Campaign

West says third party critics have ‘good reason to be afraid’

by Lauren Irwin - 11/28/23 10:45 PM ET

FILE - Harvard Professor Cornel West speaks at a campaign rally for Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., at the Whittemore Center Arena at the University of New Hampshire, Feb. 10, 2020, in Durham, N.H. West says he will run for president in 2024 as third-party candidate. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File) — FILE – Harvard Professor Cornel West speaks at a campaign rally for Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., at the Whittemore Center Arena at the University of New Hampshire, Feb. 10, 2020, in Durham, N.H. West says he will run for president in 2024 as third-party candidate. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)

Independent presidential candidate Cornel West said Tuesday critics of a third-party ticket have a “good reason to be afraid.”

“I think they have good reason to be afraid because anybody who wants to speak the truth, when you have a regime in power that denies the truth, anybody who seeks justice, who runs away from justice, they ought to be afraid,” West said on Fox News on Tuesday. “But that’s for the Republican Party and that’s for the Democratic Party.”

West announced in early October that he was leaving the Green Party to launch an independent 2024 bid. It’s the second time he has changed his party affiliation since launching his campaign in June.

West was registered with the People’s Party before switching to the Green Party, relatively more mainstream than the liberal group he once affiliated with.

As for the even more mainstream groups, Democrats and Republicans, West claims they are “shot through with corruption.”

“And I’m just trying to stand for truth and justice, my dear sister, as a fallible finite human being,” he told Fox News’s Laura Ingraham. “That’s what I’m standing for. And that’s what I’m gonna live and die for.”

West has faced criticism from moderate Democrats and some progressives who say he could take away votes from President Biden in what appears to be a close 2024 election.

His move to the third party ticket came as polling showed voters were interested in candidates outside Biden and leading-GOP candidate former President Trump.

Days after West’s announcement, Robert F. Kennedy joined him. Kennedy announced he would be switching from a Democrat to an independent in the race after failing to make a dent in Biden’s lead. Jill Stein, a Green Party candidate, has raised concerns among Democrats, sending reminders about the 2016 presidential race.

Still, with less than a year to go, it’s unclear how the third-party candidates will affect the race and the leading two candidates as they head toward a likely 2020 rematch for the White House.