DNC Attacking Green Party In Wisconsin With New Ad
Advertisement says candidate Jill Stein helped Trump win in 2016.
Green Party Presidential Candidate, Jill Stein. Photo: Gage Skidmore (CC BY-SA 2.0)
National Democrats are launching an ad in Wisconsin and other swing states attacking Green Party candidate Jill Stein, calling her a spoiler candidate meant to hand the election to former President Donald Trump.
The ad comes as recent polls show the race between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris tied in the state.
The ad from the Democratic National Committee, titled “Crucial,” will run on broadcast TV stations in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan, three so-called “blue wall” states that are critical to Democrats’ chances of keeping the White House. It shows a picture of Stein that transforms into a picture of Trump while a narrator says “Stein was key to Trump’s 2016 wins in battleground states.”
“She’s not sorry she helped Trump win,” the ad states. “That’s why a vote for Stein is really a vote for Trump.”
The ad closes with video of Trump at a Pennsylvania campaign rally where he said he likes Stein “because she takes 100 percent from them,” referring to Democrats.
“Just like in 2016, Jill Stein can’t win the presidency, but she will help decide who does,” DNC Senior Advisor Mary Beth Cahill said in a statement. “The stakes of this election are too high to allow Jill Stein to spoil it. The DNC will make sure voters know that a vote for anyone other than Kamala Harris is a vote for Donald Trump.”
Stein was last on the Wisconsin ballot in 2016, when she received 31,072 votes. That year, Trump won the state by 22,748 votes. In 2020, Stein was not on the ballot and Democratic President Joe Biden defeated Trump in an election that was similarly close, with Biden winning by 20,682 votes.
The ad is the latest attack against Stein by the DNC, which asked the Wisconsin Supreme Court in August to keep her from getting on the ballot. The DNC claimed Stein can’t legally appear on Wisconsin ballots because the Green Party doesn’t have any statewide office holders or legislative candidates required to nominate presidential electors in the state. At the time, Jason Call of the Stein campaign told WPR it was a frivolous lawsuit “intended to waste our time and resources.”
The Supreme Court declined to consider the DNC’s petition a week later and the Wisconsin Elections Commission voted to add Stein to state presidential ballots on Aug. 28. The commission also added independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who sued unsuccessfully to be removed from the ballot. On Sept. 28, the Supreme Court rejected Kennedy’s request stating he failed to show a lower court ruling should be overturned.
The DNC’s ad campaign comes as recent polling shows the race between Harris and Trump especially close in Wisconsin. A Marquette University Law School poll of voters released Oct. 2 showed Harris with a 4 percent lead. Since then, four other surveys of Wisconsin voters either showed Trump with a slight lead or tied with Harris.
DNC launching Wisconsin ad attacking Green Party candidate Jill Stein was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.
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These efforts are so unproductive; they only harden the resolve of third party voters, who are a stubborn bunch. They also make the Democratic Party appear opposed to democracy – it’s a bad look. Their resources would be better spent trying to activate some of the 30-40% of eligible voters who typically sit out presidential elections (much higher for midterm elections).
Yea, it is another example of the Democratic Party’s lack of self awareness on why they are struggling to beat an awful candidate like Trump. Certainly not their fault, right? No it’s Jill Steins fault!