Democratic strategist David Axelrod tweeted that the Green Party presidential bid by Cornel West could divert votes away from President Joe Biden, resulting in the election of Republican candidate Donald Trump.
West is an American philosopher and political activist who announced his bid for the 2024 presidential election in early June. He is framing himself as a progressive candidate and running on a platform of social and economic justice, as he stated in his campaign announcement.
Axelrod fears that West’s candidacy will have similar effects as that of Jill Stein in 2016, another Green Party candidate who is often blamed for drawing votes away from Democratic nominee Hilary Clinton and possibly fueling the victory of Trump. Stein won more votes than Trump’s margin of victory in Wisconsin and Michigan, two states that would have changed the results of the election if Clinton had won them.
“In 2016, the Green Party played an outsized role in tipping the election to Donald Trump. Now, with Cornel West as their likely nominee, they could easily do it again. Risky business,” Axelrod wrote.
A NewsNation/DDHQ poll conducted last month found that nearly half of all voters would consider a third-party candidate, should Biden and Trump go head-to-head again. Democrats and Republicans fear that a prominent third-party nominee could tip the election in an unprecedented way.
