Green Party presidential candidate Dr. Jill Stein campaigns days before the election at Schenley Plaza

The Green Party’s presidential candidate, Dr. Jill Stein, held a rally on Halloween afternoon at Schenley Plaza under her doctrine “for the people, planet, and peace”.

Stein, a former physician and current environmental activist, has spearheaded the Green Party of the United States twice before, being nominated for president in 2012 and 2016. Stein is running alongside Rudolph “Butch” Ware, an African and Islamic history professor at the University of California Santa Barbara.

Encircled by a crowd of about twenty attendees and several interested onlookers, Stein began her speech with the topic of conflict in the Middle East.

“What we are seeing on our cell phones, on our computers, every day, is just unbelievable,” Stein said. “The worst genocide certainly that we’ve ever seen livestreamed and certainly that we have been paying for.”

Stein then discussed the American housing crisis. She criticized the federal government’s halting of investments in public housing, leading to private equity “buying up our housing for rental and permanent housing.”

“They’re buying it up, hoarding it, feeding it bacon, and taking it off the market to drive up the cost of housing,” Stein said. “We are calling for housing as a human right.”

Moving on to the prominent Green Party issue of climate change, Stein addressed the toll that the burning of fossil fuels has taken on Pittsburgh’s inhabitants.

“As the people of Pittsburgh know … the rates of asthma and the rates of heart disease are far higher here than in other communities,” Stein said.

Stein ended her speech by condemning the two major political parties in the United States, denouncing their authoritarian tendencies and complacency in the Israel-Gaza conflict.

“We don’t have to wait for Donald Trump to see fascism,” Stein said. “We have fascism right now in the top cities and at the attack of innocent protesters on campus and in our streets.” 

Stein added that Harris already lost the “anti-genocide vote” because “It’s more important to the Biden-Harris administration to continue the genocide rather than to win the election.”

In an interview with The Pitt News, Stein shared more thoughts about the stakes of the upcoming election. When asked about her policies in the interests of college students, she talked about the issue of affordable education.

“Abolishing student debt and making public higher education free, something that Biden has always promised and has never done, was actually introduced in my 2012 campaign,” Stein said.

Stein rebutted criticism about the Green Party diverting votes from the two major parties in the election, calling it “propaganda”.

“This has been used ever since the opposition to slavery,” Stein said. “The abolitionist parties were labeled as spoilers. This is what political propaganda from the dominance of political powers will always be, that you’re spoiling their party.”

Stein then quoted prominent abolitionist Frederick Douglass in her rationale for voting green.

“If Americans are voting against who we hate, who we hate the most, instead of voting for what we want, we’re never going to get the solution,” Stein said. “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never has and it never will.”

Community member Sabrina Maines, who belongs to the Pittsburgh Palestine Coalition and is a supporter of Jill Stein for president, highlighted the stakes of the 2024 Green Party presidential run.

“If the Green Party gets 5% of the vote, they will get public funding for the 2028 election,” Maines said, “and that is our goal.”

Attendee Matt Nemeth, member and elected officer of the Green Party of Allegheny County, explained how public funding would boost the expansion of the party.

“We’re at a significant monetary disadvantage to the major parties,” Nemeth said, “and getting those federal funds would allow us to hire more campaign staff, to have a network across the country that’s a lot stronger, to do outreach to voters and to market.”

Kenny Zhou, a first-year urban planning student, wrote-in Bernie Sanders on his ballot. He explained he doesn’t agree with all of the Green Party’s policies, but expressed the need for “more parties in the US.”

“I think if enough people join us in writing in Bernie or voting for third party, the Democratic party is going to see that what they’re doing is making people not support them,” Zhou said. “So maybe then [Democrats] will become more liberal and move to the left.”

Maines explained that she will continue her advocacy despite the results of the upcoming election.

“Regardless of who wins, Republicans or Democrats, we will be here organizing after the elections against all the systems of oppression,” Maines said.