# Cornel West 2024 presidential campaign

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Cornel West, a philosopher, academic, and political activist, announced his campaign on June 5, 2023, in the 2024 US presidential elections as a People's Party candidate.
On June 14, 2023, West announced he would also seek the Green Party's nomination in their primaries. On October 5, West announced he would instead be seeking to run an Independent campaign and thus dropped out of the Green Party primaries, beginning the process for ballot access. On January 31, 2024 he created and ran with the "Justice for All Party".
West had been polling around 0.2% nationally as of November 3, 2024. By August, the campaign reported being $17,000 in debt and West had stopped actively campaigning. His candidacy has been noted for the significant support from Trump allies who wanted West to appear on swing state ballots in order to split votes away from Kamala Harris. West expressed ambivalence about the support from Republicans but did object to the spoiler label. West eventually received 82,644 total votes and 0.05% of the national vote, finishing 7th in the presidential election popular vote.

## Background

After serving as an advisor to Bill Bradley in 2000, who failed to make it past the Democratic primaries, West became a prominent and active supporter of Green Party nominee Ralph Nader, speaking at several Nader rallies. West backed Barack Obama in the 2008 Democratic primaries, but criticized him after he became president.
He backed Bernie Sanders in 2016, and after Hillary Clinton won the nomination, he endorsed Green Party nominee Jill Stein despite being on the platform drafting committee of the Democratic National Committee.

## Campaign
### National campaign events and strategy

On June 5, 2023 West announced his run.

#### People's Party

In his announcement video, West stated that "I have decided to run for truth and justice, which takes the form of running for president of the United States as a candidate for the People's Party. I enter for the quest for truth. I enter for the quest of justice. And the presidency is just one vehicle we pursue that truth and justice." He criticized both major political parties for failing to "tell the truth about Wall Street, about Ukraine, about the Pentagon, about Big Tech."
The People's Party immediately endorsed his campaign. In The Nation, Jeet Heer argued against West's choice of party, noting sexual assault allegations against party founder Nick Brana and issues relating to ballot access.
The founder of the party, Nick Brana, has been accused of sexual harassment and assault, and the party has ballot access only in Florida, with no track record of running campaigns. Ben Burgis (a columnist for Jacobin), Bhaskar Sunkara (the founding editor of Jacobin) and D. D. Guttenplan, (editor of The Nation) argued that he should run for the Democratic Party nomination instead, while Jeet Heer argued for the Green Party.

#### Green Party

On June 14, 2023, West announced he was running for the Green Party's 2024 presidential nomination.
West announced that Jill Stein, the Green Party's presidential nominee in 2012 and 2016, would be chairing his campaign.
On July 14, 2023, West stated that NATO had provoked the Russian invasion of Ukraine in a Twitter post. Later, West criticized Biden for authoring the 1994 crime bill, which Biden has publicly disavowed.
West responded to claims of being a spoiler candidate via a July 23 CNN interview with Anderson Cooper, saying:
   There are tons of people, every two and four years who decide not to vote at all. And we know that the so called spoilers, which is a category I don't accept at all whether it be Gary Johnson, sister Jill Stein or Ralph Nader, many of those voters say they would never vote for the two parties at all. And I can understand, those politicians become too corrupt, too conformant, what about truth? What about justice? If you are concerned about truth and justice you cannot be complacent. Look at the world at the lens through those incarcerated, in the ghettos."
In July 2023, Reform and Revolution, a Marxist caucus of the Democratic Socialists of America, published opposing articles arguing for and against DSA supporting West's campaign, endorsing neither as an official caucus position.
On September 11, 2023, West brought on Peter Daou as his campaign manager; Daou had previously held that role for Marianne Williamson's campaign. Daou left the West campaign on October 27.

#### Switch to independent candidacy

On October 5, 2023, West announced he was withdrawing his candidacy for the Green Party nomination and would instead run as an independent, beginning the process for attaining ballot access.
West's campaign released a statement explaining his rationale for making the switch, stating that West "believes the best way to challenge the entrenched system is by focusing 100% on the people, not on the intricacies of internal party dynamics".

#### Establishing the Justice for All Party

On January 31, 2024, West announced via a video on X (formerly Twitter) that he was establishing a new party called "Justice for All". West said the party would start seeking ballot access in the states where it was the most expedient to attain it: Florida, North Carolina, and Washington. The campaign planned to get ballot access in the state of Florida through a nominating caucus.

#### Vice presidential selection

On April 10, 2024, West announced on The Tavis Smiley Show that he had chosen fellow academic Melina Abdullah as his vice presidential running mate.

