Third-party presidential hopeful Dr. Cornel West has announced that activist and professor Melina Abdullah will be his running mate.
West introduced Abdullah as his vice presidential pick during a Wednesday appearance on the Tavis Smiley radio show and podcast, where he called her “one of the great freedom fighters of her generation” and a “lover of the people.”
Abdullah is a leader of the Los Angeles chapter of Black Lives Matter and is a professor of Pan-African Studies at California State University, Los Angeles.
During the announcement, West told Smiley he wanted a running mate whose “heart mind and soul” was “committed to the empowerment of poor and working peoples of all colors.”
Though he’s never held political office, the Princeton professor emeritus has been pitching himself as an alternative for voters weary of major party candidates President Joe Biden and Donald Trump.
Abdullah, who joined later in the interview, also described West’s presidential bid as a way to break from the binary of Republicans versus Democrats.
“Both of us want to disrupt the narrative that you have only two choices,” she explained.
So far, West’s ticket has secured ballot access in Alaska, Oregon, South Carolina and Utah. With those states alone, it’s unclear whether he could have a significant impact as a political spoiler.
West, who is running as an independent after initially declaring he would run with the Green Party, is not the only high-profile alternative candidate competing in 2024.
Though fellow independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has only made it onto the ballot in the state of Utah, polling from The Hill/Decision Desk HQ last week showed him averaging support from around 8% of people surveyed.