Dr. Cornel West, social critic and professor of philosophy at Union Theological Seminary, who last week declared he was running for the Movement for a People’s Party presidential nomination, has also announced that he is pursuing the Green Party nomination.
“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 shared on his Twitter account Tuesday evening. “I thank the volunteers of the People’s Party for the initial launch!”
The Green Party responded favorably to West’s announcement, saying it “welcomes Dr. Cornel West as a candidate seeking the party’s nomination for president,” directly in response to West. “Dr. West is an important voice for social and economic justice in line with our party’s platform. We look forward to him participating in the nomination process.”
https://twitter.com/GreenPartyUS/status/1668836325280354305
Earlier this month, West announced that he would pursue the nomination of the People’s Party, sometimes also referred to as A Movement for a People’s Party by those familiar or involved with the organization.
“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,” West said at the time. “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.”
Andrew Yang, co-founder of the Forward Party and former 2020 presidential aspirant, also praised West following his announcement for pursuing both party nominations, noting that his appeal puts him above former Green nominees.
“Cornel West running on the Green Party Ballot as well as MPP is much more likely to impact the presidential race,” Yang stated. “Howie Hawkins got 407,000 votes in 2020 with the Greens good for .26%. Jill Stein got 1.45 million votes in 2016 good for 1.07%. I’d put Cornel above either of them in terms of popular appeal.”
However, not all are as enthusiastic about West’s political switch. The official Facebook account of the People’s Party noted that support for West might “dissipate” and that his switch resulted from pressure from friends and family.
“Cornel West has announced a switch to the Green Party. He stated the social media and family pressure as the reasons for his decision,” the comment reads. “The excitement over the phenomenal launch executed by the People’s Party on our invitation to carry him as a candidate may dissipate as a result of the switch. The six year relationship PP had with West led to the invitation to run as our candidate. West had to consider the other political influences of his family after he agreed to run with PP resulting in a change of mind.”
Still, the party’s response did not dismiss the effectiveness of a “United Front” effort or party organizers’ influence on West’s platform. Readers can view the full statement here.
The Green Party of the United States will select its presidential nominee at the Presidential Nominating Convention held in 2024.
CNN reports that Jill Stein is now working with Dr West as he moves to get the Green Party nomination. The article quotes Jill Stein:
“I’m a transition coordinator helping his campaign move from its previous People’s Party context into the Green Party and developing his team and the infrastructure that he needs to run a full-powered, people-powered campaign,”
https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/22/politics/jill-stein-cornel-west-president-2024/index.html
This indicates that Stein believes Dr West has moved his campaign completely from the Poeple’s Party over to the Green Party. This rather that trying to build a coalition of the two parties.
Just FYI. I would never support Dr West or Jill Stein, but this is third party news.
@Stewart Flood… I’m assuming your comment is in reply to Joshua’s comment? If so, being required to file with the FEC and being recognized as a national committee is not the same thing. In order to be recognized as a national committee you have to run candidates from multiple states to congress, for multiple election cycles (I think it’s a minimum of 2 regular general elections), and run a presidential candidate in a notable number of states. Basically the qualification is kind of ambiguous and up to interpretation by the FEC.
See here: https://www.fec.gov/help-candidates-and-committees/registering-political-party/qualifying-as-a-political-party-committee/#qualifying-as-a-national-party-committee
Nick Brana at MPP is b*** hurt (per this site’s rules), as reported at Ballot Access and elsewhere. It’s funny, cuz West basically threw MPP under the bus a full week ago during his Amy Goodman interview, per my blogging. https://socraticgadfly.blogspot.com/2023/06/cornel-west-running-as-third-party.html
$5K raised/spent on federal races REQUIRES them to file with the FEC. Easy threshold. I expect the new *************** party of South Carolina to do that the first month.
Fantastic news! A smart move by Dr. West. The People Party’s nomination, by itself, offers Dr. West’s campaign all of nothing. As Richard Winger pointed out in a comment on one of the story’s about Dr. West’s candidacy on BAN “Although the People’s Party is a qualified party in Florida, a 2011 law says even qualified parties aren’t on the ballot for president unless they are recognized by the FEC as a national committee, or unless they submit a petition of about 140,000 signatures. So for president, the People’s Party is not on the ballot in any state right now. ” Whereas the Green Party’s nomination offers ballot access in 17 states and DC. So that’s a MASSIVE MASSIVE difference.
It’s clear that Nick Brana and co (mostly Nick Brana, let’s be honest) are upset about this development because they were really REALLY hoping to use Dr. West’s candidacy to build this political apparatus for Nick to use so that he could potentially become some sort of meaningful figure on the left, but oh well. I’m glad Dr. West is smart enough to not allow himself, his campaign, and this moment be used and co-opted by Nick Brana for the sake of his own vanity project.