Cornel West / Screenshot
Cornel West is running for president of the United States as a member of the People’s Party, a party best known for its left-wing populism.
On June 5, West said in his video announcement, which premiered on Twitter, that neither party, Republican nor Democrat, cares enough about the voters and that he is running as a truth-telling and justice-bringing candidate in the race.
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— Cornel West (@CornelWest) June 5, 2023
“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. “I enter for the quest for truth. I enter for the quest of justice. And the presidency is just one vehicle we pursue that truth and justice.”
Much of West’s political stance is considered progressive, meaning that even though he is running on the People’s Party ticket, his core policies of defending women’s reproductive rights, access to jobs and a living wage, healthcare for all, and environmental justice put him in direct opposition to incumbent President Joe Biden.
“Neither political party wants to tell the truth about Wall Street, about Ukraine, about the Pentagon, about big tech,” West said. “Do we have what it takes? We shall see.”
Empirically speaking, West does not have much of a chance, seeing as how running for president has a two-party system, a political system in which the modern-day Republican and Democratic parties are the ones who consistently dominate the political landscape.
However, West’s relationship and shared commonalities with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) make him a notable candidate compared to Biden’s presumed Democratic challengers, Marianne Williamson and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
In 2002, West left his position at Harvard University due to disagreements with the university’s then-president, Lawrence Summers. He then joined
Princeton University as a professor the following summer.West left Princeton in 2012 to return to the institution where he began his teaching career, Union Theological Seminary, but eventually returned to Harvard in November 2016.
Most recently, in 2021, West left a post at Harvard, again because of a dispute over his tenure. He accused the school of being intellectually and spiritually bankrupt.
He currently holds the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Chair at Union Theological Seminary.