Far-left presidential candidate Cornel West announced Tuesday he will run with the Green Party rather than the People’s Party for his third party campaign.
West appeared on left-wing podcaster Katie Halper’s show to make the announcement and later released a statement on Twitter about his party change. (RELATED: Biden World Wants The Media To Destroy Robert F. Kennedy Jr)
“In the spirit of a broad United Front and coalition strategy, I am pursuing the nomination of the Green Party for President of the United States. Go to https://t.co/cJYOyeiVTq for more information to continue to support this unprecedented effort to empower precious poor and…
— Cornel West (@CornelWest) June 14, 2023
“In the spirit of a broad United Front and coalition strategy, I am pursuing the nomination of the Green Party for President of the United States,” West said. “Go to CornelWest24.com for more information to continue to support this unprecedented effort to empower precious poor and working people here and abroad. I thank the volunteers of the People’s Party for the initial launch!”
West is a longtime left-wing activist and academic who became a close ally to independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders during his unsuccessful 2016 and 2020 Democratic presidential campaigns. A proponent of democratic socialism, West has also defended Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ support for classical education.
Some Democrats reportedly fear West’s candidacy could play spoiler in the general election by causing a small fraction of liberal voters to support him over Biden, according to Politico. West endorsed Green Party candidate Jill Stein in the 2016 general election, who Democrats accuse of taking votes away from Hillary Clinton in her loss to former President Donald Trump.
He voted for Joe Biden in the 2020 election because he was “better than fascism” and “a fascist catastrophe is worse than a neoliberal disaster,” he said at the University of Pennsylvania.
It’s unclear whether he will pursue his candidacy through the 2024 election if a scenario arises where West could swing the election to the Republican nominee, Politico reported.
The Green Party has ballot access for the 2024 election in over a dozen states including Wisconsin and Michigan, its website says. The party is also working on obtaining ballot access in Georgia, where Biden defeated Trump in 2020 by roughly 22,000 votes, election data shows.
West’ original plan to run with the People’s Party drew skepticism because the left-wing alternative founded in 2017 only has ballot access in Florida. In its brief existence, the People’s Party has been plagued by infighting and allegations of sexual misconduct against its founder.
Biden is being challenged in the Democratic primary by left-wing activist Marianne Williamson, and vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. A May 25 CNN poll showed Kennedy at 20% and Williamson at 7% in the Democratic primary, compared to 60% for Biden. The same poll showed 7% of Democratic-aligned voters would definitely not support Biden in the general election if he wins the party’s nomination.
Biden is polling slightly below Trump and DeSantis in the RealClearPolitics average of national general election polls. The RCP data does not account for state level polling in crucial swing states.