As Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald J. Trump continue to compete to occupy the Oval Office, many voters have already taken their pick, with recent polls showing a toss up in key battleground states.
However, there remains an ever increasing segment of the American population that looks to neither candidate, or the two major political parties for that matter, as the end all, be all, in what’s been described as one of the most consequential elections of this lifetime.
Some concerned voters, like Preshona Ambri, said they consider Democrats and Republicans two wings on the same bird of the capitalist political system that’s beholden to Wall Street and other corporate entities, more so than Americans and global citizens living in the trenches.
On Oct. 12 between 3pm and 5pm, Ambri and others with a similar mindset will converge on We Act Radio in Southeast to discuss strategies for uniting all segments of what’s considered the far left.
“We’re hoping to create a safe space for those who are concerned about humanity, inflation and healthcare and … have been intentionally left out of the conversations,” said Ambri, member of a local group that’s drumming up support for Dr. Cornel West and Dr. Melina Abdullah, both of whom are registered in the District as an independent presidential/vice presidential ticket.
In recent months, Ambri has been educating others about third-party options and participatory politics through her @BrownGirlsThink page. That’s where she has responded to Harris supporters who expressed fears about “spoilers,” like West and Abdullah, who they believe would ensure a second Trump presidency by siphoning votes from Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.
Ambri told The Informer that anyone who votes for a third-party candidate would have most likely never voted for Harris or Trump, or voted at all. Her goal, and that of others, she said, centers on bolstering the profiles of third party candidates and sparking some conversation about how to accumulate at least 5% of the popular vote to secure third-party funding and eventually break out of the two-party system.
“This doesn’t all get solved on the federal level. It’s about the local level, down to what’s happening in Ward 8,” Ambri said. “I’m hoping for a real, inclusive conversation to get away … from the propaganda talking points. It’s especially for those who are burnt out and disillusioned from American politics, [so they can have] a light.”
Third-Party Candidates Launch Another Offensive against the Establishment
Other third-party and independent presidential tickets include: Green Party candidates Dr. Jill Stein and Dr. Butch Ware; and Claudia De la Cruz and Karina Garcia of the Party for Socialism and Liberation.
Until recently, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Nicole Shanahan, an independent ticket with conservative leanings, were also campaigning for the White House.
Unlike their Democratic and Republican counterparts, third-party candidates will not appear on all state ballots. This stems from a hodgepodge of state laws that not only limit independent parties’ access via a labyrinthic petition collection process, but reward Democrats and Republicans for amassing substantial voter support during previous elections.
The Green Party will appear on the ballot in 39 states (440 electoral college votes), while registered as a write-in candidate in Illinois and an automatic write-in in Iowa and Wyoming. The Party for Socialism and Liberation has ballot access in 19 states (220 electoral college votes), while registered as a write-in in seven states.
Meanwhile, the West-Abdullah ticket has ballot access in 16 states (138 electoral college votes), while registered as a write-in in Texas, Illinois, and Indiana.
Such feats have not been without hurdles.
In August, the Democratic National Committee in Wisconsin, a swing state, unsuccessfully attempted to remove The Green Party from the state ballot. However, in Nevada, the state’s Supreme Court sided with the state Democratic Party, despite petitioners submitting 29,500 signatures, three times the minimum required.
In Pennsylvania, the state Supreme Court blocked The Party for Socialism and Liberation from the ballot, while the West-Abdullah ticket overcame challenges from Democrats in Virginia and Georgia.
Even as she rails against the Democratic establishment, Abdullah continues to engage the more progressive members of the party, like Congresswomen Cori Bush (D-Mo.) and Ayanna Presley (D-Mass.). She called it part of a long-term strategy to disrupt the duopoly.
“It’s about figuring out how to engage,” Abdullah told The Informer. “We always say it’s vote and organize. We move people to realize our power. We must have our power, but we have to organize. It’s a complicated space to navigate.”
In that space, Democrats have targeted third-party presidential candidates, particularly The Green Party, in numerous ways. In 2017, the Senate intelligence committee launched an investigation into The Green Party, alleging that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election, in part, by boosting the party’s profile.
