‘Plan B’: Green Party’s Jill Stein Reaches Out to Sanders Supporters

Green Party leader Jill Stein is reaching out to supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), presenting herself and her party as a “plan B” for the Vermont Senator’s followers, many of whom remain disgruntled at his decision to endorse Hillary Clinton.

In an interview with NPR, Stein said she and the Green Party are at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia “especially for the Bernie Sanders movement that does not want to go back into that dark night, into the Hillary Clinton campaign, that for so many people represents the opposite of what Bernie was building and what they were building.”

She added, “We are here to provide the support for that campaign. I think so many people learned that you cannot have a revolutionary campaign inside of a counter-revolutionary party. So we are here as plan B for Bernie to ensure that this fight will go on.”

Stein expressed that she “will feel horrible if” either Trump or Clinton is elected as president, and that she feels “most horrible about a voting system that says: Here are two deadly choices, now pick your weapon of self-destruction.”

Leaked DNC emails suggest Democratic Party leaders had colluded to help Clinton defeat Sanders in the primary race. The findings are largely responsible for DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s resignation, effective after the DNC ends.

Meanwhile, Sanders has been attempting to sway his supporters in Clinton’s direction. When he delivered remarks prior to the start of the DNC on Monday, Sanders said “We have got to elect Hillary Clinton,” to which the crowd erupted in boos, and to which he replied, “this is the real world that we live in.”

Many Sanders supporters are not yet ready — and they may never be — to back Clinton.

Laura Hockenberry, a Sanders supporter from Grand Rapids, Michigan, told NPR that she feels “not good” about Sanders’ choice to back Clinton. She added, “I feel like he’s been pushed into a political corner. He hasn’t been able to navigate in any other reasonable way.”

Follow Adelle Nazarian on Twitter @AdelleNaz