Cornel West Independent Campaign Is 'Strategic Hurdle,' Rep Says

Cornel West speaks to the media on Aug. 28, 2023, in Los Angeles. | Supply: Francine Orr / Getty

Cornel West has an uphill battle to safe his placement on presidential ballots following his shock announcement that he was leaving the Inexperienced Social gathering to run as an Unbiased candidate.

The famous scholar and activist made his political intentions clear on Thursday morning in a 40-second-long video clip he posted to his social media channels.

MORE: Op-Ed: Cornel West, A Prophet For President

“Individuals are hungry for change. They need good insurance policies over partisan politics. We have to break the grip of the duopoly and provides energy to the individuals,” West, 70, wrote in a message that accompanied the video. “I’m working as an Unbiased candidate for President of the US to finish the iron grip of the ruling class and guarantee true democracy!”

West’s path to the poll will nonetheless be by way of a third-party candidacy, however his marketing campaign instructed the” inside social gathering dynamics” of the Inexperienced Social gathering performed a big function in figuring out his political allegiance, or lack thereof.

“As Dr. West’s marketing campaign for president grows, he believes one of the simplest ways to problem the entrenched system is by focusing 100% on the individuals, not on the intricacies of inside social gathering dynamics,” West’s marketing campaign mentioned in an announcement.

West’s marketing campaign supervisor instructed that going from what would have been a sure-fire nomination by the Inexperienced Social gathering to working an as unbiased candidate in search of the White Home wouldn’t be a straightforward transition.

“It’s a serious strategic hurdle for an unbiased or third social gathering to achieve poll entry even in a single state, not to mention all 50 as a gift presidential candidate,” Peter Daou advised Politico. “So we will probably be making use of as a lot rigorous evaluation as we will to one of the simplest ways to method this as a result of we don’t have limitless sources.”

Daou added: “Our Structure gives for Unbiased candidates to realize poll entry in all states, and Dr. West has begun in search of poll entry as an Unbiased, unaffiliated with any political social gathering.”

The best way to get on all ballots is to file with every state previous to their deadline and have a sure variety of signatures on petitions, in accordance with tips established and enforced by every state’s secretary of state.

Democracy Docket, an internet site that gives details about voting rights and elections, warned that the “required variety of signatures [for petitions] is normally greater for unbiased or unaffiliated candidates than the quantity required to make it onto a political main poll.”

Jill Stein, the 2016 Inexperienced Social gathering presidential nominee, mentioned West’s choice to run as an unbiased candidate will lose him entry to the Inexperienced Social gathering’s sources.

“In deciding to run as an unbiased, the West marketing campaign leaves behind the poll traces they might have had entry to, in addition to the steering of skilled poll entry workers and Inexperienced volunteers aware of the method in many of the 50 states,” Stein and her 2016 vice preidntial working mate Ajamu Baraka mentioned in an announcement on Thursday. “We anticipate this will probably be a formidable impediment within the coming months.”

This week is the second time West has cvhanged his political affiliation since declaring his presidential candidacy in June. Again then, West mentioned he was working “for the Folks’s Social gathering to reintroduce America to the very best of itself – preventing to finish poverty, mass incarceration, ending wars and ecological collapse, guaranteeing housing, well being care, training and residing wages for all!”

Not two weeks later, West introduced that he was switching to the the Inexperienced Social gathering, a declaration that he mentioned on the time was in “the spirit of a broad United Entrance and coalition technique.”

Now, fewer that 4 months later, West is now an unbiased candidate.

The final time an unbiased candidate made waves with a presidential marketing campaign was in 1992 when Texas billionaire industrialist tycoon H. Ross Perot secured his title on the poll in each state.

Perot’s marketing campaign, like West’s, endured its fair proportion of ups and downs, together with being briefly suspended. In what may very well be a telling signal for West, Perot — regardless of being on all presidential ballots — in the end didn’t earn one of many 270 votes within the Electoral Faculty delegate-driven system wanted to find out the winner of presidential elections.