DNC chair on third-party candidates: ‘This is not the time in order to experiment’

Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chair Jaime Harrison warned Sunday of the stakes in the upcoming 2024 presidential election and said of third-party candidates, like Cornel West, “This is not the time in order to experiment.”

“This is not the time in order to experiment. This is not the time to play around on the margins. And what we see is a lot of folks who want to be relevant and try to be relevant in these elections and not looking at the big picture that we are not going to — we got to re-elect Joe Biden. We have to reelect like Kamala Harris,” Harrison said when asked about third-party challenges from progressives like Cornel West, who is seeking the Green Party nomination.

Harrison described the 2024 presidential election as a fight against an “extreme” Republican party that is “chipping away at the freedoms and the rights of all the American people.” He stressed Democrats cannot support a candidate with little chance of winning.

“There is no third-party candidate that will win this election. That has never happened in the history of this, and it ain’t going to start in 2024. And so, we’ve got to stay focused on the fight that we have ahead, and at the threat that we see to American democracy. And that’s the extremists coming out of the Republican party,” Harrison said. 

West first announced his campaign in early June for the People’s Party, before declaring he would instead seek the Green Party nomination. Some political pundits have raised concerns about West’s bid, since his platform includes many progressive positions.

The DNC has endorsed Biden’s reelection campaign, which so far only faces primary challenges from Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Marianne Williamson. While few expect either Democratic candidate to beat Biden in the primary, some have raised concern about Kennedy Jr.’s focus on New Hampshire — which has refused the new DNC primary calendar and has insisted on still holding its primary early. 

Harrison did not directly answer a question on what the DNC will do about recent polls showing Kennedy Jr. making some headway, instead saying, “I think what we’re gonna do is we’re going to continue to make sure that the American people, in particular Democrats, understand how Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have delivered for them.”

“The reason why we go to the polls to vote for president is to get stuff done. Well tell me what President in my lifetime, in our lifetime, has gotten more done with almost less than Joe Biden has,” he added.