Biden eyes growing general election threat from Green Party’s Cornel West

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It might not take much to pull away enough voters for Democrats to lose the White House in 2024, with poll numbers showing President Biden tied with or losing to former President Donald Trump.

The Green Party’s Cornel West could be the spoiler.

Mr. West, a university professor and longtime socialist activist, announced his presidential bid in July. He is now running under the Green Party banner, which aims to secure a place on the November 2024 ballot in nearly every state.

The Green Party has achieved ballot access in 17 states, including critical battlegrounds Wisconsin and Michigan.

Polls show an increasing faction of voters are dissatisfied with the Republican and Democratic choices and are willing to consider third-party candidates.

Mr. West, 70, has a self-described people-powered political rebellion that could pose the greatest threat to the Biden campaign. The president’s poll numbers are sinking, and questions are mounting about the 80-year-old’s mental capabilities after numerous displays of gaffes and stumbles.

Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden each had 45% support and 10% remained undecided in an Emerson College national poll conducted last month. When Mr. West was added to the mix, he captured 4% of the vote. Mr. Biden dropped to 42% and Mr. Trump to 43%, with 11% undecided.

Overall, Mr. West picked up the kind of support that could deplete the Democratic voting base: Seven percent of Hispanics, 5% of the Black vote and 7% of voters younger than 35.

An even smaller percentage of those votes could cost Mr. Biden the election in the handful of swing states that Mr. Biden won by razor-thin margins in 2020 and are likely to decide the 2024 race, pollster Ron Faucheux told The Washington Times.

“Any third candidate can be a decisive threat in close states,” Mr. Faucheux said. “If West takes most of his votes from Biden, which is likely, it could potentially flip electoral votes to the Republicans in some swing states such as Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Arizona and Georgia.”

Mr. West is running to the left of Mr. Biden, attracting voters who want more aggressive policies to end U.S. involvement in overseas wars, eliminate the use of fossil fuels, provide universal health care and reform policing.

Mr. West, who did not respond to a request for an interview, also backs reparations “for past unjust treatment of Black people,” elimination of the Electoral College and “democratizing unaccountable monopolies and oligopolies with workers’ control,” according to his campaign website.

Former Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein supports Mr. West, who recently hired Peter Daou to run his campaign. Mr. Daou previously served as campaign manager for Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson.

In a video posted last week on X, Mr. West denounced the two-party system and called his campaign “a moment in a movement.” He asked for donations as the third fundraising quarter drew to a close.

Mr. West has denied his campaign aims to siphon Biden voters, but he raced past the president to reach a United Auto Workers picket line last week. On Sept. 25, he wielded an “on strike” sign alongside UAW Local 3039 members in Tappan, New York. 

“It’s about fighting corporate greed, it’s about defending human dignity and it’s about affirming solidarity,” he said before venturing to the side of the road to wave his sign at oncoming traffic.

The next day, Mr. Biden visited a UAW picket line in Michigan and told strikers through a bullhorn, “You deserve the significant raise you need and other benefits.”

Tim Black, a political commentator from Waldorf, Maryland, whose weekly podcast focuses on issues impacting Black Americans, said he stopped voting for Democratic presidential candidates in the general election when President Obama left office. Mr. Black voted for the Green Party candidates in the past two elections and now enthusiastically backs Mr. West’s campaign.

“My support for Dr. West is based on me knowing his political stances and knowing that he’s anti-war, he’s into ending mass incarceration, environmental justice. A lot of things that I’m interested in,” Mr. Black said.

Democratic Party officials aren’t panicking about Mr. West, but some longtime operatives warn that they should pay closer attention to his third-party campaign or risk a repeat of 2016, when Ms. Stein drew enough support away from Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton to give Mr. Trump the edge in several swing states.

The Green Party played an “outsized” role in Mr. Trump’s 2016 victory, said Democratic Party strategist and former Obama adviser David Axelrod, although Ms. Stein and others disputed that claim.

“Now with Cornel West as [their] likely nominee, they could easily do it again,” Mr. Axelrod said in a post on X. “Risky business.”

The third-party threat to Mr. Biden could be offset “if there is a third-party candidate taking away votes from the right side of the spectrum,” Mr. Faucheux said.

He said Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is preparing to run as an independent, could pose a threat to Mr. Trump. Mr. Kennedy campaigns on a mix of liberal and populist policies.

A potentially more significant challenge to the Democratic and Republican candidates could develop if the bipartisan group No Labels launches a “unity ticket.”

No Labels has gained ballot access in 10 states, most recently in the swing state of Arizona. It is on track to be on the ballot in 28 states by the end of the year.

The group’s polling indicates that voters in both major parties are yearning for a “moderate independent” party ticket in 2024.

Sen. Joe Manchin III, a West Virginia Democrat who has clashed with the party and Mr. Biden, hasn’t ruled out a campaign. In July, he headlined a No Labels event in Manchester, New Hampshire, alongside former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, a Republican.

Niko House, a West supporter and Miami-based political podcaster who has worked for the presidential campaigns of Ms. Stein and Sen. Bernard Sanders, said a particular faction of Democratic voters are so frustrated with the party’s nominating system and the Biden administration that they will vote for Mr. West to thwart another Biden presidency.

Mr. West, he said, could draw support from Democratic voters frustrated with Mrs. Clinton’s 2016 primary win over Mr. Sanders, a democratic socialist, and those who now back Mr. Kennedy’s uphill presidential campaign. Mr. Kennedy has attacked the Biden administration over COVID-19 mandates, Ukraine war funding and efforts to censor social media.

“I believe that he has a shot to garner a larger percentage of votes than any other third-party candidate has in the past,” Mr. House said of Mr. West. “I think that people are just that fed up.”