“Republicans are spending millions of dollars to place Cornel West and Jill Stein on the ballot in states where they think it will help Donald Trump,” said Pete Kavanaugh, founder of Clear Choice Action, a Democrat-aligned super PAC. Clear Choice is exploring whether Stein or Synapse has violated FEC rules, the group said.
Thomas did not respond to requests for comment. Dave Schwab, communications director for Stein, said the campaign was “not aware of any such effort” in New Hampshire. If it was a coordinated, paid effort, Stein would be required to disclose the help on her campaign finance reports.
“We do know that both Democrats and Republicans have a history of interfering with the ballot access of other parties, and we’ve done the best we can as an independent grassroots campaign with limited resources to stiff-arm such efforts from both sides of the duopoly,” Schwab said in an email.
Stein appears to have minimal support from New Hampshire voters — 1 percent or less, according to several polls. And the state is looking increasingly safe for Democrats since Vice President Kamala Harris became the nominee; the Trump campaign has made few formal investments there, and polling puts Harris at an advantage. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the third-party candidate who was poised to draw the most support in the state, removed himself from the New Hampshire ballot after he abandoned his own bid last month and endorsed Trump.
Still, as longtime Democratic operatives can’t help but remember, third-party candidates have a history of making all the difference in New Hampshire.
In 2000, independent candidate Ralph Nader won 22,000 votes in New Hampshire — far more than the 7,000-vote difference between Democrat Al Gore and Republican George W. Bush, who went on to win the state and the election. If Nader had not been on the ballot and most of his votes had gone to Gore, the Democrat would have won New Hampshire’s four electoral votes, winning him the election and rendering the messy recount in Florida and a fateful decision by the US Supreme Court unnecessary.
Bob Shrum, a senior advisor for Gore’s 2000 campaign, said Nader “made all the difference” in that election.
“Had he not been on the ballot, we would’ve won,” Shrum said.
Stein in 2024 is no Nader in 2000, of course, Shrum and other Democratic operatives said. In 2016, Democrat Hillary Clinton eked out a narrow victory over Donald Trump in New Hampshire, even though Stein was on the ballot there. Stein was not on the ballot in the state in 2020, when President Biden defeated Trump.
“I worry about everything, but on my priority list of things to worry about in New Hampshire, Jill Stein is way down at the bottom — like, way down,” said Kathy Sullivan, who was New Hampshire’s Democratic state party chair in 2000 during the Bush-Gore election.
Sullivan, a longtime operative in the state, said Republicans often try to “meddle” in New Hampshire elections by supporting third-party candidates. In 2004, she recalled, GOP operatives worked to get Nader on the ballot in New Hampshire, and the state party filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission, alleging that their signature collection effort was an impermissible “in-kind” contribution to the Nader campaign. The complaint was ultimately dismissed after additional disclosures were made, Sullivan said.
“I have seen this movie before, because Republicans, they never seem to learn,” Sullivan said. “Nothing surprises me anymore, because that’s what they do.”
According to FEC filings, the Synapse Group has worked for Republican Governor Doug Burgum of North Dakota, who ran for the GOP presidential nomination this cycle, as well as GOP candidates for Congress. Synapse has also been paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for field and canvassing work by America PAC, the outside spending group started by allies of Musk that has spent millions of dollars this election cycle to boost Trump and oppose Democrats.
The Associated Press has reported that a nationwide network of Republican affiliates are working to get third-party candidates on the ballot in a number of states. They have pushed to land scholar and activist Cornel West on the ballot in Arizona, Maine, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and North Carolina, according to the AP. West will not appear on the New Hampshire ballot.
Trump, for his part, has praised third-party candidates such as West and Stein for puling votes from Democrats.
“I like her very much,” Trump said of Stein at a campaign event this year. “You know why? She takes 100 percentfrom them.”
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Emma Platoff can be reached at emma.platoff@globe.com. Follow her @emmaplatoff.
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Publish date : 2024-09-09 23:00:00
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