Spoiler Alert? Prominent Leftist Scholar Announces 3rd-Party Presidential Run
Scholar and progressive activist Cornel West announced Monday he is running for president next year as a third-party candidate.
West said he wants to empower people who have been “pushed to the margins.”
In a Twitter video, the 70-year-old academic and social critic said he will run as a member of the People’s Party, a left-wing organization formed in 2017 by Nick Brana.
West criticized both major political parties and their standard bearers, President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump — both of whom are running again in 2024.
“In these bleak times, I have decided to run for truth and justice, which takes the form of running for president of the United States as a candidate for the People’s Party,” he said.
“I enter in the quest for truth. I enter in the quest for justice, and the presidency is just one vehicle to pursue that truth and justice, what I’ve been trying to do all of my life.”
I am running for truth and justice as a presidential candidate for the People’s Party to reintroduce America to the best of itself – fighting to end poverty, mass incarceration, ending wars and ecological collapse, guaranteeing housing, health care, education and living wages for… pic.twitter.com/u3NYGUbG1S
— Cornel West (@CornelWest) June 5, 2023
West is a well-known scholar and author and a former professor at Harvard and Princeton universities.
He criticized former President Barack Obama as a “war criminal” and supported Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, a democratic socialist, in his presidential bids in 2016 and 2020.
On his campaign website, West says he wants to end wars, disband NATO, forgive all student debt, expand Social Security and invest in clean energy.
Third-party candidates face serious hurdles, including getting their names on ballots in each state.
In addition to Biden and Trump, several other candidates are making 2024 presidential bids.
Among Republicans, former Vice President Mike Pence launched his campaign on Monday, joining a GOP primary field that already includes Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, talk-radio host Larry Elder, tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson.
On the Democratic side, attorney Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and author Marianne Williamson are challenging Biden.
Having a prominent leftist on the ballot is likely to draw votes away from the Democratic nominee in the general election.
The Western Journal has reviewed this Associated Press story and may have altered it prior to publication to ensure that it meets our editorial standards.
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