Pennsylvania’s highest court dealt a final blow to independent candidate Cornel West’s bid to gain access to the state’s presidential ballot.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled Monday that it would uphold a lower court’s ruling that determined West’s candidacy paperwork did not meet the requirement for ballot access.
West’s legal team appealed Commonwealth Court Judge Renee Cohn Jubelirer’s decision after she made the initial injunction against his campaign on Friday. The court sided with Gov. Josh Shapiro’s (D-PA) secretary of state’s office that supported Democratic Party-aligned challenges that West’s Party for Socialism and Liberation’s candidacy paperwork was flawed.
Democrats have fought to keep West off the ballot, as winning the presidential election heavily rides on securing Pennsylvania’s 19 electoral votes. While West holds only a minuscule margin of support in the state, siphoning even a sliver of Democratic support from Vice President Kamala Harris could derail her hopes of winning Pennsylvania this fall. She is in a dead heat with former President Donald Trump to win the battleground state.
West has run a campaign to the left of Harris that is heavily critical of the vice president’s stance on the war in Gaza. Claiming she supports the Israeli “genocide” of Palestinians in Gaza, West has also suggested Harris is complicit with “mass incarceration” and “poverty and wealth inequality” in the United States.
“The sentimental excitement over the new Harris-Walz ticket hides and conceals the corrupt two-party system that is saturated with big money, corporate power, and militaristic policies at home and abroad,” a post pinned to his X platform reads.
The sentimental excitement over the new Harris-Walz ticket hides and conceals the corrupt two-party system that is saturated with big money, corporate power and militaristic policies at home and abroad. The inescapable realities of the barbaric genocide in Gaza, the massive… pic.twitter.com/QhBE0Yc7x3
— Cornel West (@CornelWest) August 7, 2024
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With West’s opposition eliminated, the vice president faces one less obstacle to winning Pennsylvania.
West most recently gained ballot access in Nebraska and Louisiana. He is also on the ballot in swing states Michigan, Wisconsin, Virginia, and North Carolina. Votes for West could also count in battleground state Georgia this November.
