CUYAHOGA FALLS: After a scheduling miscue threw a two-hour delay into a planned day of barnstorming Ohio, Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein spelled out her environmental and economic agenda to supporters Friday night at the Cuyahoga Falls Natatorium.
Stein, addressing a crowd of about 250 people that included many self-professed supporters of Bernie Sanders’ failed bid for the Democratic nomination, also discussed solving the refugee crisis, supporting the Black Lives Matter movement and legalizing marijuana. She summarized her Green New Deal proposal, saying she hopes to “create millions of jobs by transitioning to 100 percent clean renewable energy by 2030 and investing in public transit, sustainable agriculture and conservation.”
“A lot of Americans are outraged by the choices we were force-fed,” Stein said.
Joe DeMare, the Green Party’s Ohio candidate for the U.S. Senate, spoke ahead of Stein, focusing on wages and global warming.
DeMare, who works full time as a machinist at an industrial ceramics plant in Perrysburg, said he’s polling at 5 percent against incumbent Republican Sen. Rob Portman and former Gov. Ted Strickland, a Democrat.
“We are hurting. Average Americans, average Ohioans are hurting,” DeMare said. “Since 2008, we’ve all been working as hard as we can, pushing hard, and not getting anywhere.”
When DeMare asked how many Sanders supporters were disappointed by the Democrat dropping out of the primary race against Hillary Clinton, nearly three quarters of the room raised their hands.
Johnny Kotema of Akron was a Sanders supporter — and says he still is — but started looking into Stein even before Sanders dropped out.
“She’s something different,” Kotema said. “She would actually be able to do what she says she’s going to do. I think it’s time for something fresh.”
Other warm-up speakers emphasized the peace that the Green Party embraces in contrast to the hostility between the two dominating political parties. They also rejected the notion that voting for a third party would be throwing away a vote, sparking applause from the crowd.
Stein saved the issue of student loan debt — a hot topic among her supporters — until the end of the night. Many noted the issue as their main motivator, including Leslie Adelman of Chesterland.
“I’ve never voted Green Party,” said Adelman, who was there with her boyfriend, John Ivanec, also of Chesterland. “I always thought it was a waste of a vote, but everything’s a waste right now.”
Adelman said she doesn’t have student loan debt, but she’s seen Ivanec struggle with it.
“I pretty much agree with every part of her platform,” said Robert Monroe of Stow, who also cited student loan debt as a main issue. “I think that’d really stimulate the economy. If the country supports people getting an education, that benefits everyone.”
Flight mix-up
Stein had been scheduled to speak around noon Friday at Capital University near Columbus, but she arrived about two hours late after flying into Cincinnati by accident, students hosting the event told the Columbus Dispatch. Stein is scheduled to return to Cincinnati to speak on Sunday.
Stein graduated from Harvard University and then Harvard Medical School in the 1970s.
As a physician and activist, Stein noted the negative health effects of pollution, pushing for environmental controls that have shaped regulatory action in Massachusetts, where she now lives with her husband.
Running a second time for president, Stein has put her medical profession on hold while she sets out to cure what she describes as a diseased political system, corrupted by moneyed special interests and loose campaign finance rules.
In an average of national polls reported by Real Clear Politics, about 3 percent of voters support Stein. Her numbers are a bit lower in Ohio. Roughly 8 percent support Gary Johnson of the Libertarian Party, the other minor party on the ballot in most states.
Greens believe in social justice, racial and economic equality, reducing student loan debt, combating climate change and other progressive policies. Because liberals are more likely to espouse these ideas, critics question whether Stein’s presence in the national election deprives Clinton of the far-left vote and, in theory, benefits Trump.
The same criticism, however, is made of Libertarians, whose small-government conservatism appeals to non-interventionist Republicans looking to break from the Grand Old Party on social issues like marijuana legalization, abortion and gay rights.
Third-party and independent candidates, as a group, typically pull around 3 percent or less of the popular vote. With so many Ohioans disgusted with politics or disapproving of Clinton or Republican Donald Trump, anti-establishment candidates like Stein and Johnson say it’s their year to flourish.
Theresa Cottom can be reached at 330-996-3216 or tcottom@thebeaconjournal.com. Doug Livingston can be reached at 330-996-3792 or dlivingston@thebeaconjournal.com.