Former Harvard professor says he’s running for president
Cornel West, a prominent scholar and progressive activist, announced Monday that he is running for president as a candidate for the People’s Party.
West, who left his teaching post at Harvard University in 2021 following a tenure dispute, said on Twitter that he is running “for truth and justice” and to “reintroduce America to the best of itself — fighting to end poverty, mass incarceration, ending wars and ecological collapse, guaranteeing housing, health care, education and living wages for all!”
“I enter in the quest for truth. I enter in the quest for justice. And the presidency is just one vehicle to pursue that truth and justice — what I’ve been trying to do all of my life,” West, dressed in a black tuxedo, said in a video announcement with upbeat music in the background.
On its website, the People’s Party describes itself as a “major new independent party that will guarantee health care, housing, quality education, and peace to all.”
West has a long history of activism as a scholar. Following his departure from Harvard, he took a position at Union Theological Seminary in New York. At the time, the deans of the Harvard Divinity School, where West had taught — in addition to the Department of African and African American Studies and the law school — said he had “made an enormous contribution to our curriculum and to our capacity to address issues of racial justice in the United States and around the world.” West is also listed as a professor emeritus at Princeton University on the school’s website.
In his announcement, West listed his objectives and touched on issues seen as key to voters in the current political landscape, including climate change and abortion.
“I come from a tradition where I care about you,” he said. “I care about the quality of your life. I care about whether you have access to a job with a living wage, decent housing, women having control over their bodies, health care for all, the escalating destruction of the planet, the destruction of American democracy.”
While emphasizing how important it is for people to participate in elections and make their voices heard, West said neither of the two main parties has been truthful about topics like Big Tech, Wall Street, or the Pentagon.
“Do we have what it takes? We shall see. But some of us are going to go down fighting. Go down swinging, with style and a smile, accenting the best in you and trying to tease out the best in me,” he said. “Let’s do it together.”