The Democratic National Committee has launched attack ads targeting Green Party nominee Dr. Jill Stein in several key swing states, accusing her of being a “spoiler” who could tip the election in favor of Republican Donald Trump.
“Today the DNC is releasing its first-ever ad focused on third-party candidates,” Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison posted on X on Friday. “Trump ‘likes’ that Jill Stein is in this race—because Jill Stein can’t win, but she can help Trump win.”
The 30-second ad shared in Harrison’s post opens with a photo of Stein that gradually morphs into the face of Trump, while a narrator accuses Stein of being crucial to Trump’s 2016 victory. “Why are Trump’s close allies helping her? Stein was key to Trump’s 2016 wins in battleground states,” the narrator says as the photo changes. “She’s not sorry she helped Trump win. That’s why a vote for Stein is really a vote for Trump.”
While Harrison did not initially disclose details about the ad beyond what was said in his post, a subsequent statement from the Democratic National Committee on Sunday revealed that the ad campaign cost the party six figures and would air in the battleground states of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania.
In recent weeks, Stein has garnered endorsements from several organizations critical of Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and her views on the ongoing conflict in Gaza. Among these endorsers are the Muslim American Public Affairs Council and the Abandon Harris Campaign. Polling from another group, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, also previously indicated that Muslim American voters are inclined to support Stein just as much as Harris, at least among those who self-reported their presidential preferences.
However, polling data from the first two weeks of October in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania shows that Trump and Harris are virtually tied, with one occasionally leading the other by razor-thin margins. In those few polls that include third party and independent candidates, Stein’s level of support is similar to that of her fellow challengers, including Libertarian Party nominee Chase Oliver and independent candidate Dr. Cornel West. Furthermore, in Michigan and Wisconsin, when factoring in independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Stein’s support actually lags behind the now-suspended candidate.
If you want to actually know why I don’t bother registering to vote or voting… Feel free to ask . Or assume to answer for me, quite erroneously. A pox on all the parties and candidates and unelected bureau rats alike
This is the classic Big Lie of the unDemocratic Party. The US has the lowest voter participation rate of any democracy–a third to half of all potential voters don’t bother. But, instead of asking themselves why, with their billions of dollars, they can’t motivate those folks to participate, they try to shut down an alternative party with a program that differentiates it sharply from the unDemocrats. I’m a Green, and I would not vote unDemocrat for a whole host of reasons. I’m glad we’ve got them scared enough to run this ad. If it works like their anti-Trump campaign in 2016, Jill Stein just might become President! 🙂
This was a big blunder. Everyone, vote your conscience.
This ad was a huge miscalculation – or possibly sabotage – that will do far more damage to Harris than to Stein. In fact, it already is.
On the Democratic Party’s official YouTube account, the ad has been unlisted, presumably because of the backlash(?):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cCK4z0BrHc
Even so, it is still being ripped to shreds in the comments, which are regularly being purged – sit on the video a while and refresh to see it happening for yourself. And the ratio between likes and dislikes – the latter of which YouTube is also helpfully resetting, though slightly less frequently – is asymptotically approaching zero.
They really paid six figures to run this in swing states?! Maaaaaaaan, I should have gone into advertising instead of academia.
And despite spending one or more millions of dollars on this, they somehow still couldn’t get a professional voice actress to narrate it? Don’t tell me settling for Ms. Lisp over here was a deliberate choice.
So where is all that money being embezzled to?
Both major parties are sweating out this election because, quite frankly, their Presidential candidates are both crummy – altho in vastly different ways.
If the Democrats think that 3rd party votes would otherwise go to them, they ought to support run off voting in swing states.
Or do they think that they would suffer a humiliating loss if they went 1 on 1 with the Republicans in runoffs in those states?
Are they fantasizing that some third parties are more harmful to them than others?