will bring more people into the process and push for progressive policies.”

“The U.S. has a long history of issue candidates who run in order to bring attention to important principles and ideas. I welcome Cornel West entering the race to make this country more just for all,” he told the outlet. But Mr. Khanna said that he wasn’t endorsing Mr. West and is supporting the president’s reelection chances.

As for Mrs. Stein, she told Forbes magazine last week that Mr. West, a self-described socialist, is “the right person for America” during the 2024 contest in an interview over the past weekend. She also said she doesn’t believe she was responsible for Mrs. Clinton’s 2016 loss, saying that “nobody owns our votes.”

Initially, Mr. West said in June that he would run as a member of The People’s Party but later said he would compete for the Green Party’s nomination.

“In these bleak times, I have decided to run for truth and justice, which takes the form of running for president of the United States as a candidate for the People’s Party,” Mr. West said. “I enter in the quest for truth. I enter in the quest for justice, and the presidency is just one vehicle to pursue that truth and justice, what I’ve been trying to do all of my life.”

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.

On his campaign website, West says he wants to end wars, disband NATO, forgive all student debt, expand Social Security, and invest in green energy. Third-party candidates face serious hurdles, including getting their names on ballots in each state.

Now, in addition to Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump, several other candidates have launched 2024 presidential bids. Several weeks ago, former Vice President Mike Pence officially launched his campaign, joining a GOP primary field that already includes the former president, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum.

Amid the criticism over his presidential bid, Mr. West has defended his decision during a Politico interview.

Because Mr. Sanders, according to him, “was treated so unjustly and so unfairly by the Democratic Party ... the lesson that I learned was that the Democratic Party, for the most part, is a corporate-dominated party that uses its progressives often as window dressing.”

“Bernie was not given the kind of chance that he deserved,” he said, “which is to say our efforts were not given the kind of fair chance that they deserved.”

Then, he claimed that Mr. Trump and Mr. DeSantis, who polls show are No. 1 and No. 2 respectively in the GOP field, will be enabled by the Democratic Party’s refusal to “speak to the needs of the poor and working people.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.