BY CAITLYN JONSSON
Just one week before Election Day, the Green Party hosted its final virtual town hall, with presidential candidate Jill Stein and vice presidential candidate Rudolph Ware using the livestream to rally support for their grassroots campaign. The candidates focused on the climate crisis and their anti-war stance, while highlighting the party’s goal of securing at least 5% of the national vote to secure ballot access in future elections. Despite this goal, the party received 0.4% of the national vote this year.
No candidate for the party has ever received 5% of the national vote in a presidential election and has struggled to surpass the 1% threshold. Stein did capture 1.1% of the vote in 2016, but Green Party candidate Howie Hawkins garnered just 0.2% in 2020. These trends continued this election season.
According to the party’s ballot access map, the party was on the ballot in 39 states in 2024, with write-in status in six states including New York, and officially off the ballot in five states. Advocates for the Democratic Party worried that support for Stein would decrease the votes for Vice President Kamala Harris, putting Donald Trump in a greater chance for victory. However, Trump won the 2024 election with a margin of more than double the votes of all independent parties combined.
During the town hall event, Stein, along with campaign advisor Mark Elbourno and campaign manager Jason Call, argued that climate change is an existential threat exacerbated by U.S. domestic and foreign policies. According to Elbourno, the U.S. has a history of prioritizing corporate and military interests over environmental sustainability. Call criticized current leaders for contributing to environmental degradation and failing to meet the needs of marginalized communities affected by climate-related disasters.
“The fight is here at home,” Stein emphasized, “against oligarchy, neocolonialism… and the climate crisis.” Stein, known for her outspoken climate platform since 2012, claimed that the U.S. has escalated fossil fuel extraction under both major parties, failing to uphold international climate targets and ignoring calls from scientists to reduce emissions.
Central to the party’s climate policy is the Green New Deal, which calls for a rapid and aggressive transition to 100% renewable energy by 2030. The deal involves the dismantling of the fossil fuel industry, ending subsidies for polluting corporations, and imposing a carbon tax to hold companies accountable for emissions.
Call highlighted the ongoing effects of climate change on indigenous communities in Alaska, who are experiencing unprecedented floods and glacial melt. According to the World Glacier Monitoring Service, the largest contributor to rising sea levels are melting glaciers in Alaska. “We are already seeing climate refugees, even within our borders,” Call stated.
The conversation repeatedly returned to the Green Party’s opposition to U.S. militarism. Ware highlighted recent conflicts that have accelerated climate degradation, arguing that military pollution is an overlooked source of greenhouse gas emissions.
Ware asserted that Israel’s bombing of Gaza has released more greenhouse gasses in three months than the combined annual emissions of more than 20 of the world’s most climate-vulnerable countries. According to Ware, U.S. military support for global conflicts undermines their credibility in addressing climate change, given the environmental toll of warfare.
The Green Party called for supporters to donate and build a “peaceful revolution.” Citing Martin Luther King Jr.’s words, Stein emphasized “the moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” As the town hall reached its goal of $60,000 in donations, Stein argued that a stronger Green Party could pressure both major parties to adopt climate policies that counter corporate dominance of U.S. politics.
Stein’s presidential campaign amassed international attention, with bids from the European Greens asking her to step down from the race. Made up of green parties from across Europe, the transnational political party asserts no link with the U.S. Green Party. The European Greens argued that Vice President Harris is the only candidate with the potential to beat Trump, declaring that a Trump presidency has the potential to be catastrophic to human rights and environmental justice.