Count Jill Stein’s own family among the people who begged her to withdraw from the presidential race.

One of her two sons told me The New York Times last weekend that Stein “does not have the support of the family” when it comes to her “political activities.”

“When she told us in October 2023 that she would start running again, we asked her not to,” the son, who asked not to be named, told the newspaper.

Instead of complying with the request of her closest loved ones, the 74-year-old Green Party candidate is running again – without Real path to victory – and has been portrayed by Democrats as a “spoiler candidate.”

Stein was given that designation by the Dems because she will appear on the ballots in almost every swing state, including Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia and Arizona. The only state where she won’t appear on the ballot is Nevada.

Despite being unapologetically progressive and staunchly against almost everything Trump stands for, Stein has pushed through with her unrealistic presidential bid, even though it likely means taking votes away from Kamala Harris.

This worries many Democrats. Stein has appealed to voters who oppose US aid being funneled to Israel despite the country ignoring the Biden administration’s calls for a ceasefire. If even a few thousand voters in a swing state fill in the bubble next to Stein’s name, that could easily hand Donald Trump a victory on Election Day.

The idea behind that logic is that Stein voters would vote for Harris differently if the Green Party candidate wasn’t on the ballot. Trump himself has proudly acknowledged this, declaring at a rally in June – in the same breath as he called Robert F. Kennedy a “total phony” – that he likes Stein “very much.”

“Do you know why?” Trump asked his audience. “She takes 100 percent of them.”

Democrats have also raised the issue and put together a negative ad targeting Stein ahead of the election. That campaign included plastering billboards in swing states that read: “Jill Stein once helped Trump. Don’t let her do it again.”

Stein did not run in 2020, but received nearly 1.5 million votes nationwide in Trump’s shocking 2016 victory. In key states like Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, Stein’s vote totals exceeded Trump’s margins of victory in that election .

Stein denied in an interview with the American newspaper that she “bears any responsibility for Trump’s fate, then or now.” Times. Yet she has accepted a message of support from a group called ‘Abandon Harris’, which has worked to ensure the VP’s defeat.

“The goal is to punish the vice president,” the group’s founder, Hassan Abdel Salam, said at a rally in Michigan earlier this month. Times reported. Stein was the event’s keynote speaker.

Stein is not ignorant of her role as a spoiler, but she denies that winning over potential Harris voters is the only reason she’s sticking with her campaign.

“I don’t speak in terms of defeating one candidate,” she told the newspaper Times. “But I really understand – for the communities that are being devastated by Kamala Harris and Biden right now – I completely understand why their main directive now is to make it clear that there is a price to be paid for this.”