Tag Archive for: Green Party

‘We’re Desperate’: Socialists, Muslims Band Together To Deny Harris The White House

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If 75% of the roughly 200,000 Muslim Americans in Michigan cast their vote on November 5, Vice President Kamala Harris will be virtually guaranteed to lose the state and its critical 15 electoral votes.

That’s what one activist group in the state, Drive for 75, believes. And to achieve it, Rex Nazarko and his organization are barnstorming mosques, hosting voter promotion sermons and knocking on thousands of doors across the state.

“What was a guarantee for [a Harris loss] to happen? We tried with different percentages and different turnouts, and with the 75% number, again, accounting only for the Muslim community, not other communities, not other allies, not other progressives. It essentially guaranteed a 99.9% likelihood of the vice president losing the election in Michigan, if 75% of [the community turned out],” Nazarko told the Caller, explaining that they ran numerous mathematical simulations to inform their strategy.

“We ran that simulation 10,000 times, and almost every time that was the case. So that’s how we got the Drive for 75 call to action and idea,” he explained.

Though Harris hasn’t faced nearly as many pro-Palestinian protestors as President Joe Biden, efforts to thwart the Democrats’ presidential aspirations haven’t disappeared. Muslim Americans told the Daily Caller they are working to push their community to vote for Green Party candidate Dr. Jill Stein, or even in some cases former President Donald Trump, in an effort to hold Harris accountable for how she and Biden have handled the Israel-Hamas war.

“[The Muslim American community] lost their faith in the Democratic Party and the Democratic administration, so they’re out to kind of hold them accountable. And I don’t want to necessarily say punish, but it is also a punishment vote, in a sense. I think that they’re desperate. We’re desperate. It’s also a vote of desperation. You know, we want to see an end to this bloodshed and this genocide as soon as possible,” Nazarko told the Caller.

The Michiganders who spoke to the Caller acknowledged Trump might not have the Israel-Gaza policy the community hopes to see, but their effort is more focused on punishing the current administration than about who they could vote into office. The movement is also about sending a message to politicians that their voice cannot be ignored, Democrat Khalid Turaani, co-chair of the Abandon Biden campaign in Michigan, told the Caller.

“We’re hoping that, whether Republicans or Democrats, will not take our vote for granted. So if it is [spoiling Harris’s chances], I hope it teaches not only the Democrats but the Republicans that, you go against your voters, you go against people as well. You continue to support a genocide, you’re going to lose,” Turaani told the Caller.

Before Biden dropped out of the race for the White House, his primary victory was stunted by a large protest vote across several key swing states, including Michigan. Campaigns like “Abandon Biden” pushed Arab and Muslim Americans to vote for the “uncommitted” ballot option in protest of his Gaza policy. And while 81.1% of Democratic primary voters chose Biden, 13.3% — more than 100,000 people — chose the uncommitted option.

In light of Biden exiting the presidential race, Abandon Biden switched its name to Abandon Harris, even though the vice president has indicated she would be tougher on Israel than her boss.

“She parrots the same line of ‘well on Oct. 7’ and okay, there has been more than 50,000 deaths. Two-thirds of them are women and children and she can’t get past ‘well on October 7.’ And we feel that this callous disregard to the lives of Palestinian civilians and the destruction of not only their infrastructure, the entire place in Gaza has been decimated, and and she just continues to parrot the same line. Meanwhile, continuing to support the Israeli assault and the Palestinian civilians and their lives and their buildings and their every aspect of their lives is under assault,” Turaani told the Caller.

“This administration represented by Biden and Harris continues to support that. The other thing is the fact that every effort to stop the genocide has been thwarted by this administration,” Turaani continued.

To cost Harris the state, not every Muslim American is expected to vote for Trump. In fact, some groups told the Caller they expect the community to not vote for either. Just five days ago, Abandon Harris threw its support behind Stein, who also has the backing of some socialist groups in the U.S due to her anti-capitalist economic positioning. And the Green Party seems to know its bid could spoil Harris’ candidacy.

“We need to be clear about what our goals are, we are not in a position to win the White House. But we do have a real opportunity to win something historic. We could deny Kamala Harris the state of Michigan,” Kshama Sawant, a former Seattle City Council Member and self-described socialist, said to cheers at a recent rally for Stein.

A spokesperson for the Stein campaign referred the Caller to Abandon Harris’s endorsement, adding that it “outlines Muslim support for the campaign.”

“We’ve conducted an internal informal poll, we’ve cross-referenced with other polls taken in the state and nationwide, and we’ve been speaking to thousands of community members for the past weeks. The sentiment seems either Jill Stein or third-party, and then Trump and then Harris is at the very bottom. So if we just get the community out, we know that the natural distribution of both is going to fall towards that third party,” Nazarko told the Caller.

