Could Green Party’s Jill Stein Be ‘Plan B’ for Unhappy Bernie Sanders Backers?

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By Forward Staff June 20, 2016

Now that Hillary Clinton has wrapped up the Democratic nomination, she can rest easy about Bernie Sanders backers and start worrying about Donald Trump, right?

Not if Jill Stein of the Green Party has anything to say about it.

Stein hopes to be the second Jewish thorn in Clinton’s left side, picking up where Sanders left off in the primary fight.

“(I’m) “a plan B … to continue to fight that revolution,” Stein told Politico about her plan to continue the progressive insurgency.

Stein might not appear to be a serious threat to Clinton at first blush.

But anyone who remembers Ralph Nader in 2000 knows that even a small number of votes could swing a key state away from Clinton and into Donald Trump’s column.

Stein insisted that she is not taking votes away from Clinton — she is offering a better progressive option.

“While it’s horrifying to hear the draconian things that @realDonaldTrump is talking about, we’ve actually seen @HillaryClinton doing them,” she Tweeted last Thursday.

She is beginning to register in the polls as well, at least when the polls mention her.

She won 5 percent in a NBC/SurveyMonkey poll and 4 percent in Ipsos/Reuters, possibly from Sanders supporters not yet ready to drink the Hillary Kool-Aid.

Does her presence in the race hurt Clinton? It’s unclear. The inclusion of Stein in the NBC/SurveyMonkey poll helped trim a 7-point Clinton lead over Trump down to a tighter four. But in Ipsos/Reuters, Clinton’s comfortable 9-point lead was bumped up to 10.

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