Clinton loses because of Jill Stein?

by Ed Sawicki - February 12, 2020

Hillary Clinton has blamed her loss, in part, on Green Party candidate Jill Stein. Stein took 1.07 percent of the votes for a total of 1,457,218 votes. The margin that Trump won by in certain congressional districts was less than the number of Stein votes for the district, so Stein had an impact.

However, Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson did far better than Stein. He got 3.28 percent of the votes: 4,489,341 votes. Johnson's votes came primarily from Republican voters.

Johnson’s votes helped Clinton far more than Stein’s votes hurt her.

Had these Republican voters not voted for Johnson and voted for Trump, Clinton's margin would have been far smaller and, conceivably, Clinton could have lost the popular vote.

If Clinton was so concerned about Jill Stein siphoning away too many votes, she could have greatly reduced the threat by embracing those portions of Stein's platform that were, and still are, popular with the American public. This includes Medicare For All, reduced military spending, and Wall Street reform, but these are things that Clinton specifically does not support (privately).

Sources

WAPO, You can blame the electoral college for Trump winning. But don’t blame Gary Johnson and Jill Stein.

WAPO, Gary Johnson helped Hillary. Not by enough, but he did.

Huffington, Why It Doesn’t Make Sense To Blame Gary Johnson For Hillary’s Loss