United States: Greens become NY's third party after strong left campaign

November 5, 2014
Issue 
Brian Jones and Howie Hawkins. The Green Party Hawkins-Jones gubernatorial ticket in New York won 5%, a four-fold increase in th

Green Party gubernatorial ticket in New York in the November 4 elections — headed by left-wing activist Howie Hawkins for governor and International Socialist Organization activist Brian Jones for lieutenant governor — scored a large rise in the Green vote.

“The Green Party established itself today as the third major party in New York State with its highest vote ever for statewide office,” HowieHawkins.org reported on the result on November 4.

Hawkins and Jones won about 5%, or about 170,000 votes, which was a four-fold increase over the Green Party's 1.3% vote in 2010.

Hawkins said: “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.

“We will run more and more local candidates, building the party even stronger — from the grassroots up. And if [Democratic Governor Andrew] 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.

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

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