A third-party spoiler is on the ballot in Wisconsin that could cost Democrats the presidency, and activists there admit that's kind of the point.
Jill Stein is on the ballot there and 38 others states as Green Party nominee, despite Democratic efforts to remove her from the ballot in battleground states, and many still blame her for costing Hillary Clinton the 2016 election in Wisconsin, reported Politico.
“Of course I have concerns,” said Carlene Bechen, a Democratic activist and village board trustee in the Madison suburb of Oregon. “I’d be a fool if I didn’t have concerns.”
Stein garnered about 31,000 votes eight years ago in Wisconsin, which Clinton lost by nearly 23,000 votes, and she bitterly denounced Democratic efforts to knock the Green Party off ballots in various states, and she's less angry at the so-called "uniparty" that includes Republicans, but at Democrats in particular.
“[The DNC wanted] people to infiltrate and spy on our campaign,” Stein said. “It smells like a rat.”
Democrats have made gains in strongholds like Dane County, which includes Madison, since 2016 that helps offset turnout in areas Republicans typically win, but those areas are particularly susceptible to Green Party ideals – especially on the war in Gaza – and legal challenges their presence on the ballots remains a point of contention.
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“We need to teach Democrats a lesson,” said Pete Karas, the elections committee chair for the Wisconsin Greens. “They’re trying to mess with us and mess with democracy, and they have a couple of choices. They can continue to do that and suffer the consequences, or they can pass ranked-choice voting so that we actually do have fair elections.”
The Green Party intends to run more local campaigns in 2026 as payback, and although Stein is once again polling at only 1 percent across so-called Blue Wall states, she's eager to play spoiler and risk a second Donald Trump presidency.
“The [Democrats] appear to be quite afraid of facing the music here," Stein said. "They want to wipe out their competition so they don’t have to face a challenge."
