A Vote for Jill Stein is a Vote for Donald Trump
'Jill Stein isn’t the answer - she is a fraud,' says Milwaukee alderwoman.
Green Party Presidential Candidate, Jill Stein. Photo: Gage Skidmore (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Let me be direct: In this election, supporting anyone but Kamala Harris is effectively lending a hand to Donald Trump’s return to power. The consequences of that could be devastating.
Harris is the only candidate with a track record of addressing climate change, supporting working families and advancing social and economic justice.
It’s easy to be intrigued by the idea of a third-party candidate like the Green Party’s Jill Stein, and I support increasing the breadth of American political discourse. But we should be scared, not seduced, by Stein’s candidacy. With the MAGA movement threatening our basic rights, we can’t risk taking a single vote from the Harris campaign. If we lived in California or New York, solid blue states, we might risk a protest vote. But this is Wisconsin, where a razor-thin edge will determine the winner.
The Green banner is appealing to environmentalists, of which I am one. But Jill Stein isn’t the answer – she is a fraud. She’s one of the reasons Donald Trump won in 2016, when she pulled enough votes away from Hillary Clinton to hand our state’s electoral votes to Trump. She almost did it again in 2020, when third-party voters almost denied the Biden-Harris ticket their victory. The MAGA movement loves Stein and funds her: she can’t win, but she can bleed away votes from the Harris-Walz campaign in critical battleground states like Wisconsin — where every vote matters. As a mom, an activist for progressive values and an elected leader, I am deeply invested in the future for our kids, our community and our planet. That’s why I must speak out today.
Stein’s well-heeled GOP supporters pay for slick campaign mailers making false claims about Harris because they want to siphon votes from Harris to help elect Trump. The fact is that Harris cast the tie-breaking vote that secured passage of the strongest climate action in history – climate and clean energy incentives worth at least $370 billion over 10 years in the Inflation Reduction Act. She has been a driving force to ensure that the solutions are equitable and address the unfair pollution and health burdens that our nation’s front-line communities have suffered.
That’s why the nation’s leading environmental groups – the League of Conservation Voters, Sierra Club, Sunrise Movement, NRDC Action Fund, and Friends of the Earth, penned an open letter to environmental advocates – saying, “Harris is a climate and justice leader with two decades of public service on the frontlines of needed progress and change.” The League Of Conservation Voters and Sierra Club Political Committee echoed similar sentiments.
Former President Trump, on the other hand, waged the worst White House attack ever against the environment and public health while in office, promising a giant giveaway to big oil in exchange for campaign donations. He has made clear that his second term will be even more extreme, drawing from the detailed anti-environment proposals and plans contained in Project 2025.
If we want progressive change, the foundation will be built on a national movement that does that hard work of building support intentionally at the state and local level as part of a real movement for progressive change. A Harris win is the only way to prevent the catastrophe of a second Trump term, consolidate the progressive gains of the past three years, and safeguard our democracy for the future.
Marina Dimitrijevic, District 14 Alderwoman
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I will give the alder the benefit of the doubt and assume she did not write the headline. But this is just bad math; not voting for Harris ≠ voting for Trump. Would anyone make the argument that sitting out the election is the same as voting for Trump? Of course not, that would be preposterous. The Democratic Party is not entitled to anyone’s vote, and assuming all Green voters would vote Democrat if Stein were not in the race is a failure to read the room. I suspect that most Green voters would otherwise sit out the election. Providing alternatives to the tired two-party establishment invites more of the disenchanted and/or politically homeless plurality to get in the game. This is healthy for our democracy.
Mr Coles, Two things your arguments don’t explain. One is Republicans funding the green party candidate.. article on Urbanmilwaukee written on it. Republicans are doing that to syphin far left voters.
Two is Robert Kennedy droping out. He can’t syphon Boden voters. He is suing to get his name off the ballot. He knows he will hurt Trump.
Typo, Kenndy can’t siphon Harris voters like he did when Biden was running.
In a first-past-the-post voting system like we have, every voter should think like they have 2 votes. The first is their vote in support of the candidate they want. The second is their vote against the candidate they don’t want. If we were using ranked choice people could align their vote for what they really want, but we have a bad system which forces voters to play games with their vote. A vote for a 3rd party is just one vote; the vote in support. A vote for a candidate likely to win is 2 votes; one for the candidate and one against the other potential winner.
Don’t waste half of your voting power by voting for a 3rd party who has no reasonable chance to win. Like it or not we live in the real world and have a duty in a democracy to act like it. We should 100% change the voting system to one where people can actually vote for the candidate they like the best, but that isn’t the system we have today.
Always follow the money. If folks don’t like being told to vote for Harris, see who’s funding Jill Stein / Green Party / and Smear campaigns against Dems.
Hint: It’s the GOP
They’re telling you right there who they actually want to win (Spoiler vote which leads to Trump).
FPTP voting sucks yes of course but guess what: It’s what we have right now, and no amount of not-voting or voting 3rd party will actually achieve any desirable result with this kind of system in place.
I guess the “Left” has forgotten that the Communist would recommend that at least in certain States the they vote for the Democrat. It is as if there is NO awareness that from Gore losing Vermont he lost the election. There were enough Nader votes in either State for Gore to have easily won. If we do not LEARN from history then we will repeat it again and YES we have Hillary losing by less these 11,000 votes to Trump and Jill getting 23,000. I would expect Jill to come out and condemn the “support” that she is getting.
The last time was clear THIS time it is so far beyond clear. The only way that I am still functional is that the Republicans will not take the house so the purse and the Impeachment powers will be in the peoples hands
Marina slings the tired “ Blame it on the real progressive” for the electoral failures of the hedge-fund powered Dem Party. Hillary lost the Midwest because she was a terrible candidate running a terrible campaign. What does fellow progressive Marina say to the Palestinian families in MKE who’ve lost family members to US (Dem administration)- funded Israeli genocide? The Harris campaign COULD have created space between her and Biden on Palestine- but she didn’t and won’t. The slaughter spreads and continues, Marina.
AND Hummm Might the Ukraine not have been invaded by Hitler oh that’s right it was Putin and might Netanyahu not set Israel up for the attack upon their own citizens and then to use it as the excuse to…… How again do you describe what Netanyahu has done and is doing to the People of Gaza
How is any of this different from what was done to the Irish by the English 170 years ago Destroyed their homes of multiple generations and then watched then DIE of starvation, green mouths from eating grass as the last desperate attempt to stay alive. Yes where is the LEFT where is the Peace Movement standing between Putin and the People of Ukraine Would Putin have killed a 1000 or 10,000 people of the world standing on the border. People will DIE The only question is will vengeance be required for their death. What is the meaning of non -violence.
I am confused To argue that a Clinton victory would have been worse for the world than the Trump victory. Hummmm The same for Gore and Nader