Count Jill Stein’s own family as among the people who’ve begged her to bow out of the presidential race.
One of her two sons told The New York Times over the weekend that Stein “does not have the support of the family” when it comes to her “political activities.”
“When she told us she was going to run again back in October 2023, we asked her not to,” the son, who asked to not be identified by name, told the paper.
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Instead of complying with her closest loved ones’ request, the 74-year-old Green Party candidate is once again running—with no real path to victory—and has been painted as a “spoiler” candidate by Democrats.
Stein was given that designation by Dems because she’ll appear on ballots in nearly every swing state, including in Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, and Arizona. The lone battleground state where she won’t be on ballots is in Nevada.
Despite being unapologetically progressive, and staunchly against nearly everything Trump stands for, Stein has pushed forward with her unrealistic presidential bid even if it means likely siphoning votes away from Kamala Harris.
This has many Democrats uneasy. Stein has appealed to voters who oppose U.S. aid being funneled to Israel despite the country ignoring the Biden administration’s calls for a ceasefire. Should even just a few thousands voters in a swing state fill out the bubble next to Stein’s name, it just might hand Donald Trump an Election Day victory.
The thinking behind that logic is that Stein voters would otherwise vote for Harris if the Green Party candidate wasn’t on the ballot. Trump has proudly acknowledged this himself, declaring at a June rally—in the same breath where he called Robert F. Kennedy a “total fake”—that he likes Stein “very much.”
“You know why?” Trump asked his crowd. “She takes 100 percent from them.”
Democrats have adressed the matter as well, putting together a negative ad blitz directed at Stein in the election’s homestretch. That campaign has included the plastering of billboards across swing states that read, “Jill Stein Helped Trump Once. Don’t Let Her Do It Again.”
Stein didn’t run in 2020, but she received nearly 1.5 million votes nationwide in Trump’s shock win in 2016. In key states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, Stein’s vote total exceeded Trump’s margins of victory in that election.
Stein denied that she bears “any responsibility for Trump’s fortunes, then or now” in an interview with the Times. Yet, she’s accepted an endorsement from a group named “Abandon Harris,” which has dedicated itself to ensuring the VP is defeated.
“The goal is to punish the vice president,” the group’s founder, Hassan Abdel Salam, said at a rally in Michigan earlier this month, the Times reported. Stein was the event’s headlining speaker.
Stein isn’t ignorant to her spoiler role, but she denies that winning over would-be Harris voters is the entire reason she’s sticking with her campaign.
“I myself do not speak in terms of defeating one candidate,” she told the Times. “But I really understand—for the communities that are being savaged by Kamala Harris right now and Biden—I totally understand why their prime directive right now is to clarify that this comes with a price to pay.”
