Allies of former President Donald Trump and others affiliated with the GOP are supporting the Green Party's Jill Stein in the hopes that her presidential bid will divert attention and votes away from Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Stein, now in her third race for the White House, has fought to secure ballot access in multiple battleground states and has been represented by Trump-affiliated lawyers, the Journal reported. Indeed, Stein's campaign has paid six figures to a Republican-tied consulting firm led by a man accused of participating in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol
In Nevada, the Democratic Party initiated a lawsuit to exclude the Green Party from the ballot, claiming the party used the wrong form to collect signatures from voters. The Green Party appealed the case and was represented by Jay Sekulow, an attorney who defended Trump throughout his impeachment trials (last week, the Nevada Supreme Court rejected Stein’s bid to be put back on the ballot).
In Wisconsin, Democratic National Committee employee David Strange sought to remove Stein from the ballot by arguing the Green Party can’t nominate presidential electors without legislative candidates eligible to do so. The Wisconsin Supreme Court declined to hear the case. Stein was again legally represented by a Trump-affiliated lawyer, Michael D. Dean, who was involved in lawsuits that attempted to overturn the results of the 2020 election, the Journal reported.
Stein's campaign also paid $100,000 to a consulting firm, Accelevate, that has worked with Republican campaigns for signature-gathering services. The head of the firm, Trent Pool, appears to have taken part in the 2021 attack on the US Capitol, The Intercept reported last week. The same firm was also paid millions of dollars by the campaign of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who endorsed Trump last month.
A spokesperson for Stein said she was unaware of Pool's reported connection to Jan. 6; a lawyer for Pool insisted his client was filming a documentary, not taking part in the attack.
The boost from Trump allies is part of a larger coordinated effort by the GOP to support third-party candidates as an alternative to Harris, seeking to divert attention and ultimately votes from the vice president, the Associated Press reported earlier this month. Similar efforts have been made to include independent candidate Cornell West on the ballot in Arizona.
For her part, Stein rejects the argument that her candidacy is enabling a Trump path to victory, positioning herself as a left-wing alternative to the country's two major parties. But she has repeatedly been criticized by Democrats for taking away votes, most notably by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., who called Stein’s candidacy “unserious” and “predatory.”
In a recent NBC News poll, 2% of registered voters said they would vote for Stein in November.
