History repeating: Jill Stein launches another spoiler campaign

Environmental activist Jill Stein is launching another long-shot bid for the presidency as a Green Party candidate, bringing back memories of 2016, when her bid may have contributed to Republican Donald Trump’s razor-thin victory.

The 73-year-old Stein said in a video announcing her 2024 candidacy on Thursday that the current political system is “broken.”

“I’m running for president to offer that choice for the people outside of the failed two-party system,” said Stein, a physician from Lexington, Massachusetts.

The rise of third-party and independent candidates has sparked concerns among both Democratic and Republican party officials ahead of the 2024 presidential election. Both of the major parties’ most likely nominees — President Joe Biden and former President Trump — are extraordinarily unpopular. But Stein’s candidacy, considering her hard-left platform, could present a particular challenge for Biden.

Stein ran against Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016 as a Green Party candidate and received about 1% of the national vote. Some Democrats said her candidacy siphoned votes away from Clinton and helped Trump win, particularly in states like Wisconsin. She also ran for president in 2012.

Stein, who is Jewish, has long accused Israel of committing war crimes and said the U.S. needs to stop sending aid to the country. On Thursday, she called for an investigation of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s military campaign in Gaza and the role played by Biden and other U.S. leaders in helping the country when it declared war on Hamas after the Oct. 7 surprise attack on Israel that killed at least 1,400 people.

According to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, nearly half of Democrats disapprove of how Biden is handling the Israel-Hamas war. The poll found 50% of Democrats approve of how Biden has navigated the conflict while 46% disapprove — and the two groups diverge substantially in their views of U.S. support for Israel.

Stein has never won statewide or national political office.

She was criticized for attending a 2015 dinner in Moscow sponsored by Russian television network RT and sitting at the same table as Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose country has invaded neighboring Ukraine.

Stein has said she attended “with a message of Middle East peace, diplomacy and cooperation.”