It appears that the general election will probably feature President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump as the main contenders. But third-party candidates, such as Cornel West from the Green Party, are attempting to secure a spot on the ballot.

Straight Arrow News contributor David Pakman asserts that West’s progressive candidacy could potentially divide the Democratic vote. He argues that voting for West might have a similar impact as voting for Trump.

We then talk about Cornel West. Cornel West has significantly less support than does Bobby Kennedy Jr. However, Cornel West is not running as a Democrat. Cornel West is running Green Party. Cornel West may end up on the ballot in some states that would be very close between Biden and whoever is the Republican nominee. And in those cases, it is mathematically feasible that Cornel West could play spoiler. The math of this is very simple.

Imagine that if it were Biden versus Trump in North Carolina, Biden wins by 50,000 votes. But you introduce Cornel West, and all of a sudden Cornel West pulls 40,000 votes from Biden, and then it also encourages some people to vote Trump or whatever. The point is, Cornel West plays spoiler, and a state that would have otherwise been won by Joe Biden goes to Donald Trump. Is that a feasible scenario? Yes it is. Is that a reason that Cornel West shouldn’t run? That’s up to him. We’ve been doing this since Ralph Nader in the year 2000 with Bush v. Gore.

I’m not here to admonish anybody for anything. If Cornel West says, “I don’t care that I might make it so that Trump wins instead of Biden,” he doesn’t care. What am I going to tell him? He’s gonna run. Furthermore, if you as a voter don’t care that a vote for Cornel West may end up being a vote for Trump, then go ahead and vote the way you want.