Jill Stein’s Rally in South Bronx Swamped with Ex-Sanders Supporters
Frustration with the two-party system was boiling over at Jill Stein’s Hostos Community College campaign rally in the South Bronx Wednesday night. The Green Party candidate spoke to a crowd of over 200 supporters and undecided voters about police brutality, climate change, immigration, the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the failures of both Democrats and Republicans to address these and other issues.
Aside from Stein, Erica Garner, Edwin Figueroa, Carlos Calzadilla, Stein’s running mate Ajamu Baraka, and Green Party senate candidate Robin Laverne Wilson also spoke to the crowd. Music was provided by rappers Immortal Technique and Kor Element, as well as by DJ Bembona.
Many of those in attendance were well-accustomed to voting third-party. One Stein supporter, Curtis O’Neal, said that “since 2000 I’ve usually voted either Green or Libertarian,” although he registered as a Democrat to vote for Bernie Sanders in the primary this year. Adam Weis, another Stein supporter, has been voting third-party since Ralph Nader represented the Green Party sixteen years ago. Weis said that many liberals he knew had accused him of wasting his vote, but Weis, expressing a popular sentiment at the event, said “I don’t think we can afford to go another 16 years where we keep supporting the lesser of two evils every four years”
A disillusionment with the two-party system was not the only trait shared by many in the crowd. Many more were ex-supporters of Democratic Primary candidate Bernie Sanders. At one point, Stein asked the crowd to raise their hands if they had previously supported Sanders. Most of the hands in the hall shot up without hesitation. O’Neal, for example, described himself as “definitely a Bernie transfer.” Another ex-Sanders supporter, Carmen Hulbert, said that “in order to rescue democracy the Green Party needs us, the Bernie-crats, because right now the Democratic Party is the Republican Party.” Frustrated that the primary was “rigged” against Sanders, Hulbert said “we have to use this momentum to boost Jill.” Hulbert followed up by saying “if we don’t do it now, we will never do it.”
Although some of her supporters wanted nothing short of the White House for Jill Stein, many had longer term goals in mind. Pablo Zambrano, a volunteer for the Stein campaign, said “I’m hoping bare minimum that we give her at least five percent of the vote so that the green party can get federal funding.” Many in the Green Party see federal funding as the key to making the party competitive on the national stage. As Curtis O’Neal put it, “with more money comes more recognition, and once [the Green Party] can reach that threshold, then it will be much harder for outside forces to stop [the Green Party’s] momentum.”
That five percent target was alluded to by Stein herself when I spoke with her before her speech. Asked what she was hoping for this November, Stein did not mention the White House, but rather spoke about the need for a true third party in the face of what she calls the “demo-republicans.” Expanding on that, Stein said “we need to establish the political alternative so that we can fight them when Hillary Clinton wants to take us to war in Syria.”
According to RealClearPolitics, Stein is currently polling at 2.1% of the vote, while Hillary Clinton is at 44.9%, Donald Trump is at 39.8%, and Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson is at 10%. Stein’s numbers have fallen from a June peak of 4.8% of the vote when both her and Johnson enjoyed a period of increasing support as the primaries ended and voters came to terms with their choices. Johnson’s numbers have only recently fallen to below 8%, but Stein’s support has been wavering closer to 3% for most of the summer and fall. Not all of Stein’s supporters are concerned about the polls though, Carmen Hulbert said “she’s not showing strong in the polls because they’re not polling the people that go with her, just like they did with Bernie Sanders at the beginning. So I think it’s a big sham, she can win.”
The Green Party, formed in the mid-1990s, represents a more progressive alternative to the Democratic Party. Championing progressive ideas about the economy, social justice, and the environment, the Green Party has proven a good fit for some Bernie Sanders supporters disillusioned by their candidate’s treatment in the primary.
Originally a doctor, Stein has been the Green Party’s candidate not only this year, but also in the 2012 presidential election, and before that she ran unsuccessfully to be Governor of Massachusetts in both 2002 and 2010.