Cornel West to Run for President as an Independent, Unaffiliated with Any Political Party

Hot off the electronic press, here is a story from The Hill.

Here is his statement: “We stand at a crossroads in our nation’s history, where our corporate-funded system is unable and unwilling to solve the political problems poor and working people face. I entered this race to challenge the hegemony of the two ruling parties. The never-ending dance between Republicans and Democrats that leaves millions of our friends and neighbors without housing, health care, decent jobs, clean air, clean water, nutritious food, and a healthy environment.

Our Constitution provides for independent candidates to gain ballot access in all states, and I ave begun seeking ballot access as an independent, unaffiliated with any political party.

I nod in solidarity to the Green Party for their shared values and commitment to justice. But my quest for the presidency belongs to the people. I believe the best way to challenge the entrenched system is by focusing 100% on the people, not on the intricacies of internal party dynamics.”


Comments

Cornel West to Run for President as an Independent, Unaffiliated with Any Political Party — 42 Comments

  1. This is so stupid. First he was with the People’s Party then swapped to Green, in no small part, because of the ballot access issue and the GP had ballot access in something like 17 states. Now he’s running flat out Independent? I wonder what problems arose with the Green Party? This is all starting to feel like a vanity run for office.

  2. It appears that the Greens are afraid that they will be blamed if Biden loses.

  3. Maybe the Greens want a nice, white liberal who won’t upset the Democrats too much.

  4. This poses problems since Kennedy might run as an independent too. Two independents on the ballot!!!

  5. Whatever the reason Dr. West left, it wasn’t because the Greens were afraid of being blamed if Biden loses, and our (I’m a Green) history of running diverse Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates also rules out that reason Walter. We sneeze and the Democrats are blaming us for their losses, so we’re largely used to that treatment. No, this came as a surprise and shock.

  6. Cornel West switched from Green to independent because he mistakenly believes that the Federal Election Commission might charge him with violating campaign finance laws if he continues as a Green. His campaign has been raising money to pay for Green Party petition drives. There is no basis for his fear; the FEC has never said a presidential candidate can’t pay for paid circulators for party petition drives.

  7. He’ll probably end up being back to use their ballot access and petitioner resources once he runs into ballot access reality.

  8. There are only six states that require more than 25,000 signatures for a presidential candidate running outside the major parties (if the easier method is used in each state): California, Texas, Florida, Arizona, Indiana, and New York). The Green Party is on automatically for president in three of them and is on its way to qualifying in a fourth. West’s decision vastly increases his ballot access hurdles.

  9. Well that really is a silly reason. Perhaps West misunderstood the FEC’s excuse for going after Jill Stein? Or perhaps it’s a cover on his part. Either way, thanks for the info Richard. West really managed to kick both himself and the Green Party in the kneecaps with this decision, ugh.

  10. Will the Peace and Freedom party have a primary in California? Maybe West can run there.

  11. The Peace & Freedom Party has its own presidential primary, but it is not binding. For example, Lenora Fulani won the party’s presidential primaries in both 1988 and 1992, but the state central committee wouldn’t nominate her either time. It is likely that the PFP will choose Claudia de la Cruz for president in 2024, because she is the nominee of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, and PSL seems to have majority control on the PFP state central committee, although there will be a new committee elected in March 2024 in the party’s primary.

  12. If West had stuck with the Green Party, he and the party would have needed another 225,000 valid signatures to be on the ballot in all 51 jurisdictions. But as an independent who is frightened to pay for any petitioning for a new party, he will need about 850,000 valid signatures.

  13. ARE THERE A-N-Y BALLOT ACCESS LAWYERS ABLE TO DETECT EQUAL IN 14-1 AMDT AND 1954 BROWN V BD OF ED ???

    2024 PREZ WINNER WITH UNDER 40 PCT OF POPULAR/VOTER VOTES ???

  14. AZ is a troll moron. We just went over this. Brown vs Board explicitly says it’s about racial discrimination in education. Not thresholds of public support for parties and candidates. Is AZ advising Cornell West???

  15. Third party and presidential candidates (who hadn’t yet been nominated by their party) who paid for petitions to get a new party on the ballot include Ross Perot in 1996; Lenora Fulani in 1988 and 1992; Ralph Nader in 2000, 2004, and 2008; Jill Stein in 2012 and 2016; John Hagelin in 1992, 1996, and 2000; and many others. Nader in 2004 raised money to complete petitions for his own Populist Party. In 2008 he did it for his own Independent Party. Currently one candidate for the Libertarian nominations is helping pay for the Maine Libertarian registration drive. Whoever advised Cornel West about the campaign finance laws is either ignorant or duplicitous.

  16. TROLL MORONS CAN NOT DETECT UNCON POLITICAL DISCRIMINATIONS IN ELECTIONS TO SAVE THEIR ASSES FROM BEING BITTEN BY BIDENS KILLER DOG.

  17. Can anyone describe for me a metric by which a Cornel West Presidential campaign will possibly be a successful thing? Who is Cornel West? What has ever accomplished? Where’s he been lately? Is he still alive? Most voters don’t and will not care.

