WASHINGTON — Prominent left-wing activist and professor Cornel West launched an independent 2024 presidential campaign Monday — saying he was on a “quest for justice” and would “go down fighting.”
West, 70, announced in a tweeted video that he was running as the candidate of the People’s Party, a move that could cause headaches for Democrats due to his substantial name recognition and charismatic denunciations of status quo politics.
“I enter in the quest for truth. I enter in the quest for justice. And the presidency is just one vehicle to pursue that truth and justice, what I’ve been trying to do all of my life,” said West, a longtime professor at Harvard and Princeton who currently sits on the faculty of Union Theological Seminary in upper Manhattan.
“I care about whether you have access to a job with a living wage, decent housing, women having control over their bodies, health care for all, the escalating destruction of the planet, the destruction of American democracy,” West said in his launch video.
“Democracy creates disruption, it creates an eruption, it creates an interruption wide from below the energies of everyday people as manifest — and I know there are precious people in your life, who you care for. That’s why it’s important for you to be involved, important for you to participate.”
He adds: “I’m not hating anybody. We’re talking about loving. We’re talking about affirming. We’re talking about empowering those who have been pushed to the margins because neither political party wants to tell the truth about Wall Street, about Ukraine, about the Pentagon, about Big Tech.”
It’s unclear if the People’s Party has automatic ballot access in any jurisdiction, meaning West would need to be nominated by other minor parties or navigate a complex thicket of filing deadlines and petition signature rules.
West’s launch video featured a clip of himself on Bill Maher’s HBO show saying, “Neo fascists like Brother [Donald] Trump or milquetoast neoliberals like Brother Biden — wow, I’m so happy to make a world shaking decision.”
In another interview clipped for his ad, he says, “I know gangsters when I see them. And gangster is not a subjective expression, it’s an objective condition.”
Despite the attacks, West indicated he’d wage an upbeat candidacy.
“Do we have what it takes? We shall see,” he said in the launch video. “But some of us are going to go down fighting, go down swinging — with style and a smile, accenting the best in you and trying to tease out the best in me. Let’s do it together.”
President Biden, 80, faces challenges within the Democratic Party from anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and from spiritual guru Marianne Williamson. A CNN poll released last month found that Biden has the support of roughly 60% of Democrats, followed by Kennedy at 20% and Williamson at 8%.
Former President Donald Trump, 76, is the frontrunner for the Republican nomination but faces a challenge from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, 44, and an array of other candidates including Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), former Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R-Ark.), businessman Vivek Ramaswamy and former Gov. Nikki Haley (R-SC), who also was Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations.