With all the fervor over the Democrat and Republican candidates in the 2024 General Election, I barely noticed the Green Party of Arizona candidates on the ballot.
On the national level, Jill Stein ran again and only got 0.54%of the votes for US President in Arizona. Not even 1% with only 18,319 votes, statewide.
Eduardo Quintana ran for U.S. Senate in Arizona and received 75,868 votes or 2.27% of that race. He got less votes than Congressman Ruben Gallegos’ winning lead over Republican Kari Lake (81,574). One wonders had he been allowed to participate on the Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission debate would he have done better?
That debate got 1222 page views: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3afyMpkgrQ
Also on the state level, Mike Cease and Nina Luxemberg ran for AZ Corporation Commission and got 1.19 % and 1.3% of the vote respectively. But that’s still 101,473 votes for Cease, and 110,486 votes for Luxemberg. Cease is familiar here in Southern Arizona having run unsuccessfully for Pima County Recorder (2016), Tucson City Council (Ward 6 in 2017) and Mayor (2019) previously.
In CD 6, some say that the Green candidate/political newcomer Athena Eastwood was a spoiler for Dem Kirsten Engel’s campaign. Eastwood got 10,759 votes or 2.5 % of the vote. The final difference between incumbent Republican Juan Ciscomani and Kristen Engel was 10,822 votes. I also wonder what the result would have been had Eastwood been allowed to participate in the two CD 6 debates.
Couldn’t find photo of Eastwood on AZ Green Party website, but AZ Luminaria interviewed her and obtained a photo: https://azluminaria.org/2024/10/25/a-mysterious-candidate-a-wild-west-primary-and-a-battleground-district/
In Pima County political newcomer Howard Druan (G) was the only challenger to Dem incumbent Pima County Attorney Laura Conover, yet got 24 % of the vote or 94,383 votes. Some local reporters here in Southern AZ said it may have been a protest vote from those unhappy with the 2024 Dem Primary Election results. No photo available for him either on AZ Green Party website under candidates. He is a retired victim advocate and I did find his bio online: https://freethought-az.org/howard-druan.html#/
Arizona Green Party also ran candidates in CD 4, LDs 8, 13 and 14.
From their website https://www.azgp.org/:
“THE GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES, (“GPUS”), founded in August of 1984, is currently the 4th largest political party in the United States, with over 200,000 registered voters, and over 140 currently serving elected/appointed public officials nationwide. Green Parties exist in over 90+ countries around the world, many of whom are members of the Global Greens, and The Green Party of the United States is only one small part of a larger, international Green Movement.
THE ARIZONA GREEN PARTY, (“AZGP”), founded in May of 1990, is the officially recognized and accredited affiliate chapter of the Green Party of the United States for the State of Arizona. Our party is currently the 5th largest political party in AZ, with over 3,000 registered Green Party voters statewide and 3 local county chapters that are currently active in Maricopa, Pima, and Coconino Counties. Starting in 1992, the AZGP has run over 90 candidates in partisan and nonpartisan races every election cycle since our founding, and has had a total of 5 AZGP members thus far who have been either elected or appointed to public offices up and down the ballot in Arizona.”
Green Party of Pima County: https://www.pimagreens.org/. No Green Party candidates have run in Pima County or City of Tucson since 2019, except Howard Druan now for PC Attorney in 2024, and Athena Eastwood in CD 6 (comprises 5 AZ Counties).
Vote turnout was 78.49 % statewide.
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I come from a time and place where people did in fact risk their lives and some died for the right to vote.
They did not die for the right to vote for Democrats, just the right to vote at all.
Please think about this when you blame third party candidates when Democrats lose.
Every election in recent memory has the Democrats sounding alarms about third party spoilers and how democracy must be saved blah blah… and we need to vote for the candidate who can win blah blah.
That gets old. It’s not even a talking point anymore, it’s more like white noise. And it isn’t winning elections.
You’re right about third party candidates having the right to run but it’s hard to argue that Ralph Nader wasn’t a 2000 election spoiler. As close as Bush/Gore were (50, 456, 002/50,999,897*) Nader’s 2,882,955 just may have prevented the lawsuit that handed the Presidency to Bush. In fact, Michael Moore, one of Nader’s closest campaign supporters encouraged Nader to drop out and pledge his support to Gore. Which Nader pigheadedly refused to do.
In this decade’s toxic political environment third party runs should be treated as AI – Just because it’s possible doesn’t mean you should.
*Total count after SC unethically stopped the count
Regarding Nader and the 2000 Presidential election it should be pointed out that the margin in Florida (which determined the electoral college win) was 537 votes. All 10 candidates on the Florida Ballot for President received more than 537 votes. Who is to say which candidate’s votes were decisive and who’s weren’t? See the Results section of this Wikipedia article for reference. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000_United_States_presidential_election_in_Florida
Also, it needs to be pointed out that over 308,000 Democrats in Florida in 2000 voted for George W Bush, which was more than 3 times Naders vote total in Florida. https://www.salon.com/2000/11/28/hightower/ This wasn’t Nader/the Greens fault and the Democrats need to take responsibility for that.
Nader/the Greens have been and continue to be convenient scapegoats to mask the failures of Democratic candidates.
Yeah, the Conservadems who voted for Bush will always be a pain but your analysis presumes without Nader on the ballot the majority of Greens would have cast their ballots for Bush. Which beggars belief.
I disagree that my analysis presumes that Greens would have voted for Bush. According to exit polling in Florida in 2000 as stated in the documentary “An Unreasonable Man,” 25% of Nader’s Florida supporters would have voted Bush if Nader were not on the ballot, 25% would have voted Gore, and 50% would have stayed home.
So let’s cite a documentary that was made to defend Nader. No bias there! Can you cite those figures from a Nader documentary premised on “Just the facts…”?
I’m with Liza, we should vote our values, not party, and catching shit for it is hella-un-American.
The Dems have been ceding ground to the right since Clinton, losing voters is on them, not me. Republican-Lite is a proven losing strategy.
I voted straight Blue the last three elections because of Don-old, and what has it accomplished?
Who has the House, Senate, White House, and the corrupt SCOTUS?
Did I waste my vote on Dems? Doing the math…yeah, I did.
But I can’t vote Green for the reasons in my reply to Jon Ralston below, and for the reason Wileybud stated (the AI comment).
Hate-voting sucks. Maybe the Dems will run someone whose brain ain’t calcified, understands the world isn’t the same as it was 10, 20, 50 years ago, who puts country over ego (looking at Biden, the only man who can beat Trump!) and that you can’t negotiate with MAGAts because they lie and have no shame
BTW, Michael Moore just put “Sicko” up on Youtube free for all to view.
Democrats have a candidate problem. You may recall, Wileybud, that the only election prediction I made was that Juan Ciscomani would defeat Kirsten Engel. Why? He defeated her in 2022, he had incumbency with no major issues, he seems personable and engaged, and he had better TV ads. So let’s run the defeated candidate a second time just to make sure. Now Juan Ciscomani probably has that seat for as long as he wants.
So the Democrats tag the GP spoiler, wring their hands and cry why oh why won’t these people do what is right?
Who is even listening anymore?
