If you've never run for elected office I guarantee that you have no idea how insanely time-consuming it is. If you're a corporate-aligned candidate, a great deal of your time is spent schmoozing with wealthy donors. If you're a people-aligned candidate like Jill Stein, a great deal of time is spent getting ballot access -- as the wealthy Democrats try to sue you or cheat you off the ballot in state after state. Then a great deal of time is spent getting out the vote, giving interviews, making appearances, listening to voters, meeting with your team, signing off on communications...the list is almost endless. Oh, and raising some money, too.
Because as I learned when I ran for the U.S. Senate against Susan Collins under ranked choice voting (RCV) in Maine, paid media is what gets you earned media i.e. interviews, features. Oh, and did I forget debate prep? Anyway, you get the idea.
I say all this as a preface to why I am 100% supporting Dr. Jill Stein in the upcoming presidential election.
Sure, I live in Maine where there is RCV for president and thus no spoiler effect. I will rank Stein first, probably Claudia De La Cruz second, and possibly Dr. Cornell West third. I doubt I'll rank the two corporate servants at all as the genocide in Palestine will continue on steroids if either one of them makes it to the White House.
A problem with one of Stein's early tweets is what I want to address today. Here's the tweet (someone else added the green snake face emojis):
I've reached out to Stein's communications director (full disclosure: was also previously my communications director). I've also heard from her campaign manager. Both agreed that the candidate's tweet intended to expose the hypocrisy of people cheering for Israel cutting food, electricity, and water in Gaza while bombing and invading. In other words, Stein does not think Hamas engaged in terrorism on October 7. However, the tweet's intent would have been much clearer if there had been air quotes around the word "terrorism" both times it was used.
Writing tweets that are clear, concise enough for the platform, and effective is an art. It's what communications professionals get paid to do. Stein is a medical doctor and a very smart, kind, compassionate person. But she does not tweet for a living.
If we examine Stein's record of, not just subsequent words but also subsequent actions, we can see that she has consistently stood with Palestine. She's been arrested standing with pro-Palestine students at their encampment at Washington University in St. Louis. She's explained why, as a Jewish person, she does not support Israel's violent occupation of Palestine.
If I were her comms team I might apologize for the missing quotation marks and clarify her intent. It's possible this might still happen.
In the meantime, I went to bat for her after faux progressive congresswoman AOC trashed her this week claiming she is "predatory" and "inauthentic." Most amazing to me, AOC claimed in a Tiktok video that Stein only emerges every four years to run for president and never helps down ballot Green Party candidates.
This led to me sharing some history between my campaign and Stein in a tweet that has generated great engagement in a day and half.
https://x.com/NaturalGuard/status/1830727100845973798
Of course haters are gonna hate -- most ridiculed me for thinking that earning 5% of votes cast was an accomplishment. One commenter pointed out that 5% would earn you parliamentary seats in many European countries, but most just trashed me and ignored the fact that the senate race in Maine in 2020 was more heavily funded -- by tens of millions of dollars -- than any congressional race in the state's history.
So actually the metric I was most proud of was our cost per vote.
Analysis using data from OpenSecrets by volunteer Brennan Barrington who commented, "As extreme as the difference looks, it's actually an understatement of the cost for the major party candidates, given how much was spent by outside groups not affiliated with the campaigns themselves."
We ended up with 40k+ votes so this analysis was just a bit premature but it makes the point.
But that's not the point. The point is that Stein supported me, she also supported Matt Hoh when he ran for the Senate in North Carolina, and she also supported Dr. Margaret Flowers and Joshua Harris in their campaigns.. you get the idea.
AOC is just playing the mean girl card and spreading lies about a candidate who is now polling even with Harris among Muslim voters according to a recent survey.
In conclusion, here are the states where Stein and/or Greens have ballot access for November.
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I'm excited that Maine is one of them, and excited that Stein tweeted on Monday in response to Newsweek still publishing false information about her campaign:
We’re expected to have 517 potential electoral votes, nearly double the 270 to win.
Support our efforts in the next states: jillstein2024.com
I surely will.
