MACON, Ga. — Election day is here the 2024 election cycle, and beyond the two major parties, there are several other candidates on the ballot. Here’s a rundown about the other nominees:
Chase Oliver
Chase Oliver is the presidential nominee for the Libertarian Party in the 2024 election. Oliver was born in Nashville, Tennessee, but currently lives in Atlanta.
He began his political career in the late 2000’s, when he supported Barack Obama’s campaign for president and spoke out against the Iraq War.
Oliver ran for one of Georgia’s senate seats in 2020 and 2022. He lost both times. Following his campaigns for senate, Rolling Stone called him “the most influential Libertarian in America.”
Claudia de la Cruz
Claudia de la Cruz is the presidential nominee for the Party for Socialism and Liberation. De la Cruz was born in New York City, and is the daughter of immigrant parents from the Dominican Republic.
She studied at the City University of New York, and later became a pastor at a UCC church in New York City. She founded the People’s Forum, “a political education space and cultural home for working-class organizers, leaders and intellectuals from all over the country,” per her campaign site.
Cornel West
Cornel West is running for president in the 2024 election as an independent candidate. West was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
He earned a master’s degree from Harvard and a doctorate in philosophy from Princeton. West previously served as the honorary chairman for the Democratic Socialists of America.
West also expressed support for Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders in the leadup to the 2016 election. He also has had ties with the Green Party in the past.
Professionally, West has served as a professor at several Ivy League schools, including Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Dartmouth.
Jill Stein
Jill Stein is the presidential nominee for the Green Party in the 2024 election. Stein, a Chicago native, was also the Green Party’s nominee in the 2012 and 2016 elections.
Stein was a practicing physician before she became a politician, and earned her medical degree from Harvard College. She ran for governor of Massachusetts in 2002 and 2010, losing both times.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. - the nephew of former president John F. Kennedy - has withdrawn from the 2024 presidential election, and endorsed Republican candidate Donald Trump.
He has spent much of the last 40 years as an environmental activist. He served as an attorney for the Riverkeepers organization, and earned his law degree from the University of Virginia after receiving his bachelor’s from Harvard.
Kennedy has questioned the use of vaccines since the COVID-19 pandemic, and one of his campaign slogans was ‘MAHA,’ which stands for ‘make America healthy again.’