Jill Stein launches 2024 bid as Green Party candidate

Jill Stein announced a surprise presidential bid Thursday, seeking the Green Party’s 2024 nomination.

Stein, a physician who ran against Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump in 2016 as the Green Party’s nominee, previewed her latest run for the White House on social media and unveiled an accompanying website. 

An official launch is slated for later this month.

“Our democracy is on life support,” Stein wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, previewing a Nov. 21 campaign kickoff.

“Belief in our political system is at historic lows and the number of Americans who feel that neither establishment party represents them is at a record high. We need real choices on the ballot, because without freedom of choice in elections, there is no democracy. It’s time to revive the promise of democracy.”

Stein wrote on her website that she is entering the presidential race “to offer people a choice outside the failed two-party system, so we can put a pro-worker, anti-war, climate emergency agenda front and center in this election and on the ballot in November.”

Stein’s last national bid in 2016 sparked considerable anger from Democrats, who argued she contributed to the election of Trump by taking away votes from Clinton in close swing states including Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. Clinton allies accused her of being a spoiler that year.

Early polling from this cycle indicates the three states will be key battlegrounds again in 2024. Recent surveys show President Biden and Trump within just a few percentage points of each other in all three states now, setting up the potential for a similar scenario next November. 

Stein is running under the Green Party banner again after another third-party candidate, Cornel West, switched his registration from the Green Party to run as an independent.

She has promoted early support of the progressive platform, including a Green New Deal, the sweeping environmental reform agenda favored by climate activists. Her newest campaign slogan, as it appears on her social media accounts, is “People. Planet. Peace.”

The 73-year-old doctor and environmental advocate joins a chorus of outsiders competing for the Oval Office as discontent with Biden reaches new levels a year from Election Day.

In addition to West, fellow progressives Marianne Williamson and Cenk Uygur have launched long-shot bids, as well as independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.), who is running against Biden as a Democrat.

Updated at 2:58 p.m. ET