Progressive activist Cornel West announced he is seeking the Green Party nomination for president in 2024 after declaring his candidacy for the People’s Party nomination last week.
West said that he decided to run as a candidate for the Green Party to try to build a “broad United Front and coalition strategy.”
“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 tweeted Wednesday.
He asked people 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!”
The Green Party tweeted in response to West’s post that the party welcomes his participation in its contest for a nominee.
“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,” the Green Party tweeted.
West said in his campaign launch video that his candidacy would be centered around health care, living wages, housing, reproductive rights and “deescalating the destruction” of the planet and democracy.
He said he is running as a third-party candidate because “neither party wants to tell the truth” about Wall Street, Ukraine, the Pentagon and Big Tech.
West faces long odds with his third-party run, but polls showing that many do not want President Biden or former President Trump to be their party’s nominees could open up greater support for an alternate candidate.
The political organization No Labels, which says it is pushing cooperation in a divided political landscape, has been hammered by Democrats, who say it could hand Trump the presidency if it backs a non-Biden moderate candidate.
Former Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway said last week in an interview with Fox News that West is “very likely” a bigger threat to Biden’s reelection prospects than Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an anti-vaccine activist and political scion running for the Democratic nomination.
“Even if you don’t become president, you, as a third-party candidate spoiler, can decide who is the president,” Conway said.