A new poll suggests that Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein is drawing more voters from former President Donald Trump than from Vice President Kamala Harris.
According to a Noble Predictive Insights survey released last week, Harris holds a narrow lead over Trump in a hypothetical three-way race. With Stein on the ballot, Harris’ lead expands, pointing to a potential spoiler effect similar to what many Democrats blamed Stein for doing to Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election.
For Trump, the emergence of Stein as a potential spoiler may be a critical factor in battleground states, where even a small shift in votes could determine the outcome. For Harris, Stein’s candidacy could paradoxically provide an unexpected advantage, drawing votes from Trump and narrowing his pathway to victory.
No candidate is owed votes.
Green party candidates may siphon some votes that might have otherwise gone to a Democratic candidate, but that’s the Democrats fault, or choice, depending how you see it.
It’s also a pretty important feature of a party like the Green party. Assuming they want specific political actions, they provide the major party of choice: either align your policies closer to ours, or risk losing votes. For the Greens, this is a juxtaposition with the Democrats, and it always has been.
So to say that the Green party candidate hurts the GOP more than the Democratic candidate, is so dumb it makes my head hurt.
But again, those aren’t votes the Democrats are owed. It’s votes they lost, because their values don’t align with those voters.