## Ballot access
### Arizona

In August 2024, the Arizona Secretary of State said that the campaign did not file sufficient paperwork to gain ballot access in the state before the set deadline. This was in spite of reported efforts from Republican lawyers to secure electors to support West's efforts.

### Michigan

In August 2024, Cornel West and his running mate Melina Abdullah were both initially disqualified and denied entry onto the 2024 Michigan presidential election ballot, due to an incorrectly notarized form. The Michigan Secretary of State had given West's campaign a week to submit a response concerning the notarization issues and did not receive a response, after which the department disqualified West. On August 24, a Michigan judge overruled the decision, and required West to be given ballot access in Michigan.

### Pennsylvania

In August of 2024, a judge ruled agreeing with the Secretary of State’s office that West’s candidacy paperwork was insufficient for ballot access in Pennsylvania.

### Wisconsin

In Wisconsin, an employee of the Democratic National Convention challenged to keep West off of the ballot. In August 2024, the Wisconsin Election Commission rejected the challenge, and voted 5-1 to keep West on the ballot.

## Political positions

West supports Medicare for All, a Green New Deal, ending all new oil drilling, universal public housing, term limits in congress, ending US support for NATO, Ukraine, and Israel, and closing most US military bases.

## Support from Republicans

The Associated Press (AP) described "extensive" involvement from GOP lawyers and operatives to further West's bid for president, which West expressed ambivalence about.
West has appeared on shows and as a member of political parties friendly to conspiracy theorists and misinformation, and with personalities like Tucker Carlson. He also sits on the board of an organization promoting a more Christian-focused college admissions test.
West's donors include Republican megadonor Harlan Crow, who some have theorized may have donated to the campaign in the hope that West would hurt Democrats' electoral chances. West defended Crow but ultimately returned the donation after public pushback.
By August, the campaign reported being $17,000 in debt. The campaign was aided by Republican-aligned groups, donors, and lawyers, to get on the ballot in several states including Michigan, Georgia, Virginia, Nebraska, Maine, North Carolina, Arizona and Wisconsin. Although West stopped actively campaigning, registered Republicans have signed up to be electors for West in swing states. His campaign had only spent $2,400 on signature gathering between January and June of 2024. The Democratic National Committee filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission arguing that the unreported in-kind contributions that went towards signature gathering and lawyers in North Carolina and Arizona were illegal.
The AP noted that Republicans also made efforts to place Green Party candidate Jill Stein and her campaign on the ballots of swing states in the belief that Stein would act as a spoiler candidate, the same reason they also tried to help West's campaign.

### Wisconsin

Four Republican employees of a canvassing firm that said it worked on behalf of "conservative political campaigns" collected signatures to put West on the ballot. The company's president, David Blair, worked in the Trump administration. Ultimately, all Democratic commissioners voted with two Republican commissioners to reject an attempt by the Democratic National Committee to remove West from the Wisconsin ballot on August 28, 2024.

### Arizona

In Arizona, GOP lawyers and operatives signed up to be electors for West and tried to convince two electors to back West after one switched their support to Harris and another denied having ever agreed to be an elector. Eighty paid out-of-state canvassers were hired by a firm closely aligned with Republican operative Mark Jacoby, who has a reputation of deceptive tactics and a voter registration fraud conviction.

### North Carolina

In April 2024, a Trump-aligned activist signed up attendees outside of a Trump rally in North Carolina, pitching the idea that West being on the ballot would help get Trump elected.
North Carolina's election board blocked West's party from appearing on the ballot after surveying 50 of the signatures to see if they signed the petition, and found that many did not sign it or did not know what it was for. A Republican canvassing firm submitted the signatures and it was unclear who paid for the signature gathering.

## Reception
### Criticism

David Masciotra, writing in The New Republic, criticized West for owing the IRS nearly $483,000, and noted his spending on extramarital affairs, with some girlfriends and ex-wives claiming he "impregnates and abandons women." Masciotra criticized West for aligning himself with people and candidates who defend aggressive actions by Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, and the Chinese Communist Party.
West's campaign sparked concerns of its potential to be a spoiler and help elect Donald Trump. On August 16, 2024, the Associated Press reported on Republican operatives boosting his campaign to help Trump in a number of swing states. Because of these concerns, many in the Democratic Party tried to keep third parties off the ballot. West has pushed back against criticism that his embracing of candidates like Jill Stein and Claudia De la Cruz, as well as his own campaign, improved Donald Trump's chances of becoming president in 2016 and 2024.

## Results

West received 74,840 total votes and 0.05% of the national vote, coming 7th in the nation.