Who are the minor candidates in the US presidential election facing Trump and Harris ?

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are not the only candidates for the American presidency, although only these two personalities are being talked about. Three other people are in the race for the White House.

The American presidential election is fast approaching. Americans are called to the polls on November 5, although some have already voted in several states. This election is of interest to the entire world, which is watching the tight race for The White House between Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump. However, three other candidates are trying their luck, although their victory is almost impossible.

Cornel West

Cornel West is running without a political party behind him. He is said to be “independent”. He is an American philosopher and academic. He taught at Harvard University (Massachusetts, USA), in the Department of African-American Studies, at Yale University (professor of American History), and was professor of religion at the University from Princeton, specializing in black Americans. In his philosophy classes, he talks about Afro-American baptism (an evangelical Christian movement), Marxism, pragmatism, and transcendentalism (a literary movement that believes that political and religious institutions corrupt human purity).

A true figure in the anti-racist struggle in the United States, he participated in demonstrations for civil rights equality as a teenager. He admires “the sincere militancy of Malcolm X, the provocative rage of the Black Panther Party and the theology of black liberation of James H. Cone,” he states in one of his books, The Cornel West Reader. While he was a professor at Yale University, he participated in a demonstration against Apartheid in South Africa, which led to his imprisonment.

He strongly supported Barack Obama's campaign in 2007, before criticizing him: “He presented himself as a progressive and turned out to be a fraud. We ended up with a Wall Street presidency.” Regarding the war in Ukraine, he considers that the Russian invasion is criminal, but that it is due to a provocation by NATO. He wants Ukraine to make territorial concessions to its Russian enemy to calm the conflict. He announced his candidacy for president in June 2023, first on behalf of the People's Party and then in the Green primary, but ended the race as an independent. During his campaign, he spoke about health insurance, wages, housing, democracy, the environment and reproductive rights.

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Jill Stein

Jill Stein is the Green Party candidate in this election. She was the Green Party candidate in 2012 and again in 2016. A physician, she describes herself as agnostic, which is unusual among American presidents who take the oath of office on the Bible at their inauguration. She practiced internal medicine for 25 years and taught at Harvard Medical School. She became an activist in 1998 against the construction of coal-fired power plants in Massachusetts. She received several awards for her commitment to public health. Indeed, she considers that public health is linked to the local environment.

Jill Stein was a member of the Democratic Party before moving to the Greens. She was critical of Barack Obama in 2012, saying that “Romney (the Republican candidate) is a wolf in a wolf's clothing, Obama is a wolf in a sheep's clothing, but they both have essentially the same agenda.”

She is accused of colluding with Russia during the 2016 elections. She is accused of having dinner with Vladimir Putin in 2015 and of having spoken highly of Julian Assange. Hillary Clinton, who lost that election to Donald Trump, even blames her for her defeat. Jill Stein has always defended herself against these accusations, calling them slander.

She defends environmentalist ideas, such as a “Green New Deal”, which would promote the creation of jobs in renewable energies. She wants to finance this plan by limiting the military budget and by increasing certain taxes on speculation and tax havens. She assures that she wants to put an end to independence of the Federal Reserve, wants free college, and the buyout of all student loans in the country.

Chase Oliver

Chase Oliver is the candidate for the Libertarian Party. The party advocates for minimal legislation and taxation, free trade, and strong individual freedoms. He worked in the restaurant business for 13 years before entering politics. He initially supported the Democrats and Barack Obama in 2008, but when Obama supported the Iraq War, Oliver switched to the Libertarian Party in 2010. He participated in several election campaigns in Georgia: the House of Representatives in 2020 and the Senate in 2022.

His candidacy for the American election was made official in April 2023. He won the Libertarian primary after seven rounds of voting at the National Convention. Regarding his political positions, he is pro-abortion, does not want to force companies to limit their carbon footprint so that they do it themselves, against the death penalty and mandatory minimum sentences. He wants education to be legislated state by state and not nationally as it is today. Regarding the conflicts ravaging Europe and the Middle East, he is in favor of ending military aid to Israel and Ukraine. He also describes the Israeli offensive on Gaza as genocide. Chase Oliver is a gun rights advocate, arguing that “gay people with guns are harder to oppress and take down.” He has a progressive outlook on LGBTQIA+ rights.