Cornel West 2024 presidential campaign

Cornel West, a philosopher, academic, and political activist, announced his campaign on June 5, 2023, in the 2024 US presidential elections as a People's Party candidate via a video on Twitter where he called for "truth and justice" and pledged to use the presidency to accomplish that.

On June 14, 2023, West announced he would also seek the Green Party's nomination in their primaries. On October 5, West announced he would instead be seeking to run an Independent campaign and thus dropped out of the Green Party primaries, beginning the process for ballot access.

On January 31, he created and ran with the "Justice for All Party".

Aligning with his socialist positions, West's campaign centers on support for Medicare for All, public housing, action on climate change, and drastically cutting the US military budget.

West has averaged in the mid-single digits in most general election polls, and is widely considered to be a long-shot candidate. Several Democratic analysts say that he could draw votes away from Joe Biden in a general election, leading to concerns of vote splitting.

Background
West is an American philosopher, political activist, social critic, actor, and public intellectual, who focuses on role of race, gender, and class in American society.

West has held many professorships and fellowships, and has written books on these subjects such as Race Matters, and Democracy Matters. West is a self-described "non-Marxist socialist" and an outspoken voice in left-wing politics in the United States. West has dabbled in political activism in the past.

After serving as an advisor to Bill Bradley in 2000, who failed to make it past the Democratic primaries, West became a prominent and active supporter of Green Party nominee Ralph Nader, speaking at several Nader rallies. West backed Barack Obama in the 2008 Democratic primaries, but criticized him heavily after he became president.

He backed Bernie Sanders in 2016, and after Hillary Clinton won the nomination, he endorsed Green Party nominee Jill Stein despite being on a board of the Democratic National Committee.

National campaign events and strategy
On June 5, 2023, West announced he was running for president on a Rumble livestream hosted by comedian Russell Brand. Later that day, West posted a video to Twitter announcing his run.

People's Party
In his announcement video, West stated that "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 for the quest for truth. I enter for the quest of justice. And the presidency is just one vehicle we pursue that truth and justice." He criticized both major political parties for failing to "tell the truth about Wall Street, about Ukraine, about the Pentagon, about Big Tech."

The People's Party immediately endorsed his campaign upon launch, quote-tweeting his launch video and saying that West would "smash the war duopoly and abolish poverty". Left-wing activists and streamers heavily criticized West for this choice of party.

The founder of the party, Nick Brana, has been accused of sexual harassment and assault, and the party has ballot access only in Florida, with no track record of running campaigns. Ben Burgis (a columnist for Jacobin), Bhaskar Sunkara (the founding editor of Jacobin) and D. D. Guttenplan, (editor of The Nation) argued that he should run for the Democratic Party nomination instead, while Jeet Heer (a correspondent for The Nation) argued for the Green Party.

Green Party
On June 14, 2023, West announced he was running for the Green Party's 2024 presidential nomination.

On June 16, Socialist Alternative, a Trotskyist and revolutionary socialist party with chapters in several US cities, endorsed West's campaign, saying that it had "enormous potential" to change the political system.

On June 21, West officially filed to run for president with the FEC. He later announced that Jill Stein, the Green Party's presidential nominee in 2012 and 2016, would be chairing his campaign.

On June 22, Emerson College released a general election poll showing West at 5.8% support. An Echelon Insights poll released on July 6 found West at 4% support.

On July 14, 2023, West stated that NATO had provoked the Russian invasion of Ukraine in a Twitter post. Later, West criticized Biden for authoring the 1994 crime bill, which Biden has publicly disavowed, saying it contributed to crimes against humanity against black Americans.

West filed his federally mandated second quarter fundraising report on July 15, covering the nine days after filing to start his campaign. It showed that he had raised $71,398.08 and spent $2,784, leaving him with $68,613.45 on hand.

