As some #NeverTrump Republicans swing to the Libertarian Party, supporters of Sen. Bernard Sanders are urging him to make it a competitive four-candidate presidential race in November by running on the Green Party ticket.
Some of the party’s biggest names are urging Mr. Sanders to attend the Green Party Presidential Nominating Convention Aug. 4-7 in Houston, and while he hasn’t taken them up on their offer, he hasn’t told them no, either.
“The Green Party has sent Mr. Sanders messages inviting him to talk with us but we’ve received no response,” said party media coordinator Scott McLarty.
As former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton tightens her grip on the Democratic presidential nomination, however, the calls for Mr. Sanders to join the Green Party’s ranks have risen along with the tide of “Bernie or Bust” backers making it clear that they will not support a Clinton candidacy.
Jill Stein, the Green Party’s 2012 presidential nominee and a candidate for the 2016 nod, has implored Mr. Sanders to collaborate with the party in what she described as a “wildly unpredictable election where the old rules are giving way one by one.”
“As the neoliberal Democratic machine mobilizes to quash revolution in its ranks, I urge you to consider opening a window of historic possibility outside the Democratic Party,” Ms. Stein said in an April 22 open letter to Mr. Sanders. “I would love to explore with you collaborative ways to advance that effort and ensure the revolution for people, planet and peace will prevail.”
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A Sanders-Stein ticket would make the Greens instantly relevant even as the Libertarian Party surges following the Republican backlash against presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump, creating the possibility of an anything-could-happen presidential race with four viable candidates.
A Monmouth University poll released Thursday found former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, the front-runner for the Libertarian nod, with 11 percent of the vote, the first time this season a third-party candidate has registered in double digits.
A four-way contest would ease fears that a single third-party candidacy, depending on its bent, would doom either the Republican or Democratic presidential nominee.
Both parties have seen it happen: the Green Party’s Ralph Nader is blamed for siphoning votes from Democratic candidate Al Gore in 2000, while Republican President George H.W. Bush saw his re-election hopes crumble with the rise of the Reform Party’s Ross Perot in 1992.
Mr. Sanders told National Public Radio last week that he plans to stay in the race until the Democratic National Convention, which is July 25-28 in Philadelphia. If he loses to Mrs. Clinton as expected, the Vermont senator would still be able to run for the Green Party nomination the following week.
Given that Mr. Sanders has said as recently as April 7 that he would support Mrs. Clinton if she wins the nomination, however, the Greens are focusing not just on the candidate but also his army of young, energetic, left-wing voters.
“We’re preparing to welcome Bernie supporters who can’t bring themselves to transfer their support to Hillary. It should be an interesting convention season this year,” said Mr. McLarty.
The Greens used the occasion of Earth Day to issue an invitation to Sanders voters: “We’ll have a Green welcome mat for all those who want to keep the political revolution alive if Clinton is nominated,” said the party in an April 22 press release.
Top Greens have assailed Mrs. Clinton’s “corporate worldview” and “connections to the oil and gas industry” while accusing the Democratic Party of blocking Mr. Sanders’ nomination.
“Voters have seen how the major-party nomination and election processes are rigged, through irregularities at the polls and mechanisms like the Democrats’ superdelegate system, which was designed to block candidates like Bernie Sanders,” said Andrea Merida Cuellar, Green Party co-chair, in a statement.
Kshama Sawant, a Socialist who serves on the Seattle city council, has launched a #Movement4Bernie petition urging Mr. Sanders to run as an independent candidate, which has gathered nearly 25,000 signatures.
The petition argues that Sanders supporters are unlikely to back Mrs. Clinton, which will allow Republicans “a free hand to mobilize the anti-establishment anger, which most of the left is trapped behind Clinton, the crowning symbol of establishment, dynastic, Wall Street politics.”
“The stakes are too high to let this moment slip through our fingers,” said Ms. Sawant in a statement. “Capitalism is plunging humanity into a social and ecological catastrophe. Bernie’s campaign shows a viable fightback is possible.”
Among the benefits of running as a Green, as opposed to an independent, is that the party already has a line on the presidential ballot in 25 states and holds it nominating convention after the Republicans and Democrats.
“If Bernie Sanders is reluctant to make the jump to running as a Green, he needs to be pushed by his supporters,” said Dave Lindorff in an April 29 column in Counterpunch. “He needs to be shown that it can be done, and that his would not be a quixotic campaign, but rather a serious effort to win the White House.”
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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