Democrats attack third-party candidate Jill Stein in razor-thin race

Democrats are fighting it out for every vote in the presidential election in less than a month, and they have chosen third-party candidates as potential “spoilers.”

Some progressives who are disenchanted with the Democratic National Committee, Vice President Kamala Harris, have flocked to the party’s executive branch, the DNC, in a television advertisement that attacked Jill Stein, a long-time Green Party candidate.

The advertisement, which is running in the swing states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, blames Stein for Republican challenger Donald Trump’s 2016 win and warns that “a vote for Stein is really a vote for Trump” – a refrain Democrats have regularly levelled against her in tight races between their candidates and Trump.

The video also includes a comment by former President Trump, saying, “Jill Stein? I like her very much”.

The advertisement, the first against the third-party candidate, signals Democrats ‘ growing worry that every lost vote may cost them such a razor-thin election. Stewart is in the lead with a poll of about 1%, just like Cornel West and Chase Oliver, both of whom are progressive academic and independent.

In some battleground states, those votes may make all the difference.

Third-party history

Third-party candidates have long been blamed for their impact on tight election outcomes — most notably in 2000 when Green Party nominee Ralph Nader earned 97, 421 votes in Florida, a state that eventually went to George W Bush, along with the presidency, by only 537 votes.

Third-party supporters and candidates have since refuted the accusations, saying they are working to end a fundamentally flawed two-party system and give voters a greater choice.

“You don’t have a democracy unless it’s a competitive democracy at election time”, Nader recently told Al Jazeera. “Historically, the function of third parties in an Electoral College system has never really been to win elections but to have new agendas”, he said.

With only two choices, Democrat or Republican, Nader added, “on major issues, they are very similar”.

According to a Gallup poll this month, 58% of Americans believe a third major party is necessary because the Republican and Democratic parties “do such a poor job” of representing the people.

Stein on Israel

Despite having virtually no chance of winning the presidency, Stein’s message resonated with some voters because of Democrats’ and Republicans’ unwavering support for it despite the fact that she has hardly any chance of winning. She has consistently criticized US support for Israel, which has helped her gain new supporters in this election cycle.

“The Kamala Harris campaign is looking for a scapegoat”, she told The Washington Post this week, referring to the Harris campaign’s concern about her candidacy. They may alter their current policy at this time. They would rather not see the genocide end than they would prefer to lose the election.

This week, the Abandon Harris campaign, a Michigan-based Muslim group that says it aims to hold Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration “accountable for the Gaza genocide”, endorsed&nbsp, Stein for president.

The Muslim-American community is one of the country’s most important populations, and our movement continues to make sure that the American people understand that we are a part of fighting against oppression and using all of our resources to stop genocide wherever it occurs, according to a statement from the organization.