West responded to claims of being a spoiler candidate via a July 23 CNN interview with Anderson Cooper, saying: "There are tons of people, every two and four years who decide not to vote at all. And we know that the so called spoilers, which is a category I don't accept at all whether it be Gary Johnson, sister Jill Stein or Ralph Nader, many of those voters say they would never vote for the two parties at all. And I can understand, those politicians become too corrupt, too conformant, what about truth? What about justice? If you are concerned about truth and justice you cannot be complacent. Look at the world at the lens through those incarcerated, in the ghettos.""

In July 2023, Reform and Revolution, a Marxist caucus of the Democratic Socialists of America, published opposing articles arguing for and against DSA supporting West's campaign, endorsing neither as an official caucus position.

On September 11, 2023, West brought on Peter Daou as his campaign manager; Daou had previously held that role for Marianne Williamson's campaign. Daou left the West campaign on October 27.

Switch to independent candidacy
On October 5, 2023, West announced he was withdrawing his candidacy for the Green Party nomination and would instead run as an independent, beginning the process for attaining ballot access.

West's campaign released a statement explaining his rationale for making the switch, stating that West "believes the best way to challenge the entrenched system is by focusing 100% on the people, not on the intricacies of internal party dynamics".

Establishing the Justice for All Party
On January 31, 2024, West announced via a video on X that he was establishing a new party called "Justice for All". West said the party would start seeking ballot access in the states where it is the most expedient to attain it: Florida, North Carolina, and Washington. The campaign plans to get ballot access in the state of Florida through a nominating caucus.

Vice presidential selection
On April 10, 2024, West announced on The Tavis Smiley Show that he had chosen fellow academic Melina Abdullah as his vice presidential running mate.

Alaska
In mid-December 2023, West's campaign announced that he will appear on Alaska's ballot via the state's Aurora Party. West promised to fight the oil industry with a resource extraction lease moratorium to protect places like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), by canceling the Biden-approved Willow Project pipeline, and to otherwise defend sovereign land rights.

California
In December 2023, the California Secretary of State's office announced that West had qualified for the Peace and Freedom Party's primary ballot. West was one of three candidates vying for the nomination of the party, which held a non-binding preference primary on Super Tuesday in March, prior to choosing its nominee at the party's convention to be held in August. West lost to Claudia De La Cruz by several percentage points.

Oregon
On January 24, 2024, the Oregon Progressive Party has secured ballot access in Oregon for the 2024 Presidential Election and nominated Cornel West in the Oregon ballot.

Colorado
The Colorado faction of the Unity Party of America, which has the party's ballot access, met on April 13, 2024 and nominated independent Cornel West.

Political positions
West has described himself as a "non-Marxist socialist" (partly because he does not view Marxism and Christianity as reconcilable) and previously served as honorary chairman of the Democratic Socialists of America, which he remains a member of and described as "the first multiracial, socialist organization close enough to my politics that I could join." He also described himself as a "radical democrat, suspicious of all forms of authority" in the Matrix-themed documentary The Burly Man Chronicles.

West supports Medicare for All, a Green New Deal, ending all new oil drilling, universal public housing, term limits in congress, ending US support for NATO, Ukraine, and Israel, and closing most US military bases.

Vote splitting concerns
West's campaign sparked concerns of its potential to be a spoiler and potentially lead to the election of Donald Trump or another Republican. Many Democrats believe that third party candidates caused them to lose the 2000 and 2016 elections by diverting votes from otherwise likely Democratic voters,  although Green Party representatives have maintained that they did not spoil these elections.

Various independent analyses have found that a spoiler effect does exist, but have been inconclusive on whether or not it would be enough to affect the outcome of an election. Because of these debated concerns, many in the Democratic Party have employed maneuvers attempting to keep third parties off the ballot, which has been criticized as undermining democracy.

As of September 2023, most general election polling has overall indicated that West would reduce Biden's support and Trump's support by about 1 to 2 points respectively, however other polls have showed a negligible or even positive effect for Biden.

West has argued that the Democratic Party does not "deserve anybody's vote," and have challenged the differences between the two major parties.

Funding
West's donors include Republican megadonor Harlan Crow, who some have theorized may have donated to the campaign in the hope that West will hurt Biden's electoral chances. West returned Crow's donation.