Green Party Is Now New York's Third Major Party

Green Party Is Now New York's Third Major Party

The Green Party established itself today as the third major party in New York State with its highest vote ever for statewide office.

The 5 percent vote garnered by the Green gubernatorial ticket of Howie Hawkins and Brian Jones is a four-fold increase over the Green Party's 1.3 percent vote in 2010. The Greens move up to Row D from Row F on the ballot.

The Greens, like the Democrats and Republicans, achieved their ballot status by running their own candidates. The minor parties established their ballot status by riding on the coattails of major party candidates they cross-endorsed.

“We will use tonight's big Green vote to move our progressive agenda. We will continue our campaigns to ban fracking and make New York a world leader in clean energy, fully fund public schools, enact single-payer healthcare, raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, and pass a full public campaign financing bill,” Hawkins said.

“We will run more and more local candidates, building the party even stronger—from the grassroots up. And if Cuomo opens New York to hydrofracking—as we expect he will—we will demand that the legislature ban fracking and run candidates against legislators who don’t vote for the ban,” Hawkins said.

Hawkins noted that the Democrats rule New York cities with little competition from Republicans and the Republicans rule rural areas with little competition from Democrats.

“The Green Party is now the third major party in statewide elections, but it will be the second major party in the cities and rural areas because we will provide electoral competition to incumbents where little now exists,” Hawkins said.

Hawkins said the Greens will run in local elections across the state in 2015 and in state legislative elections in 2016, where one-third of state legislators ran unopposed this year.

“The Green Party will focus in the coming weeks and months on strengthening its local branches to build up its grassroots base for upcoming issue and electoral campaigns,” Hawkins said.

Showing 5 reactions

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  • commented 2014-11-05 12:56:15 -0500
    Delighted to have been able to vote for Green Party candidates.
  • commented 2014-11-05 12:44:07 -0500
    Apparently more voting New Yorkers “got it” that the Green Party is “the real deal” when it comes to a progressive people’s party in New York State.

    The Green Party now has a declared base to serve as an effective force for solutions that affect and matter to most New Yorkers.

    This is a major development in grassroots political activism in the state and will no doubt attract the attention and support of even more New Yorkers, as their dissatisfaction with the incumbent administration grows over the next four years.

    Government FOR the people IS gaining momentum.
  • commented 2014-11-05 10:23:02 -0500
    Took my first leap of faith in this election. My traditional party alliance no longer holds steadfast to my core. I believe we are moving toward a real political machine change
  • commented 2014-11-05 08:54:41 -0500
    There is a Green tide rising, powered by the wisdom of the elders and youthful enthusiasm (and a lot of wisdom too). The times they are a changing. Thank you, Howie, Brian, Ursula, NIkeeta, et al. I am so proud to be in your number.
  • commented 2014-11-05 02:53:02 -0500
    I am proud to have worked for Green Party candidates Howie Hawkins and Brian Jones and am delighted at their great showing! I hope members of the Working Families Party see the futility of acting as an appendage (figleaf?) to the Democratic Party, which insults and betrays progressives with candidates like Governor Andrew Cuomo.