MOVEON’s notes are here
Note
To: Stakeholders
from: Lana Epting, Executive Director, MoveOn Political Action
RE: RFK Jr., Stein, West: They backed out of debate but still threatened Trump’s election victory
date: June 27, 2024
A third-party presidential candidate is a threat the Democratic Party cannot afford to ignore.
In tonight’s debate, President Biden and President Donald Trump will face off with competing visions for our country: on the one hand a forward-thinking economic vision that protects civil and reproductive rights, and on the other an authoritarian hellscape that strips away hard-won progress and tilts the economic scales even further in the favor of billionaires. Simply put, we can’t go back. We must move forward. And that means defeating Donald Trump at the polls in November.
In an already difficult environment for incumbent presidents, President Biden finds himself in the distinctly unfortunate position of competing with Trump as a third-party disruptive candidate tries to chip away at enough support to tilt the election in his favor, as Jill Stein and Gary Johnson did in 2016 and Ralph Nader did in 2000.
Unfortunately, that is by design. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Trump’s biggest donorFor $25 million. Jill Stein, Running Almost openly He refuses to attack Trump as a Putin puppet, instead directing his vitriol solely at President Biden, while Cornel West is actively getting help from Republican operatives to get on the presidential ballot. multiple state.
Trump I have nothing but praise for West and Stein. They are seeking to secure votes that will be stolen from President Biden, and in doing so, they are saying out loud what they have quietly said: that third-party candidates are a central part of his election strategy.
Put plainly, RFK Jr., Jill Stein and Cornel West have no chance of winning the presidency, and their inclusion in the race will continue to benefit Trump. And Trump knows it. A vote for any of these candidates would bring us dangerously close to a second Trump administration in which our democracy may not survive.
The stakes couldn’t be higher, so We are sounding the alarm and CounterattackIn 2000 and 2016, Democrats saw the disastrous impact that third-party candidates can have on electoral outcomes. Moreover, the nation as a whole experienced the effects of sudden events that threw the country off track. We cannot afford to repeat such mistakes again.
With Republican support, spoiler candidates are making their way onto ballots in battleground states.
Third-party candidates are running in states across the country. Put on gloves Trump’s shady operatives helped RFK Jr., Stein, and West Ballot“The Republican Party’s involvement indicates that their true intention is to undermine President Biden’s reelection chances by taking thousands of votes away from an already close vote count. By accepting Republican support, these same third-party campaigns are betraying the voters they are seeking. We will continue to monitor, condemn, and publicly challenge the ties between third-party candidates and Republican activists and donors, revealing which team these candidates are actually fighting for.”
Here are the latest updates on voting access:
- Just last night, The North Carolina State Board of Elections voted 3-2. Suspend efforts by RFK Jr. and Cornel West to found a new political party until further investigation is completed.
- Kennedy ran in Michigan as the unknown “Natural Law” candidate. Two-person nomination contest It is led by a part-time magician.
- RFK Jr. File a lawsuit Nevada’s Secretary of State, while the Nevada Democratic Party challenging His signature and Stein’s signature.
- RFK Jr. Facing lawsuit in New Jersey They’re trying to get him off the ballot.
- The west side North Carolina and Virginia He used Republican operatives to gather signatures to get his own party, “We the People,” on the ballot.
- In Wisconsin, the signature-gathering process for independent candidates begins July 1st.
RFK Jr.’s poll numbers are fading, but even 1-2% would be enough to help Trump win.
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- RFK Jr. received just 9% approval from Democrats but 33% approval from independents, suggesting that the path to shattering his support runs through purple voters.
- However, seven battleground states in 2020 were decided by less than 3% each, and three of those (Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin) were decided by less than 1%.
Recent reports about potential spoilers have been “Yippee!”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
- supreme court COVID-19 vaccine appeal rejected One of the lawsuits, brought by a nonprofit organization founded by RFK Jr., involved the FDA’s approval of COVID-19 vaccines for use in children.
Jill Stein
Cornel West
- according to NBC WashingtonThe Cornel West campaign is working with Trump operatives in Virginia to lie to voters under the false pretense of “taking Donald Trump off the ballot,” gathering signatures to get West on the ballot.
- West also Caught West has relied on Republican operatives to get him on the ballot in North Carolina, where “volunteers” have been urging voters outside Trump events to help him steal votes from President Biden.
Ignoring history is at our peril.
RFK Jr., Stein and West cannot win the presidency, but in a race that may be decided by 1-2% in six states, their influence will be immense and their threat must be mitigated. We will continue to fight to help Americans understand what is really at stake. A vote for RFK Jr., Stein and West is exactly the same as a vote for Trump.
This is an all-out war moment that requires the support of everyone in the anti-Trump coalition to defeat the threat of a third party and thwart a second, more dangerous chance for Donald Trump to seize power.
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