Vice chair of the 12th Congressional District Republican Committee, Stephanie Butler, who lives in Dearborn and is married to a Muslim, told the Caller that a deciding moment for the Muslim community in Michigan was former Vice President Dick Cheney’s endorsement of Harris.

“Here’s the new thing going around, people are saying that, ‘hello, she’s been endorsed by Dick Cheney.’ That tells you everything you need to know about this woman: that her intentions are war,” Butler told the Caller.

But a few weeks out from the election, some are still worried that the community may choose to stay home rather than go out to vote amid their anger.

“I feel like a majority of Muslims will vote for Jill Stein. There are a small portion that will vote for Trump,” Hassan Chami, a Dearborn resident, told the Caller. “The issue is, I fear that a lot of people may not want to vote at all. And if that’s the case, Kamala maybe can win Michigan.”

To address the concerns, Drive for 75 is blitzing the Muslim community. The effort currently has a civic representative and team captains assigned to each mosque that are building a sub team of volunteers and who each will be responsible for providing materials and election updates to 50 contacts within the community. Currently the plan is being implemented in 25 mosques, but will be expanded into more.

Within those mosques and other community centers, Drive for 75 is hosting turn out the vote events and using social media and text messages to push Muslim Americans to the polls. In the final two weeks of the election cycle, Drive for 75 expects to knock on 10,000 doors.

“Muslims are family-oriented and family-centered. We’re relying on the large networks that community members have to encourage one another,” Nazarko told the Caller.

Though polls show the race neck-and-neck in the state, there is a confidence among the community about what to expect.

“There’s no way [Harris] can win Michigan,” Butler told the Caller. “There’s just no way.”

AUTHOR

Reagan Reese

White House correspondent. Follow Reagan on Twitter,

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

‘Playing Spoiler’: Multiple Third-Party Candidates Could Spell Bad News For Biden In 2024

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  • Multiple third-party candidates could sway the 2024 presidential election in key battleground states if there’s a rematch between former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden, political observers and polling analysts told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
  • Green Party candidate Cornel West, a Libertarian Party candidate, a No Labels candidate and likely Robert F. Kennedy Jr. could all be on the ballot in 2024, which could siphon off more support from Biden than Trump, polling analysts and political strategists told the DCNF.
  • “I can imagine a world in which we have two, three, four legitimate third parties, and unlike usual, all in they’ll get 1%, 2%, they might get 5% or 6% — and that, without a doubt, is going to be the most important element of this election,” Mike McKenna, GOP consultant and president of MWR Strategies, told the DCNF.

With another close presidential election expected in 2024, third parties are likely to impact the general election in key battleground states if there’s a rematch between former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden, polling analysts and political observers told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Multiple third-party candidates could be on the ballot in 2024, including a Green Party candidate, a No Labels candidate, a Libertarian Party candidate and likely Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as an independent. Several polling analysts and political strategists believe that the additional third-party candidates will likely siphon off more support from Biden, which could allow Trump to return to the White House in 2024, they told the DCNF.

“If there is a rematch between Biden and Trump, there are going to be a significant number of voters who hold negative views of both candidates, given that both have favorability numbers only around 40% and unfavourability over 50%. Those are conditions ripe for heightened third-party voting,” Kyle Kondik, nonpartisan polling analyst and managing editor for Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, told the DCNF. “I wouldn’t expect the third-party vote to be all that large, but the margins in key states are likely to be so small that the third-party candidates could end up playing spoiler.”

Cornel West is running for the Green Party nomination, many are running for the Libertarian Party nomination and centrist organization No Labels is considering running a third-party ticket in 2024, with West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin often mentioned as a potential contender. Kennedy, who is currently seeking the Democratic Party nomination, is expected to switch his party affiliation to run as an independent in Philadelphia on Oct. 9.

Many attribute Hillary Clinton’s defeat in 2016 to Green Party candidate Jill Stein, arguing if Stein’s votes went to Clinton, Trump wouldn’t have won. Some have signaled a similar phenomenon is likely to play out in 2024, but at a larger scale with the potential for more third-party candidates on the ballot, they told the DCNF.

“Jill Stein did win enough votes to tip Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania to President Trump…third parties have a long history of spoiling,” Bruce Mehlman, political analyst and founder of Mehlman Consulting, told the DCNF. “The calculus by most observers appears to be that while Joe Biden has a slightly higher ceiling than Donald Trump, he also has a lower floor than Donald Trump. And the fear among Democrats is that a third party will take more voters from Biden than they will take from Trump.”

Mike McKenna, GOP consultant and president of MWR Strategies, echoed Mehlman’s sentiment, and told the DCNF the “fundamental reason” Clinton lost was due to Stein’s candidacy.

“The election in 2024 looks remarkably similar, with one important exception, and that is 70% of the voters don’t want either of these guys to run,” said McKenna. “I can imagine a world in which we have two, three, four legitimate third parties, and unlike usual, all in they’ll get 1%, 2%, they might get 5% or 6% — and that, without a doubt, is going to be the most important element of this election.”