As The Green Party, and other independent, far-left political entities, continue to criticize U.S. support for Israel, Democrats like Representative Alexanadria Oscacio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) are levying critiques of their own. Oscacio-Cortez, who lost the Democratic Socialists’ endorsement over Gaza this summer, took to social media earlier this month to question why The Green Party hasn’t been able to win local and state races in recent years.
On Sept. 13, when Stein and Ware appeared on The Breakfast Club, Angela Rye, former executive director and general counsel to the Congressional Black Caucus, made a similar point, with Rye telling Stein that the math has never been in her favor during her 2012 and 2016 presidential campaigns, and her two similarly unsuccessful attempts to become governor of Massachusetts.
Kymone Freeman, a D.C. Statehood Green Party candidate running against D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, said comments such as those made by Rye, Oscacio-Cortez and other Democrats further solidify the growing influence of the third -party movement in the U.S.
“Let’s be clear: all of these attacks are coming from so-called Democratic operatives,” Freeman said. “It’s not Republicans. That lets you know this is not a democracy. It’s about maintaining the status quo.”
Freeman, co-owner of We Act Radio, predicts that the November election will attract the largest number of third-party voters in U.S. history with him securing 70,000 independent votes and 80,000 votes from local college students.
Since the launch of his campaign on the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, Freeman has made the rounds at different events in the city, drawing contrasts between himself and the incumbent. Norton’s refusal to denounce Israel’s attacks on Gaza, Freeman said, represents a deviation from her radical origins in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.
With Biden having passed the torch to Harris, a similar transition in power seems likely in the District, Freeman said. For him, it’s a matter of whether Democrats are willing to cede control to third party politicians.
Freeman said that’s not the case. He cited not only Norton’s alleged refusal to engage the media and participate in debates, but D.C. Councilmember Anita Bonds’ efforts to keep the ranked-choice voting ballot initiative off of the general election ballot, despite the ballot measure’s approval by D.C. Board of Elections.
“The Democrats want a ‘good cop, bad cop’ scenario while they benefit from not getting anything done,” Freeman said. “They want to say that they tried, but Republicans blocked it. But when you have a real progressive option, that’s when blue dog Democrats rear their ugly head.”
Black Lives Matters Grassroots Takes on President Biden
On Sept. 11-15, thousands of Black politicians and professionals from across the U.S. converged on the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Northwest for the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation (CBCF)’s 53rd Annual Legislative Conference.
Members of Black Lives Matter (BLM) Grassroots, of which Abdullah is a member, counted among those who engaged Black politicos, professionals, union leaders and aspiring leaders in conversation about their mission.
While some organizers mentioned the annual legislative conference rarely allows for far leftist voices, the space was still ripe with opportunity for collaboration with a few people.
BLM Grassroots organizers did just that, spending time with Pressley, who’s advancing legislation to eliminate qualified immunity and prevent book bans.
At one point, BLM Grassroots Los Angeles organizer Baba Akili would later make his presence known at the Phoenix Awards Dinner on Sept. 14. When Biden took to the podium, Baba Akili stood up and chanted loudly in support of Palestinian self-determination. That act of defiance, he said, bore much similarity to a stance he took against tobacco corporations in the 1990s when he protested outside of the annual legislative conference.
As the only member of BLM Grassroots within feet of Biden at that moment, Baba Akili said he had no choice but to assert his position.
“Because I support the liberation and rights of Palestinians, it was unconscionable to be in that room with Genocide Joe and not say anything,” Baba Akili said, referencing Biden. “The protest is as valuable as people knowing about it. It reminded people around me that there’s a genocide happening. The CBC has been a bit shallow and not full of content, so we wanted to add content.”
The U.S. Government v. The Uhuru Three
While CBCF annual legislative conference participants spent much time discussing policy issues and further affirming their support for Harris, the members of the African People’s Socialist Party (APSP) were fighting an entirely different battle hundreds of miles away.
In Tampa, a federal jury found APSP Chairman Omali Yeshitela, Penny Hess and Jesse Nevel guilty of conspiracy to act as agents of a foreign government. The Sept. 12 conviction followed a week-long trial and, before that, a 2022 raid on APSP headquarters in St. Petersburg, Florida and St. Louis.
