Jill Stein

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Jill Stein
Stein in 2024
Member of the Lexington Town Meeting from the 2nd Precinct
In office 2005–2010
Personal details
Born	Jill Ellen Stein (1950-05-14) May 14, 1950 (age 74) Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Political party	Green (2002–present)
Other political affiliations	Democratic (1968–2002)
Spouse	Richard Rohrer
Children	2
Education	Harvard University (BA, MD)
Signature
Website	Campaign website

Jill Ellen Stein (born May 14, 1950) is an American physician and activist. She is the Green Party's nominee for president of the United States in the 2024 election, and was previously its candidate in the 2012 and 2016 elections. She was the Green-Rainbow Party's candidate for governor of Massachusetts in 2002 and 2010. Stein is among the list of several women who have run for President of the United States and also one of the few who received over a million votes in the general election behind both Hillary Clinton and Jo Jorgensen.

Born in Chicago and raised in Highland Park, Illinois, Stein graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College in 1973 and from Harvard Medical School in 1979. During her time as a practicing physician, she advocated for the improvement of air quality standards for coal plants. Stein ran her first political campaign running as the Green-Rainbow candidate for Governor of Massachusetts in 2002 losing to Republican Mitt Romney. She ran for the same position again in 2010 this time losing to the incumbent Massachusetts Governor, Democrat Deval Patrick.

Stein first ran for the Office of President of the United States in 2012 selecting Cheri Honkala as her running mate. They lost to the incumbent President and Democrat Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden. She ran for the second time for President in 2016 with running mate Ajamu Baraka, against Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and Republican candidate Donald Trump, the latter of whom won the election.

She is running a third time in the 2024 election against former President Trump and Democratic candidate Vice President Kamala Harris. Stein is running on a campaign which focuses on an anti-war stance, universal healthcare, free public education, an eco-socialist "real Green New Deal", and strong worker rights. Her Vice Presidential running mate is Butch Ware.

This article is part of a series about Jill Stein
Political positions Green New Deal Massachusetts campaigns 2002 gubernatorial election 2006 Secretary of Commonwealth election 2010 gubernatorial election Presidential campaigns 2012 election primaries convention debates 2016 election primaries endorsements convention election recounts 2024 election primaries endorsements convention debates Political party affiliations Green-Rainbow Party Green Party of the United States
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Stein was born in Chicago, Illinois, the daughter of Gladys (née Wool) and Joseph Stein. She was raised in nearby Highland Park, Illinois. Stein was raised in a Reform Jewish household, attending Chicago's North Shore Congregation Israel.^[1]

In 1973, Stein graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College, where she studied psychology, sociology, and anthropology.^[2] She then attended Harvard Medical School and graduated in 1979.^[3] Stein practiced internal medicine for 25 years^[3] at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Simmons College Health Center, and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, which are all located in the Boston area. She also served as an instructor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.^[4]

As a physician, Stein became increasingly concerned about the connection between people's health and the quality of their local environment. She subsequently turned to activism. In 1998, she began protesting the "Filthy Five" coal plants in Massachusetts.^[5][6] Since 1998, she has served on the board of the Greater Boston chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility.^[3] She received Clean Water Action's "Not in Anyone's Backyard Award" in 1998 and its "Children's Health Hero Award" in 2000, Toxic Action Center's "Citizen Award" in 1999, and Salem State College's "Friend of the Earth Award" in 2004.^[7][8][9]

Stein coauthored two reports by the Greater Boston Physicians for Social Responsibility, In Harm's Way: Toxic Threats to Child Development (2000), and Environmental Threats to Healthy Aging (2009).^[10][11] In Harm's Way report republished in the peer-reviewed Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics in 2002.^[12]

In response to lobbyist efforts to block health, environmental and workers protections, Stein advocated for campaign finance reform by working to help pass the Clean Election Law.^[13] The law provided public funding for candidates not receiving large private donations, and was eventually repealed in 2003 by the Democratic party controlled state legislature.^[14] Stein has said that she left the Democratic Party and joined the Green Party when "the Democratic Party killed campaign finance reform in my state".^[5]

In August 2011, Stein indicated that she was considering running for President of the United States with the Green Party in the 2012 general election. In a published questionnaire, she said that a number of Green activists had asked her to run and called the U.S. debt-ceiling crisis "the President's astounding attack on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid—a betrayal of the public interest."^[15] Stein launched her campaign in October 2011.

