Jill Stein, M.D. was the Green Party candidate for president
of the United States in 2012. She received almost half a
million votes nationwide, making her the most successful
woman candidate for president in U.S. history. She has
announced her candidacy for president again for 2016, and
likely will be the Green Party nominee this year.
Dr. Stein was born in Chicago, practices as an internist, is
married to a physician, and they have two children. She is
65 years old. She attended Harvard Medical School, and
lives with her family in Boston, Massachusetts. She has
previously run unsuccessfully for governor, U.S. congress
and for other offices in Massachusetts.
As a minor party nominee, Dr. Stein attracted little
attention in 2012 when she received less than one-half on
one per cent of the total popular vote. But in 2016, she could
become an important factor because it is known that
some supporters of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders,
angered by the Democratic Party establishment’s alleged
attempts to sabotage the Sanders campaign in Iowa and
Nevada, are vowing to vote for Dr. Stein if Hillary Clinton
is nominated.
Motivating some Sanders supporters, should the Vermont
senator fail to win the nomination in Philadelphia, is not only
their antipathy to Mrs. Clinton, but their desire to achieve 5%
of the popular vote, a threshold that would entitle the Green
Party to federally dispersed campaign funds in the next
election. In 2000, activist Ralph Nader ran as the Green Party
candidate, received almost 3 million votes nationwide (2.7%),
and was responsible, many believe, for Al Gore losing the
key state of Florida that year, thus giving the presidential
election to George W. Bush who had received less popular
votes than Gore.
Dr. Stein’s populist views on many issues are believed closer
to those of Mr. Sanders than those of Mrs. Clinton.
By the time the 2016 Democratic primaries are concluded,
millions of Democrats will have voted for Mr. Sanders. Should
only a portion of them either stay home in November or vote
for Dr. Stein, that could easily affect the outcome of the
election.
The Republicans are also bitterly divided this campaign cycle,
and their nominee might also face stay-at-homes and desertions
to third party candidates. Those possibilities will be examined
in a future column.
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Copyright (c) 2016 by Barry Casselman. All rights reserved.
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