Politics

Here’s what you need to know about the 3rd-party candidates on the Mass. presidential ballot

A handful of third-party candidates will also be up for vote on the 2020 General Election ballot in Massachusetts. So, who are they?

Howie Hawkins, the Green Party presidential candidate, in Albany, N.Y., on Oct. 4, 2018. Nathaniel Brooks/The New York Times

By Ainslie Cromar

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For centuries, two parties have ruled America’s political landscape. 

But while former Vice President Joe Biden and President Donald Trump are the ruling parties’ candidates, third-party candidates will also appear on the 2020 General Election ballot in Massachusetts. So, who are they? 

Below, read up on the top four third-party candidates, which are detailed in order based on ballot access in Massachusetts. 

Who else will appear on the ballot?

Jo Jorgensen is the Libertarian candidate for president, and the only candidate besides Trump or Biden who will appear on the ballot in all 50 states. She’s also the first woman to lead that party’s presidential ticket.

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With a Ph.D. in Industrial and Organizational Psychology from Clemson University where she is a senior lecturer in psychology, Jorgensen said she hopes to scale down the nation’s government — by a lot. 

“In my first day of office, I would immediately start bringing the troops home. Being involved everywhere around the world is making our country less safe, not more safe,” she said in a campaign clip. “I would like America to become one giant Switzerland. Armed, and neutral.”

Her running mate, Jeremy “Spike” Cohen, is an entrepreneur and the co-owner of Muddied Waters Media, a podcast platform. 

According to Jorgensen’s campaigning website, Cohen “hopes to work with her to end wars, free the innocent, and end the infringements that impede voluntary problem-solving.”

In a recent tweet, Cohen also shared his comments on criminalizing addiction. 

“We need to end this War on Drugs. It has completely failed us,” he said. “It has destroyed people’s lives. It has decimated entire communities. We are treating addiction like a criminal problem instead of a health problem. The majority of people in prison are there because they are addicts who were feeding their addiction.”

Also listed on the Mass. ballot, as the Green Party presidential candidate, is Howie Hawkins. 

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As detailed on his campaign website, Hawkins dubs himself the “original Green New Dealer,” having been the first U.S. candidate to campaign for a Green New Deal in 2010.

He is on the ballot in 29 states and is an official write-in candidate in 17 more. 

A retired Teamster trade unionist and environmental activist, Hawkins was also an organizer for anti-war, anti-nuclear, and pro-worker movements in the 1960s. After studying at Dartmouth College, he worked in construction in New England through the 1970s and 80’s. 

Hawkins supports a socialist economy, and the centerpiece of his campaign is his proposal for an eco-socialist Green New Deal, which includes an economic and environmental program.

His campaign website describes the two programs: “The Economic Bill of Rights will finally fulfill President Roosevelt’s 1944 call upon Congress to develop programs to secure basic economic human rights for all. The Green Economy Reconstruction Program will not only build a 100% clean energy system by 2030, but will reconstruct all economic sectors for ecological sustainability, from agriculture and manufacturing to housing and transportation.”

His running mate, according to their website, is Angela Walker — “a veteran working-class activist with decades of experience working for racial and economic justice in social movements, unions, and as an independent socialist candidate from her youth.“

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Born and raised in Wisconsin, Walker was also a candidate for vice president in 2016 when she ran on the ticket with Emidio Soltysik as the presidential nominee.

A mother of one, Walker’s bio describes her as a “fierce advocate for the rights of Black, Brown and Indigenous people, the LGBTQIA community, Labor and the Earth itself.”

So who are the write-in candidates? 

In Mass., there are only two candidates running write-in campaigns.

Heading one of them is Brian Carroll, the presidential nominee for the American Solidarity Party, which is a Christian democratic party. 

Through his campaign Carroll is calling for climate and environmental protections, social justice and reconciliation, “a more peaceful world,” healthcare for all, and “pro-life for the whole life” policies. 

Carroll got a bachelor’s in history from UCLA before spending 44 years teaching mostly history to 7th and 8th graders. And in the 2018 California primary, he ran for Congress against Devin Nunes. 

Carroll’s running mate for the 2020 election is former chair of the American Solidarity Party, Amar Patel.

An active member of his Catholic parish, according to Carroll’s campaign website, Patel’s “passion is to provide an avenue to fight against the atomization that our political system is forcing upon Americans by emphasizing service and the development of our core relationships.”

Running as a completely non-partisan independent presidential candidate is Jade Simmons. 

She represents those “who feel their faith, their gender, and their race have been held hostage by political parties hellbent on the opposition at all costs,” according to her campaign website. 

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Simmons said she aims to “care for mankind from the womb to the tomb,” reduce out-of-pocket costs to healthcare and childcare, and to “begin to repair the relationship between people of color and law enforcement.” 

Her running mate is the daughter of two Army veterans, Claudeliah Roze, who is “passionate about providing full support to United States service women and men throughout and after their military careers.”

The pair say they also plan to give a voice to the “muted middle,” and those who don’t agree with the right or the left, but “believe there is a place in the middle where we can honorably meet and find common ground on issues that matter to our country.” 

Roze graduated with an Electrical Engineering degree from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, and according to their website, is currently the first African-American female technology director for Aerospace & Defense Technology. 

As Vice President, Roze said she would “cast a vision for revitalizing the United State’s position as the most technologically-advanced nation in the world, developing a hybrid model of manufacturing, services, and financial sectors to create more jobs, economic stability, and regain our independence as a producer and exporter of goods, services, and policy.”

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