FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - February 26, 2017





Jill Stein Responds to Election of Tom Perez to DNC Chair





Jill Stein, 2016 Green Party Presidential candidate, made the following statement after Tom Perez won the election for chair of the Democratic National Committee:

“The election of establishment insider Tom Perez as DNC chair confirms yet again what so many have been thinking: the Democratic Party is unwilling and unable to reform itself.

After the blatant corruption of the 2016 election where the DNC sabotaged the Bernie Sanders campaign to clear the way for Hillary Clinton, for party elites to select a Clinton-linked insider demonstrates an arrogant refusal to even acknowledge the problems that have sent the party’s base streaming towards the exits.

It is now clearer than ever that the Democratic Party has learned no lessons from its catastrophic defeat. To build an America that works for all of us, we urgently need to build a progressive alternative that is independent of both parties of war and Wall Street.

Historically, the kind of systemic change we need has only come about when Americans have organized strong alternative parties outside the two-party establishment.

The Green Party, which practices grassroots democracy and refuses all corporate money, is a welcoming home for Americans who are fed up with both establishment parties.

The #DemExit was only the first step - now it’s time for a #GreenEnter.”

Stein also noted that the DNC election used a modified form of ranked choice voting, in which rounds of voting continue until one candidate has a majority in order to avoid “splitting the vote” among multiple candidates.

“Ranked choice voting in our elections would end the era of fear-based voting for the “lesser evil”, and free voters to vote their values,” said Stein. “If Democrats support ranked choice voting for their internal party elections, they should support it for all elections, from mayor of your town to President of the United States.”