Conventional Wisdom
Strengths

- Appeal to progressives and disenchanted supporters of Bernie Sanders.

Weaknesses
- Relatively unknown.
- Not a very dynamic speaker.
- Limited funds.

Notes, Coverage and Speeches

-Acceptance speech at the Green Party National Convention in Houston, TX, Aug. 6, 2016.

-Announcement of formation of exploratory committee at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, Feb. 6, 2015.

In her second campaign as the Green Party presidential nominee, Dr. Jill Stein advanced a "Power to the People Plan" that she argued would create "deep system change, moving from the greed and exploitation of corporate capitalism to a human-centered economy that puts people, planet and peace over profit."  Stein espoused such bold, broad stroke ideas as establishing  a single-payer helath insurance program, abolishing student debt and guaranteeing tuition free public education and leading on climate change.  These are many of the same ideas advocated by Sen. Bernie Sanders in his campaign for the Democratic nomination, and Stein is hoping support from disaffected Sanders supporters will boost her bid.  Stein will need that support.  In 2012 she garnered less than half a million votes (469,501 according to official totals or 0.36%).

After her 2012 campaign, Stein launched the Green Shadow Cabinet to "provide an ongoing opposition and alternative voice to the dysfunctional government in Washington D.C. (+)."  She started her quest for the Green Party nomination on Feb. 6, 2015, forming an exploratory committee.  On June 23 she formally launched her campaign (+). For the next year she attracted little notice as the Republican and Democratic campaigns dominated the news.  Stein faced only token opposition in her quest for the Green Party nomination.  As she headed to the convention in Houston, the question was who would join her on the ticket arose.  In July there were petition efforts to bring on Cornel West or former Ohio state Senator Nina Turner, a prominent Sanders supporter, as Stein's running mate, but those did not pan out, and she selected Ajamu Baraka, a little known but well spoken human rights activist. 

As is the case with third party candidates, Stein has had trouble getting notice in the mainstream media.  She did get attention on September 6 when she and Baraka visited the Red Warrior resistance camp in Standing Rock, ND to join protesters against the Dakota Access Pipeline.  After spray painting a message on the blade of a bulldozer, Stein was charged with criminal trespass and mischief and an arrest warrant was issued.  Stein will be on the ballot in 44 states and DC and have write-in status in three other states (she is not on the ballot in NV, SD and OK).  As in 2012 she did not meet the Commission on Presidential Debates 15-percent polling threshold for participating in the debates.  Stein suffered a further setback in mid-October when a bout of pneumonia complicated by asthma put her in the hospital for several days and kept her off the trail for over a week and thereafter with a reduced schedule. 

Stein nonetheless continued to advance her message "for people, planet, and peace over profit, for canceling student debt, and for a Green New Deal that will revive the economy and turn the tide on climate change."  She sought support from "'unlikely' voters: millennials, indebted students, poor and working class people, immigrants, people of color, and many others who have given up on the two establishment parties out of disgust and frustration."  And, although it appeared unlikely, the campaign aimed for a 5-percent showing, which would qualify the Green Party for federal funding in the 2020 presidential campaign.  "Just 5 percent of the national vote for the Green Party Stein/Baraka ticket can be a true game-changer for American politics," Stein wrote (+).

Preliminary vote totals show Stein did much better than in 2012, but still fell well short of the 5-percent threshold, obtaining about 1.4 million votes nationally or just over 1% of the total.  Post-election, the Stein campaign sought recounts in several battleground states "to check the accuracy of the machine-counted vote tallies in these states in order to ensure the integrity of our elections (+)."

  this page last revised November 23, 2016

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