  18. The Green Party people do not care about being labelled spoilers — many seek exactly that role to attract notice, and reject the concept (which delegitimates third parties). His decision is surprising; he has broad support in the party and a bigger name than any ‘internal’ candidates. The party’s resources are meager though, and it’s divided by identity and purity politics pushed by issue extremists.

  19. “Can anyone describe for me a metric by which a Cornel West Presidential campaign will possibly be a successful thing?”

    Spoiler. Maybe, that’s what they want. That would be a “success”

  20. AZ is the troll moron. If the Supreme Court are troll morons, only a real moron would try bringing an argument that he knows they would reject out of hand. A moron like AZ. His troll moron pro se lawsuits were laughed out of court under the glare of disco balls. Now the only thing he has left is to gaslight as a ban troll moron.

  21. Chase Oliver, who is seeking the LP nomination, also appears to be consciously running a “spoiler” campaign.

    It’s not clear what the “success” metric of the other LP candidates is.

  22. It’s too bad Dave Smith chose not to run, but maybe for the best if RFK JR is the nominee.

  23. I love it. Leftist scum are tripping over their own shoelaces, Quisling Biden can’t complete a sentence or walk up or down a flight of stairs, and President Trump will win hugely in a big, beautiful landslide election.

  24. The Green Party would never nominate RFK Jr. because of RFK Jr.’s stance on Israel and Palestine.

  25. Rfk will run libertarian, and West will run home and cry that he’s not on the ballot. I thought he was supposed to be some smart guy? I saw him on t.v. the other day and he came off as a crazy wacko from a lunatic asylum. This latest move just confirmed he’s not serious. Why a bunch of leftards take him seriously? Probably because they are dumb and crazy.

  26. Four comments
    (1) If you jump parties once during your presidential campaign, fine. Twice looks flaky.
    (2) Running with a party gives you a national team of people to place your name on the ballot. Running as an independent, you have to start from scratch. Good luck with that. And your independent campaign builds nothing and leaves no legacy.
    (3) I’m told that a lot of Greens who contributed to Dr. West’s campaign want their money back.
    (4) I’m glad he switched now and not in 2024.

    Confidential to RW: There are several reasons Greens wouldn’t support RFK Jr. besides his position on Israel-Palestine, e.g. his opposition to Medicare For All. The biggest reason, of course, is that he isn’t seeking the Green nomination.

  27. So when DW mentions the its easier to run as an independent then with a party….in terms of getting ballot access….is there truth or what is he talking about?

  28. T. Tovar

    Absolutely no truth to that at all. See Richard Winger’s comment above that says “If West had stuck with the Green Party, he and the party would have needed another 225,000 valid signatures to be on the ballot in all 51 jurisdictions. But as an independent who is frightened to pay for any petitioning for a new party, he will need about 850,000 valid signatures.”

    This made it much, much harder for West to get ballot access.

  29. Cornel West’s decision to run as an independent when the Green Party’s nomination was virtually his for the asking might be the most boneheaded move in the annals of third-party history.

    I guess that’s what happens when you pick an ill-informed longtime Democratic operative (Peter Daou) — a guy who knows little about the mechanics of waging a campaign outside the two-party establishment — to manage your campaign.

    Jill Stein, who waged two pretty impressive campaigns for the presidency on the Green Party ticket, should protect her good name — and her rightful place in history —by abandoning the professor’s erratic campaign. It’ll never get off the ground.

  30. Peter Daou, for the record, worked for Hillary Clinton’s campaigns in 2008 and 2016. He claims he eventually broke from the Democratic Party after supporting Bernie Sanders — the greatest sheepherder of all — for the Democratic nomination in the last two presidential election cycles, but did West ever ask his new campaign manager who he supported in the 2020 general election? Who did he actually vote for? Biden?

    Who did Professor West support, for that matter?

    West’s 2024 candidacy, in all honesty — jumping from one party to another and then inexplicably deciding to take an independent route — is beginning to look like a Democratic ploy to disrupt the progressive Left from mounting a serious alternative to Biden from outside the corrupt two-party establishment in next year’s general election.

  31. The Green Party, meanwhile, should nominate a candidate who will attack both major parties with equal abandon — someone who recognizes that the twin evils are equally responsible responsible for America’s tragic decline over the last five decades — leaving this country a shell of its former self. Homelessness abounds, rents are ridiculous, wages are stagnant, gasoline prices skyrocket from one day to the next, food prices are totally out of control, auto insurance is absurdly overpriced, especially in minority neighborhoods, and the environment is being ravaged while the Wall Street-financed growing national debt threatens to make debt slaves out of generations to come, and nobody in either party — least of all Trump and Biden, two of the most insulated and privileged guys imaginable — seems to have a clue.

    America’s third parties need to take a fighting stance for the country’s better self in 2024. The American people are hurting and they’re hurting badly.

    It’s later than we think. Cornel West, a product of “black privilege” — and, yeah, that’s a real thing — isn’t the answer.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.