Cornel West, the progressive activist and professor, announced Monday a presidential campaign with the People’s Party, a third party led by a former Senator Bernie Sanders campaign aide.
“I’m going to look for truth, I’m going to look for justice, and the presidency is just one means of pursuing that truth and justice — which is what I’ve been trying to do all my life,” said Dr. west into a campaign video posted on Twitter.
In the video, Dr. West that he had decided to run as a third-party candidate because “no political party wants to tell the truth about Wall Street, about Ukraine, about the Pentagon, about Big Tech.” He called former President Donald J. Trump, the frontrunner for the Republican nomination, a “neo-fascist” and President Biden a “milquetoast neoliberal.”
Dr. West has taught at Yale, Princeton, and Harvard and is currently a professor of philosophy at Union Theological Seminary. He is known for his progressive activism, including his sharp criticism of former President Barack Obama.
His campaign video highlighted a list of issues including wages, affordable housing, abortion rights, universal health care, climate change and “the destruction of American democracy”.
The People’s Party was founded by Nick Brana, who worked on Mr Sanders’ campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016, but later broke. The party attempted to recruit Mr. Sanders after his 2016 campaign, but he refused to run and sought the Democratic nomination again in 2020.
“Do we have what it takes? We will see. But some of us will go down fighting,” said Dr. West in his announcement video, leaning into the camera and exaggeratingly pronouncing the syllables of “fight.” “Go swinging down with style and a smile.”
