Matthew Albright

The News Journal

Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein called for "real democracy" and an end to the "politics of fear" during a campaign stop in Newark on Tuesday.

Stein told a crowd of about 75 supporters to go out and pitch the party to people like Bernie Sanders supporters, who are disillusioned with the two major parties. She said progressive voters shouldn't buy the argument that voting for a third party is equivalent to voting for Republican Donald Trump.

"We are not talking about splitting the vote, we are talking about flipping the vote," she said. "Democracy does not mean 'who do we hate the most, or who do we fear the most?'"

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Stein is stumping around the country as part of an effort to get a place in the presidential debates.

The rules set by the Commission on Presidential Debates, a non-partisan group that organizes the events, require candidates to get 15 percent in five national polls to get on the stage. Stein and Gary Johnson, the Libertarian Party's candidate, have argued the bar should be lowered so that they can participate.

"People are just desperate for real democracy," Stein said. "And democracy depends upon an open debate."

The crowd cheered many of Stein's policy ideas, like single-payer health insurance, an end to new oil and gas pipelines and nuclear power plants, and the end to the War on Drugs — she said she would pardon all non-violent marijuana offenses.

Stein also got big cheers for her plan to end "debt slavery" by forgiving student loans and making college tuition-free, brushing off criticism of how much that would cost.

"If our fearless leaders — or misleaders — can bail out the crooks who caused the financial crisis, we can find a way to bail out the students," she said.

Stein centered much of her talk around the battle Native American tribes and environmentalists are waging in North Dakota over the Dakota Access Pipeline, which cuts through sites sacred to some local tribes.

Stein participated in some of the protests, saying those fighting the pipeline were "defending humanity and Mother Earth."

Most of the seven Green Party candidates for offices in Delaware attended. David McCorquodale, who is running for a Pike Creek/Newark-area seat in the House of Representatives, urged supporters to vote for the party's local candidates too.

"This year I'm proud to say we have the largest slate of candidates we've ever had," he said.

Bernard August, who is seeking the Pike Creek House seat, said Delaware political leaders have not done enough to "stand up to the big corporations" on tax and environmental issues.

"We should be living in a paradise, for all the money that's being funneled into this state," August said. "We definitely need a new political class in Delaware."

Contact Matthew Albright at malbright@delawareonline.com, (302) 324-2428 or on Twitter @TNJ_malbright.