In December 2011, Ben Manski, a Wisconsin Green Party leader, was announced as Stein's campaign manager.^[16] Her major primary opponents were actress Roseanne Barr and activist Kent Mesplay.^[17] Stein proposed the Green New Deal, a government spending plan intended to put 25 million people to work.^[17] Mesplay called that unrealistic, saying, "This will take time to implement, and lacks legislative support."^[17] Stein became the presumptive Green Party nominee after winning two-thirds of California's delegates in June 2012.^[18][19] Stein was endorsed for president in 2012 by the Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and war correspondent Chris Hedges,^[20] among others. Linguist Noam Chomsky said he would vote for her, but urged those in swing states to vote for Barack Obama.^[21] On July 1, 2012, the Stein campaign reported it had received enough contributions to qualify for primary season federal matching funds. This made Stein the first Green Party presidential candidate ever to have qualified for federal matching funds.^[22][23] On July 11, Stein selected Cheri Honkala, an anti-poverty activist, as her vice-presidential running mate.^[24][25] On July 14, she officially received the Green Party's nomination at its convention in Baltimore.^[26][27]

On August 1, Stein, Honkala and three others were arrested during a sit-in at a Philadelphia bank to protest housing foreclosures on behalf of several city residents struggling to keep their homes.^[28] On October 16, Stein and Honkala were arrested after they tried to enter the site of the presidential debate at Hofstra University while protesting the exclusion of smaller political parties, such as the Green Party, from the debates.^[29] Stein likened her arrest to the persecution of dissident Sergei Udaltsov in Russia.^[30] On October 31, Stein was arrested in Texas for criminal trespass, after trying to deliver food and supplies to environmental activists of Tar Sands Blockade camped out in trees protesting the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline.^[31][32]

The Free & Equal Elections Foundation hosted a third-party debate with Stein and three other candidates on October 19, followed by a debate between Stein and Gary Johnson held on November 5.^[33][34]

During the campaign, Stein repeatedly said that there were no significant differences between Mitt Romney and Barack Obama.^{[35][36][37][better source needed]} She said, "Romney is a wolf in a wolf's clothing, Obama is a wolf in a sheep's clothing, but they both essentially have the same agenda."^[36] She called both of them "Wall Street candidates" asking for "a mandate for four more years of corporate rule".^[35]

On February 6, 2015, Stein announced the formation of an exploratory committee in preparation for a potential campaign for the Green Party's presidential nomination in 2016.^[38] On June 22, she formally announced her candidacy in a live interview with Amy Goodman on Democracy Now!^[39] After former Ohio state senator Nina Turner reportedly declined to be her running mate,^[40] Stein chose human rights activist Ajamu Baraka on August 1, 2016.^[41]

Stein stated during the 2016 campaign that the Democratic and Republican parties are "two corporate parties" that have converged into one.^[42] Concerned by the rise of neofascism internationally and the rise of neoliberalism within the Democratic Party, she has said, "The answer to neofascism is stopping neoliberalism. Putting another Clinton in the White House will fan the flames of this right-wing extremism. We have known that for a long time, ever since Nazi Germany."^[43][44] In August 2016, Stein released the first two pages of her 2015 tax return on her website.^[45][46]

Stein's financial disclosure, filed in March 2016, indicated that she maintained investments of as much as $8.5 million, including mutual or index funds that included holdings in industries that she had previously criticized, such as energy, financial, pharmaceutical, tobacco, and defense contractors.^[47] In response to questions about her finances, Stein said in part: "Sadly, most of these broad investments are as compromised as the American economy—degraded as it is by the fossil fuel, defense and finance industries",^[47] and later characterized the article as a "smear attack" against her.^[48]

On September 7, 2016, a North Dakota judge issued a warrant for Stein's arrest for spray-painting a bulldozer during a protest of the Dakota Access Pipeline. Stein was charged in Morton County with misdemeanor counts of criminal trespass and criminal mischief. Her running mate, Ajamu Baraka, received the same charges.^[49] After the warrant was issued, Stein said that she would cooperate with the North Dakota authorities and arrange a court date. She defended her actions, saying that it would have been "inappropriate for me not to have done my small part" to support the Standing Rock Sioux.^[50][51] In August 2017, she pleaded guilty to misdemeanor criminal mischief and was placed on probation for six months.^[52]

Stein said in an interview with Politico that: "Donald Trump, I think, will have a lot of trouble moving things through Congress. Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, won't ... Hillary has the potential to do a whole lot more damage, get us into more wars, faster to pass her fracking disastrous climate program, much more easily than Donald Trump could do his."^[53][54]