Hey everyone, Arizona Green Party guy here. I just wanted to point a few things out for everyone. 1st, the 1st Amendment gives every citizen freedom of speech, assembly, and petition for redress. These rights can be personified by political candidates/political parties. Every citizen has a 1st Amendment right to run for office and a 1st Amendment right to vote for whomever they want. With that in mind there is no such thing as a spoiler. Spoiler is a narrative of entitlement, and no candidate is entitled to votes. They have to be earned. The latest gallup poll shows 58% of Americans want a 3rd party. https://news.gallup.com/poll/651278/support-third-political-party-dips.aspx So any votes that a 3rd party receives should come as no surprise. The Arizona Green Party like the national Green Party as well as any other 3rd party have their strengths and weaknesses, but essentially these are our fellow Americans exercising their 1st Amendment rights and they don’t need to ask anyone’s permission to do so. You’re free to criticize, but in the end it is up to you to make sure your party/candidate is successful. There are electoral solutions to the “vote splitting” that Democrats and Republicans complain about in regards to competition from other parties. The most popular are Ranked Choice Voting, Approval Voting, and STAR voting. People here can check out FairVote to learn more about Ranked Choice Voting. https://fairvote.org/ People can check out the Center For Election Science to learn more about Approval Voting, https://electionscience.org/ or the Equal Vote Coalition to learn more about STAR Voting. https://www.equal.vote/ Everyone should do their research and support one of these reforms if they wish to allow everyone to compete in elections while mitigating this vote splitting phenomenon. I hope you all have a great day! 🙂
Hi Jon,
Thanks for the lecture on the 1A. Made me feel young again. Like I was back in elementary school. 🙂
I’d love to vote Green, I was all in a few years ago. I’m so tired of voting against the bigger evil.
Ditch con-lady and Putin pal Jill Stein and maybe I’ll take another look.
A speech in Russia, while a lame excuse that shows poor judgement and at best some naiveté, is bad enough, splitting some apps with a guy who starts wars, imprisons political foes, and assassinates people, all while claiming to be against the death penalty and anti-war is some serious bull shit.
And Mike “Flynn Facts” Flynn was there? The MAGA guy?
WTF? Was MBS not available?
If I sound bitter it’s because learning you were conned, which I was by your party, is a shitty feeling.
I’m not exactly sure how you were conned, but I’m sorry you feel that you were. If you don’t like Jill Stein that is fine as well. The Green Party is bigger than any individual. I’d encourage you to look at the Green Party’s platform and see if you agree with it. If you do agree with it then you are welcome to join and help build the Green Party to create the community, state, country, and world you want to see. https://www.gp.org/platform If not there are other parties organizing that could use your support if they suite you; No Labels, Forward Party, The American Solidarity Party, etc.
I am a prime target voter for the Greens: I align strongly with their platform. But the Green Party has long since lost any real appeal it had to progressive voters like me, and its agenda is largely coopted by Democrats in any case. There are some issues it still raises that are useful, but those conversations would be most useful to have INSIDE THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY.
The Green’s main purpose over the last decade has been to throw elections to the GOP. That’s why the Greens get a great deal of their support from Russia and the GOP, not voters. They seem to not have played a decisive spoiler role in the Presidential election this cycle, but I am one of those who would allege Eastwood played spoiler in the CD6 election. She brought nothing to the race but to ensure victory for the pernicious MAGA candidate.
Greens should rebuild and try to win city, county, and state legislative races (especially where there are favorable election rules, such as open primaries and ranked-choice or fusion voting) and only run Congressionals and a Presidential candidate when they actually have built a credible base of local officeholder support, a credible and experienced bench of officeholders, and only in states where they will not foreseeably act as a spoiler. Greens are shitting in their own garden and calling it fertilizer, driving away possible supporters such as myself with nonsensical fantasy elections where they only capture a critical few percent of votes. Who does that help and who does that hurt? It ONLY damages any prospect to achieve their own agenda!
Jill Stein is a pernicious agent of foreign influence and must be left behind by the Greens if they are to regain any credibility. Until then, they are functionally only a spoiler rump, not a real political party. I will never vote Green outside of a local race until they reform.
Interestingly enough the European Green Parties strongly encouraged Jill Stein to drop out of the race. Did she listen? Hell no! Apparently obeisance to Putin is her primary motivator.
Thanks Michael for your thoughts. I used to like the Green Party back then, and even heard Ralph Nader speak in person at UA law school years ago (2000?).But he was more like a bureaucrat than a politician. There were also credible Green candidates back in Hawaii years ago, but no longer.
Please stop. You are only helping the Republicans win.
Eduardo Quintana didn’t help Republican Kari Lake to win, but the Green candidates probably took away votes from the Dems in the Az Corporation Commission races for 3 seats, and also in CD 6.