Cornel West’s third-party presidential campaign is stirring up unpleasant flashbacks to 2016 for members of the Democratic Party, some of whom are starting to grow anxious about the effect it could…

Cornel West recently announced he is running for president as a Green Party candidate, challenging President Biden in 2024. Some Democrats worry that West’s candidacy could split the progressive vote and help reelect Donald Trump if he is the Republican nominee again, as Jill Stein’s campaign did in 2016. However, West has supporters who see his run as a way to push Biden further left on issues. Still, even some progressives acknowledge West could hurt Biden’s chances of reelection. Democrats argue that beating Trump and enacting progressive policies requires electing Democrats first.

  •  SwampYankee   ( @SwampYankee@beehaw.org ) English
    29•11 months ago

    “In 2016, the Green Party played an outsized role in tipping the election to Donald Trump,”

    They’ll blame anything other than the facts of Hillary being unlikable and Wasserman-Schulz being incompetent. Johnson took 3x as many votes from the Republicans as Stein took from the Democrats. In the end, Hillary was an electoral dud and Wasserman-Schulz’ mishandling of the primaries led to faithless electors.

    •  rambaroo   ( @rambaroo@beehaw.org ) English
      2•11 months ago

      Yeah I’m so sick of hearing about the Green Party. Yes they suck, but we have data on who green voters are, and only about 30% of them said they would vote for a Democrat if there was no green candidate.

      It’s a convenient excuse for establishment Democrats to avoid taking responsibility for their losses, but doesn’t hold up to any level of scrutiny. Their biggest issue is consistently failing to motivate their own base. Obama understood that Democratic voters respond well to positive campaign strategies while Clinton and Biden cling to 90s triangulation strategies. Which didn’t even work back then they just got lucky that Ross Perot existed.

      Green Party voters vote against the system. You can’t blame losses on them because the vast majority would simply sit the election out instead of voting for a Dem.