In the same interview, Stein said regarding Trump's business dealings and refusal to release his tax returns: "At least with Clinton, you know, there was some degree of transparency, but what's going on with Trump, you can't even get at, and what he said was that even to clarify 15 out of these 500 deals, these are just like the most frightening mafiosos around the world. He's like—he's a magnet for crime and extortion."^[55]

On Mother's Day Stein tweeted "I agree with Hillary, it's time to elect a woman for President. But I want that President to reflect the values of being a mother. #MothersDay." When this was criticized by a pseudonymous activist on Medium^[56] and on Twitter, Stein said she "was criticizing her record as a war monger."^[57]

Stein's highest polling average in four candidate polls was in late June 2016, when she polled at 4.8% nationally.^[58] Her polling numbers gradually slipped throughout the campaign, consistent with historical trends for minor party candidates;^[59][60] on the eve of Election Day, Stein was at 1.8% in a polling average.^[58]

Stein played a significant role in several crucial battleground states, drawing a vote total in three of them—Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania—that exceeded the margin between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.^[61]

In November 2016, a group of computer scientists and election lawyers including J. Alex Halderman and John Bonifaz (founder of the National Voting Rights Institute) expressed concerns about the integrity of the presidential election results. They wanted a full audit or recount of the presidential election votes in three states key to Donald Trump's electoral college win—Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania—but needed a candidate on the presidential ballot to file the petition to state authorities. After unsuccessfully lobbying Hillary Clinton and her team, the group approached Stein and she agreed to spearhead the recount effort.^[62]

A crowdfunding campaign launched on November 24, 2016, to support the costs of the recount, raised more than $2.5 million in under 24 hours,^[63] and $6.7 million in nearly a week.^[64] On November 25, 2016, with 90 minutes remaining on the deadline to petition for a recount to Wisconsin's electoral body, Stein filed for a recount of its presidential election results. She signaled she intended to file for similar recounts in the subsequent days in Michigan and Pennsylvania.^[65] President-elect Donald Trump issued a statement denouncing the recount request saying, "The people have spoken and the election is over." Trump further commented that the recount "is a scam by the Green Party for an election that has already been conceded."^[66]

On December 2, 2016, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette filed a lawsuit to stop Stein's recount.^[67] On the same day in Wisconsin a U.S. District Judge denied an emergency halt to the recount, allowing it to continue until a December 9, 2016, hearing.^[68] On December 3, 2016, Stein dropped the state recount case in Pennsylvania, citing "the barriers to verifying the vote in Pennsylvania are so pervasive and that the state court system is so ill-equipped to address this problem that we must seek federal court intervention."^[69]

Shortly after midnight on December 5, 2016, U.S. District Judge Mark A. Goldsmith ordered Michigan election officials to hand-recount 4.8 million ballots, rejecting all concerns for the cost of the recount. Goldsmith wrote in his order: "As emphasized earlier, budgetary concerns are not sufficiently significant to risk the disenfranchisement of Michigan's nearly 5 million voters".^[70] Meanwhile, however, the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled that Stein, who placed fourth, had no chance of winning and was not an "aggrieved candidate" and ordered the Michigan election board to reject her petition for a recount.^[71] On December 7, 2016, Judge Goldsmith halted the Michigan recount.^[72] Stein filed an appeal with the Michigan Supreme Court, losing her appeal in a 3–2 decision on December 9, 2016.^[73]

On December 12, 2016, U.S. District Judge Paul S. Diamond rejected Stein's request for a Pennsylvania recount.^[74]

In May 2018, The Daily Beast reported that approximately $1 million of the original $7.3 million had yet to be spent and that there remained uncertainty about what precisely the money had been spent on.^[75]

On December 18, 2017, The Washington Post reported that the Senate Intelligence Committee was looking at Stein's presidential campaign for potential "collusion with the Russians."^[76] The Stein campaign released a statement stating it would work with investigators.^[77]

In December 2018, two reports commissioned by the Senate Intelligence Committee found that the Russian-linked Internet Research Agency boosted and promoted Stein's candidacy through social media posts, targeting African-American voters in particular.^{[78][79][80][81]} After consulting the two reports, NBC News reporter Robert Windrem said that nothing suggested Stein knew about the operation, but added that "the Massachusetts physician ha[d] long been criticized for her support of international policies that mirror Russian foreign policy goals."^[82] Stein was also criticized for dining with Vladimir Putin in 2015 in Moscow sponsored by the Russian state media network RT.^[83] Stein and her VP candidate often appeared on RT, with her VP criticizing NATO as a group of 'Gangster states'.^{[84][85][86][87]}

