Scholar Cornel West announces a minor-party presidential bid

Scholar and social activist Cornel West on Monday announced that he is running for president under the banner of the People’s Party, casting his minor-party bid as part of a quest for truth and justice.

“I am running for truth and justice as a presidential candidate for the People’s Party to reintroduce America to the best of itself — fighting to end poverty, mass incarceration, ending wars and ecological collapse, guaranteeing housing, health care, education and living wages for all!” West said in a Twitter post in which he also included an announcement video.

West, 70, has a lengthy list of academic affiliations, which have included Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Dartmouth. He was a supporter of the Democratic presidential bids of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in 2016 and 2020, appearing as a surrogate on the campaign trail.

The People’s Party bills itself as “a major new independent party that will guarantee health care, housing, quality education and peace to all.”

While West is running as a far more liberal alternative to President Biden, it’s unclear in how many states he will appear on the general election ballot and the ultimate impact he could have on the race.

Within the Democratic primaries, Biden is facing challenges from Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a controversial member of the storied Kennedy family known for his anti-vaccine views, and spiritual adviser Marianne Williamson.

West’s website indicates that he will push an array of issues, including universal health care, the expansion of Social Security, forgiveness of all student debt, ending foreign military deployments and military aid, disbanding NATO and a global ban on nuclear weapons.

“In these bleak times, I have decided to run for truth and justice, which takes the form of running for president of the United States as a candidate for the People’s Party,” West said in the video. “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.”