Prosecutors filed an indictment accusing APSP, also known as The Uhuru Movement, of acting on behalf of the Russian government between 2015 and 2022 to sow division in the U.S. They cited the organizers’ launching of a petition accusing the United Nations for crimes against African people and an accompanying four-city tour to collect signatures.
Other allegations involved Yeshitela and Nevel’s trip to a 2020 conference in Russia where prosecutors said Yeshitela spoke in support of Russian-backed Ukrainian secessionist groups.
Prosecutors also said that Russia influenced the Uhuru Movement’s endeavor to center reparations in St. Petersburg’s local elections in 2017 and 2019.
Yeshitela, Hess and Nevel, also known as The Uhuru Three, has since expressed plans to appeal the conviction, on the grounds of their First Amendment rights.
While Yeshitela, who spoke to The Informer earlier this year, acknowledged his travels around the world, he said he did so for noble reasons.
“There’s a clear record of me traveling around the world to unite people and organizations in the struggle of African people against colonialism,” Yeshitela said. “We came in opposition to this war the U.S. initiated against Russia. They use these facts to fabricate this case. This is an assault on the truth. We’ve always opposed predatory war against oppressed people. That’s effectively the basis of free speech.”
Last November, The Uhuru Movement, part of what’s called The Black is Back Coalition, took to the streets of D.C. in solidarity with Palestinians, as part of its 15th annual march to the White House. For decades, the Uhuru Movement has organized Black and white people against a two-party system they say oppresses Black people in the U.S. and abroad via the military industrial complex.
For Yeshitela, The Uhuru Movement’s success, and that of other far-left, internationalist groups threatens the status quo.
“Up until now, many [Black people] haven’t seen an alternative to the Democrats,” Yeshitela said. “There’s been no alternative since [the U.S. government] killed off our leaders. The Uhuru movement provides an alternative that negates the power of colonizers in our community by creating economic programs. We’ve broken through absolute white solidarity with the ruling class. We demonstrate that you don’t have to boot lick and kiss ass to advance your interests.”
For One Voter, It’s a Class War
Harris, whose ascent to the top of the Democratic Party ticket reinvigorated Democrats’ hopes of beating Trump, expressed support for a cease-fire in Gaza, all while saying, and standing on her belief, that Israel should defend itself.
While some voters have been able to overlook the deaths of nearly 41,000 Palestinians, others like Tricia Kinch call it one of several deal breakers. Kinch, a lifelong Democrat and chair of Justice for All, District of Columbia, told The Informer that Harris won’t stray from President Joe Biden on the Gaza issue, or any other policy issue for that matter, because of the Democrats’ ties to corporate donors.
“Everyone already knows Trump is an idiot so who wants to hear what he’s bringing?” said Kinch, a longtime affordable housing advocate. “Harris is still in the pocket of corporate Democrats [like] Big Pharma, who’s pushing [against] Medicare for All, and the military industrial complex that’s pushing that frickin’ war, and all of these wars.”
Kinch served as a paid staff member of six national campaigns, including those of Jesse Jackson, President Barack Obama and Sen. Bernie Sanders. She said, at the time, those candidates took on policy positions that aligned with her values.
However, Kinch said as she witnessed Obama, Biden and Harris continue to leave poor, low-to-moderate income Americans out of their talking points, the more she embraced policy positions that serve people with the greatest need.
This fall, Kinch’s top three issues are the war in Gaza, housing and Medicaid. In explaining her support for West and Abdullah, Kinch said that both of them recognize the Palestinian genocide, not only as a human rights issue, but one of poor fiscal management.
The West-Abdullah White House, she told The Informer, would redirect the billions spent on war to solve issues that Democrats have half-heartedly tackled.
As the clock winds down to Oct. 12, the date of the political education event at We Act Radio, Kinch remains emboldened to unite those who are most affected, and most disillusioned, by quality-of-life issues in the U.S.
“We need strong, visionary leadership that’s not afraid to fight for the people,” Kinch said as she continued to speak in support of the West-Abdullah ticket.
“We’re bringing people who weren’t thinking about voting. They had no one who was standing up for them. We’re bringing in more people into the process to stand up for themselves, their needs, their communities and our country.”