McKenna added that because Biden’s support is “much softer” than Trump’s, these third-party candidates will likely take more of the president’s votes away, which is key in battleground states that could come down to a few thousand votes.

An Emerson College survey released in early August indicated that Trump and Biden were tied for a head-to-head matchup in the battleground state of Michigan. With West in the mix, Trump would beat Biden by 2 points, followed by the Green Party candidate at 4%, according to the poll.

Since the election will likely be “incredibly close,” a third-party candidate could win enough votes in a swing state to sway the election, said Mehlman. If 2024 isn’t a rematch between Trump and Biden, McKenna and Melhman don’t think third parties will have as much of an effect, as there will be “less of a desire for change” among voters, said Melhman.

A majority of voters in eight battleground states — Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — don’t want either Trump or Biden to run for another term, according to a No Labels/HarrisX survey. The poll suggested that 63% of voters would “consider voting for a moderate or independent candidate” if there’s a rematch between Trump and Biden.

The RealClearPolitics (RCP) average for a 2024 national Republican and Democratic primary, based on the most recent polling, indicates Trump and Biden are leading their respective fields by 42 points and 50 points, respectively. Trump is currently winning against Biden by 1.3 points in a general election matchup, according to the RCP average.

The Green Party has ballot access in 17 states and Washington, D.C., according to its website. No Labels has secured ballot access in ten states — Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, North Carolina, Oregon, Utah, South Dakota, Nevada and Florida — and is planning to get to 28 states by the end of the year.

John McLaughlin, CEO and partner of McLaughlin & Associates, a polling firm that works closely with the Trump campaign, told the DCNF that Democrats are concerned that voting for a third-party candidate is “a vote for Trump.”

“They know Trump’s base is like very, very solid — much more so than Biden’s. And most of the votes that go for these independents are pulled from Joe Biden, not from Donald Trump, and Trump’s already ahead,” said McLaughlin, referring to a survey he shared with the DCNF that has Trump leading Biden by 4 points.

In a three-way general election matchup between Trump, Biden and West, the former president secured 43% of the vote, followed by Biden at 38% and West at 6%, according to the poll conducted between Sept. 22 and Sept. 26. In a four-way race with Manchin as the No Labels’ candidate, Trump led with 40%, and Biden garnered 36%, Manchin received 6% and West had 4%.

“Polling generally suggests that Biden is a little bit more hurt than third parties than Trump, but that’s not automatically how it would have to end up,” said Kondik.

Jon McHenry, a GOP polling analyst and vice president at North Star Opinion Research, isn’t convinced third parties will advantage one party over the other in 2024, he told the DCNF.

“I could see, depending on who No Labels nominates, that being sort of a safety valve for some, probably not Republicans, but at least sort of conservative-leaning independents, who just can’t pull the trigger for Biden again, but they’re also like, ‘you know what, I sort of think Trump committed treason, and, you know, maybe by that point he’s found guilty on a felony charge or five,’” said McHenry. “So I think it could affect, assuming Trump is the nominee, Trump as much as it affects Biden.”

Trump, Biden, West, Kennedy, Manchin, the Green Party, the Libertarian Party and No Labels did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment.

AUTHOR

MARY LOU MASTERS

Contributor.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Which Presidential Candidate Sides With You?

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Charles Schelle and Mark Maley in their Sarasota Patch column “Online Tool Matches Voters with Ideal Presidential Candidate” note that “Floridians’ presidential preference leans more Libertarian in this online free quiz that takes an in-depth look at your stance on a range of issues, then compares them to candidates’ responses … A new website launched earlier this year to help voters match up with their ideal candidate, and it’s quickly gaining popularity through social media channels. In fact, according to iSideWith.com’s homepage, more than a million people have taken the free quiz to determine their ideal candidate since it launched in March.”

The free quiz may be taken by going to iSideWith.com.

According to Schelle and Maley, “The selection of U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan as Republican candidate Mitt Romney’s running mate has put presidential race into overdrive now that we know who all the players are.”

“But do you really know which presidential candidate best matches your stance on those issues? It may surprise you to find out who Floridians’ beliefs support,” note Schelle and Maley.

According to the iSideWith.com’s website Florida goes with Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson on domestic policy, healthcare and immigration issues. Who Florida sides with by party are: 51% are Democrat, 41% Green,  39% Republican and 37% Libertarian. This non-scientific survey shows Florida’s favorites in order: Libertarian Gary Johnson, Democrat Barack Obama, Republican Ron Paul and Republican Mitt Romney. Note that the three conservatives are most in line with how Floridians stand.

The question is will the Libertarian and Ron Paul vote go for Romney in November? Ideology may trump candidate support once inside the voting booth.