OPINION: A vote for the Green Party is a red choice

Photo via: Matt Johnson/Public domain/Wikimedia Commons

Ayden McDougle, a Junior studying Political Science, argues that a vote for the Green Party is actually just a vote for Donald Trump.

Dr. Jill Stein was the candidate for President for the Green Party of the United States (GPUS) in 2012, 2016 and, now, 2024. The main issue many Democrats had after the 2016 Election was that Stein and Libertarian Party nominee Gary Johnson helped elect former President Donald Trump to the presidency. The thought of Stein campaigning and losing another election has raised concerns for the Democratic Party after the results of her candidacy in 2016. 

In 2016, Stein’s campaign received 132,000 votes in “Blue Wall” states such as Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan. Trump’s margin of winning votes that shifted the electoral college in his favor was nearly 77,000 votes. The Democrats concluded  that this margin is how Hillary Clinton lost and Trump won the White House. 

The Green Party is an ecological and social-based political organization that first began in 1984 as a state-level party in Maine. As of July 1, 2024, 151 people who identify with the Green Party hold an elected position, 133 of whom were elected as members of the Green Party. There has not been a Green Party member to hold a federal seat. 

The first Green Party candidate to run for a federal position was Mindy Lorenz, aCalifornian who ran for the House of Representatives in 1990. In a 1993 article by Leo Smith at the LA Times, “Lorenz received nearly 10% of the vote in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties. With the backing of a major party, she said she believes she can win.” Additionally, “In a letter to Green Party supporters sent earlier this week, Lorenz said the party was “not politically mature enough to sustain the political goals of winning partisan seats and shaping public policy.” Since then, there have been a total of 722 races by Green Party candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives, all of whom have lost. 

In 1992, Mary Jordan from Alaska and Linda Martin from Hawaii were the first members of the GPUS to run for US Senate. Jordan was not elected and received 8.4% of the vote. Martin was also not elected and received 13.73% of the vote. Since then, there have been a total of 151 races by Green Party candidates for the US Senate, all of whom have also lost. 

According to the Federal Election Committee (FEC) Popular Vote Summary from 2012, 2016 and 2020, the GPUS has done a very good job at coming in fourth place. In 2020, GPUS nominated a candidate other than Stein, Howie Hawkins. As Alex Thompson and Holly Otterbein at Politico put it, “Hawkins, a longtime labor activist keen on attracting disillusioned Bernie Sanders voters and calling for a ‘#DemExit’,” a movement that had little to no effect on the 2020 election. This is proven once again by the 2020 FEC summary, which states that Hawkins received 407,068 votes – fewer votes than Stein received in both 2012 and 2016. 

In 2016, the argument for Stein brought up by millennials was: “I am voting for Jill Stein. It’s a moral choice. It reflects who I am as a person.” That is an argument that I personally do not disagree with, since it challenges the two-party duopoly that has overtaken U.S. politics. Now, Stein supporters show similar sentiments along with their condemnation over the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine. 

The current issue at hand is that the Stein campaign will provide the same leverage for Republicans so Trump will win the White House in 2024, just like he did in 2016. Sabrina Siddiqui at The Wall Street Journal reported that FEC records show Stein paid $100,000 in July to a consulting outfit that has worked with Republican campaigns, as well as Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s independent presidential bid. The firm, Accelevate, is operated by Trent Pool. The Intercept reported that he appeared to be part of the mob that breached the grounds of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6., 2021. 

Stein’s largest target of potential voters and most vocal supporters are “anti-war” progressives and Arab Americans. Yet, the most vocal groups that disapprove of her campaign are the vast majority of Democrats, Green Parties from 16 European countries and her own family. 

For Ohioans, a vote for Stein will simply be a wasted vote. On Friday, the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied Stein’s motion to force the election chief to tally her results. This lawsuit stemmed from the issue that Stein and her campaign filed as an Independent with Anita Rios as her running mate. On Aug. 16, Butch Ware became the Vice Presidential nominee for the Green Party. Ware’s nomination happened after the Aug. 12 deadline for replacing an Independent vice presidential candidate, according to election officials.

Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose granted a request to remove Rios’ name but said Ware could not be added. The Court of Appeals ruling notified the Stein campaign that her votes would not count, despite Stein and Rios remaining on the ballot.

Stein is a candidate that is great on paper for people who support the environment, social justice, peace and the fundamentals of democracy. But, Stein, along with the Green Party and its 40 years of existence in the United States, have proven to not have national support and continue to lose every federal election. The only thing the Green Party has been good at is nominating a candidate, receiving millions of dollars from supporters, sifting out voters from the left and providing zero federal policy. 

Please note that these views and opinions do not reflect those of The New Political.