Elizabeth Stauffer of the Washington Examiner explores the potential impact of a longshot presidential bid.
Far-left activist Cornel West announced his decision to run for president as a candidate for the People’s Party on Monday in a Twitter video. West, 70, is a former Harvard University public philosophy professor and a professor emeritus at Princeton University.
As crazy as a West candidacy may seem at first glance, it could actually have a profound impact on the outcome of the election.
As a jaunty little tune played in the background, West said, “In these bleak times, 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 in the quest for truth. I enter in the quest for justice. And the presidency is just one vehicle to pursue that truth and justice.”
Kellyanne Conway, who served as a senior counselor to former President Donald Trump, told Fox News on Tuesday that West’s candidacy could affect the race just as Ross Perot’s candidacy cost President George H.W. Bush a second term in 1992.
Conway pointed out, “Even if you don’t become president, you, as a third-party candidate spoiler can decide who is the president.” She noted that Bill Clinton got elected with just 43.5% of the vote. “Why? Because Ross Perot got 19% of the popular vote, even though he didn’t rack up any electoral votes.”
She explained, “If you play to win and you are Cornel West, and you are still not satisfied with the trajectory of the Democratic Party being progressive enough for you under a Biden/Harris administration, then you’re going to run to the left of them. Number one.”
“Number two, he’s going to make a play for people who feel forgotten, who feel abandoned by the Democratic Party and feel like nobody is listening to them and including them. It’s part of how Trump won in 2016, but I think he [West] can do it from the Left,” Conway added.
