Another Candidate Has Democrats Worried

Cornel West's Green Party candidacy has spoiler potential
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 23, 2023 8:22 AM CDT
Another Candidate Has Democrats Worried
Scholar and activist Dr. Cornel West, who is running for president as a third-party candidate in 2024, gives the keynote address at the "#BLM Turns 10 People's Justice Festival" on Saturday, July 15, 2023, at the Leimert Park neighborhood in Los Angeles.   (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

If asked to name candidates who pose the biggest threat to President Biden's reelection, a lot of people would surely pick Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis. But Cornel West? As it turns out, more top Democrats are getting seriously worried about the prominent Black academic and civil rights activist, reports Mark Leibovich at the Atlantic. It's all about his potential to be a spoiler. West is running on the Green Party ticket, and Democrats worry he might pull Democratic voters away from Biden, particularly young, progressive voters. Sound familiar? It's exactly what Democrats say Green Party candidate Jill Stein did to Hillary Clinton in 2016. And as Leibovich points out, Stein is actually West's campaign manager.

"The fact that Jill Stein is running his campaign is a little on the nose," one senior Democratic campaign strategist tells Leibovich. One of the top party figures raising concern about West is David Axelrod. "This is going to sneak up on people," he tells CNN. "I don't know why alarm bells aren't going off now, and they should be at a steady drumbeat from now until the election." Another part of the concern is that West could draw Black voters away from Biden. He is, after all, "the most famous Black intellectual of our generation," as Billy Honor of the New Georgia Project Action Fund puts it.

West, for his part, downplays his spoiler potential. He tells the Atlantic that people who vote for him probably wouldn't vote for Biden anyway—they would just stay home. However, Newsweek points to recent polls that suggest a different story. For example, poll tracker RacetotheWH has Biden leading Trump 44.1 to 42.2 in a one-on-one matchup. Add West to the mix and it's a different story: Trump has 43, Biden 42, and West 4, according to a poll from Echelon Insights. "We should be concerned," says Austin Davis, Democratic lieutenant governor in the swing state of Pennsylvania, speaking for Biden supporters. (More Cornel West stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X