I have never heard of Jill Stein until just a few months ago when I saw some article about her on the Lemmy homepage. Then I saw more and more articles about her. However, I don’t really know why the media is paying so much attention to her. She is just a third party candidate, right? There are other third party candidates that aren’t constantly popping up in the news. So why Jill Stein? I hear its something to do with Russia and a general sense of her goal being to take votes away from Kamala.
Jill Stein is a Green candidate which means she’s going to pull left leaning support away from Kamala Harris.
If she pulls away enough people in a handful of states, she could throw the election to Donald Trump.
2016 is a primary example:
Pennsylvania:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_United_States_presidential_election_in_Pennsylvania
Trump - 2,970,733
Clinton - 2,926,441
Difference: 44,292
Stein? - 49,941
Michigan:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_United_States_presidential_election_in_Michigan
Trump - 2,279,543
Clinton - 2,268,839
Difference: 10,704
Stein? - 51,463
Wisconsin:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_United_States_presidential_election_in_Wisconsin
Trump - 1,405,284
Clinton - 1,382,536
Difference: 22,748
Stein? - 31,072
If Clinton had won those three states, Trump would not have been President.
Stein is not the only factor, Clinton had other issues. She badmouthed coal miners which guaranteed a loss in PA and utterly failed to campaign in MI and WI which was not helpful.
But the Clinton fans who can’t accept how deeply, deeply flawed Clinton was as a candidate want to blame Stein…
And Putin. There are issues with Stein getting support from both Republicans and Russia, anything to hurt Democratic candidates.
Clinton was the worst possible choice. Before seeing the damage that Trump would do, thinking he would be mostly harmless, she made me stay home. I’m voting against that monster just like I did in 2020. The man is a menace.