[A]s Bernie Sanders bows out of the race for president, another silver-haired progressive candidate is looking to keep the political revolution alive: Dr. Jill Stein.
The Green Party candidate also ran for president in 2012. In that election, Stein netted 469,501 votes — in part because of a highly publicized protest.
Shortly before Election Day, Stein made headlines when she was arrested after “attempting to bring food and Halloween candy to protesters camping out in trees to oppose the Keystone XL pipeline.”
The pipeline has since been rejected by the Obama administration.
Like Sanders, Stein chides Clinton for taking money from corporations and political action committees.
“Hillary Clinton has a lifelong commitment to Wall Street, to the war machine and to the Walmart economy, with her having served on the board of directors for Walmart and been a party to the very predatory economic policies that [Walmart] represents,” Stein said Thursday.
“In fact, I think the economic crisis that America is facing — and the misery, in fact, that is now giving rise to this radical right wing movement — has everything to do with the neo-liberal policies shared by the Clintons.”’
In a Tweet on Tuesday, Stein reacted sharply to Sanders’ decision to endorse Clinton.
“If you don’t want to vote for a warmonger or racist billionaire, there are more options,” Stein said. “The political revolution will keep going.”
Now that Sanders is out of the race, Stein says she is the only candidate who is a standard-bearer for progressive issues. She contends that Sanders was “very badly beaten up by the Democratic party” during the primary season, and suggested that Clinton’s win was rigged.
She compared Sanders’ downfall to the Howard Dean Scream, saying the media coverage was “concocted against him for preposterous reasons.” Multiple news outlets have reported that the Dean Scream media moment was hyped. (He wasn’t that loud, the microphones just made it sound that way.)
While she often captures just a few points in national polls, Sanders’ decision to endorse Clinton this week has shifted some liberals to Stein.
Stein is against the Trans Pacific Partnership, and for a Medicare-for-all type health care system. She also calls for aggressive action to combat climate change, and has a plan for a “Green New Deal.” A deeper look at her positions can be found on her website.
It’s unclear if Clinton will get a polling boost from Sanders supporters who follow the lead of their candidate. In current polling averages, one in every five Sanders supporter says they will support a third party candidate like Stein or Libertarian Gary Johnson.
On Thursday, Stein was endorsed by one of Sanders’ most famous campaign surrogates, Dr. Cornel West.
Stein’s campaign has received a huge increase in donations this week, and many $27 contributions — the average amount Sanders received during his campaign. She’s also said seen a bump in social media followers and national news coverage.
“Everything has been multiplied by a factor of 10,” Stein said. Everything.”
Stein is still not on every state ballot, and she said she is hoping to recruit volunteers at the Burlington event to collect the rest of the required 1,000 signatures over the next 10 days.
“We are not just going to go into that dark night,” Stein said.
