Democrats united in dismissing threat from third-party candidates

CHICAGO — Democrats remain mostly confident that the handful of third-party candidates running in the presidential campaign poses little threat to Vice Presidential Kamala Harris’s bid. 

At the Democratic National Convention, party members and delegates remained united in saying that third-party candidates, such as Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Dr. Jill Stein, and Cornel West, were no longer a significant threat to the party. 

“I don’t fear them. There’s that saying you either run unopposed or you run scared,” said Daniele Monroe-Moreno, chairwoman of the Nevada Democratic Party, a top battleground state. “And it’s our job as a party and our volunteers and my team just get the vote out and tell our story about the work that we have been doing, both at the national level and the state level, to make sure that people understand how they’re voting and what that vote means.” 

“No, absolutely not. I think it’s not that they’re irrelevant, they certainly serve purpose, but no, we will get enough votes with them or without them,” added Gov. Tony Evers (D-WI)

Last month, Nevada elections officials verified enough ballot signatures for Kennedy, the most formidable of the third-party candidates, to appear on the ballot. A week ago, Stein’s Green Party was allowed to appear on Nevada’s ballot, according to a state judge ruling who rejected a state Democratic challenge. 

But Democrats are no longer panicking that third parties could throw the election to the GOP. 

When President Joe Biden remained atop the Democratic ticket, party members formed groups and super PACs aimed at blocking the famous Kennedy member from gaining access to state ballots, citing fears of a repeat of 2016, when Stein siphoned votes from Hillary Clinton.

But with excitement over Harris’s campaign, enthusiasm for third-party candidates has decreased, as voters now have an option to vote for someone besides Biden and former President Donald Trump. 

“I don’t hear too much fear about that. I guess we have such a negative opinion of Kennedy, I don’t know that anybody takes them seriously,” added Linda Norton, a 75-year-old Wisconsin delegate. 

“I’m pretty confident that our candidate, she is just amazing, and that we are fighting together. And I don’t feel that in Michigan it’s an issue as much,” said Aileen Pettinger, a Michigan delegate from Saginaw. 

However, pro-Palestinian protesters were adamant they wouldn’t vote for Harris, due to the Biden administration’s inability to impose a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. They continue to disrupt Democratic events, including the convention, claiming they won’t stop until a ceasefire is reached and U.S. funding to Israel ends.

“What I can say is that there’s there are ways for my vote to have an impact, and one of them is for me to vote for Jill Stein, instead of being pressured by the apparatus of the Democratic Party that I have to vote for her or I’m voting for fascism,” said Sarah Bechdel, a 35-year-old Chicago resident.

Stein told the Washington Examiner that Democrats still fear her campaign before she addressed an Abandon Harris press conference Monday afternoon. “Well, they announced back in March they were trying to do me, off the ballot, which they’ve been trying to do. We are locked in the legal battle in many places around the country,” said Stein. “So yes, I think they are very afraid.” 

Meanwhile, Kennedy’s campaign passed out campaign buttons encouraging Democrats to vote for his presidential bid during the DNC. But he is currently polling at just 4.5% in a five-way matchup against Harris, Trump, Stein, and West, according to RealClearPolitics. Stein polls at just 1% and West polls at 0.4%.  

West also attended and spoke at the Abandon Harris conference, where he implored voters to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people by bucking the two-party system. 

“We’ll raise our voices, as long as we have vocal cords, because that’s what it means to be a decent human being, some sense of integrity and honesty and decency and courage,” West said before more protests commenced ahead of the DNC. “And when we look at our politicians, we see accommodation to Empire, accommodation of organized greed, the cowardly, conformist, complacent. We shatter that cowardliness. We shatter that complacency. We shatter that accommodation.”