In an official statement, Stein called one of the reports, the one authored by New Knowledge, "dangerous new McCarthyism" and asked the Senate Committee to retract it, saying the firm was "sponsored by partisan Democratic funders" and had itself been shown to have been "directly involved in election interference" in the 2017 US Senate election in Alabama.^[88]

By July 31, 2018, Stein had spent slightly under $100,000 of the recount money on legal representation linked to the Senate probe into election interference.^[89] In March 2019, Stein's spokesman David Cobb said she had "fully cooperated with the Senate inquiry."^[90]

Stein originally supported activist and scholar Cornel West's 2024 presidential campaign under the Green Party and became his campaign manager.^[91] After West withdrew his bid for the Green presidential nomination in order to instead continue his run for the presidency as an independent, Stein retracted her endorsement for West and said the Green Party would find a nominee elsewhere. She also hinted at a possible bid of her own.^[92]

On November 9, 2023, Stein announced her third bid for president^[93] on X (formerly Twitter), citing her main priorities as being anti-war, paving the way for a Green New Deal, Universal Healthcare, and a "pledge to stop genocide".^[94][95] Having also run in 2016, Stein was described by Robert Tait as having the potential to erode Joe Biden's support in the general election among left-wing voters.^[96][97] The outcome of the 2016 election would not have changed even if all Stein voters had instead voted for Hillary Clinton.^{[98][99][100]}

When announcing her candidacy, Stein described the two-party political system as "broken." She called for prioritizing a "pro-worker, anti-war, climate emergency agenda" in the upcoming election, aiming to bring these issues to the forefront of national discourse.^[101]

Stein has also been an outspoken critic of U.S. foreign policy, particularly regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Following the October 2023 Hamas attack, she condemned Israel's military actions in the Gaza Strip and criticized President Joe Biden for what she described as a failure to intervene against what she termed Israel's "genocidal rampage."^[102] Jill Stein's campaign platform advocates for what they describe as a comprehensive approach to addressing social and economic inequality through the establishment of an Economic Bill of Rights. This includes the rights to a living wage, housing, healthcare, childcare, education, retirement, healthy food, and clean water.^[103][104]

Her platform emphasizes democratic reforms such as automatic voter registration and enhanced voter access, as well as support for proportional representation and ranked-choice voting. Stein also calls for judicial reforms aimed at reducing the influence of lobbying and corporate funding in politics,^{[105][better source needed]} alongside proposed measures for prison reform, which include banning private prisons and addressing police brutality.^{[106][non-primary source needed]} Stein is a proponent of social justice initiatives, advocating for reparations for the Black community,^[107] the recognition of Indigenous American sovereignty, and the protection of immigrant human rights.^{[108][non-primary source needed]}

The 2024 campaign, like Stein's 2016 campaign, has been criticized as a possible spoiler campaign benefitting Donald Trump.^{[109][110][111]}

In September, Alexandra Ocasio Cortez criticized Stein saying, "'All you do is show up once every four years to speak to people who are justifiably pissed off, but you're just showing up once every four years to do that, you're not serious.'"^{[112][113][114]} Peter Rothpletz in The New Republic criticized Stein for the Green party's low membership numbers, for defending another minor party after its leaders were indicted as illegal Russian agents,^[115] for not knowing how many members were in the House of Representatives, and for arguing in a 2016 interview that Hillary Clinton was a greater threat than Donald Trump.^[113]

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In her 2024 presidential campaign announcement video, Stein proposed an "economic bill of rights" that regard employment, health care, housing, food and education as rights.^[104] Stein vows to abolish student debt, ensure free public education and institute "strongly progressive taxation for incomes and wealth".^[116]

On labor rights, Stein's campaign proposes a $25 minimum wage, increased support for unions and increased workers' protections. Stein's platform includes a "Homes Guarantee" to address homelessness, universal rent control, and plans to expand public housing initiatives.^[117]

In 2015, Stein was critical of official employment numbers, saying that unemployment figures were "designed to essentially cover up unemployment," and that the real unemployment rate for that year was around 12–13%.^[118][119] In February 2016, she said that "real unemployment is nearly 10%, 2x as high as the official rate."^[120]

In a 2011 blog post, Stein characterized her "Green New Deal" as comprising "sustainable energy, transportation and production infrastructure".^[121]

Stein said she would fund the start-up costs of the plan with a 30% reduction in the U.S. military budget, returning U.S. troops home, and increasing taxes on stock-market speculation, offshore tax havens, and multimillion-dollar real estate, among other things. In 2012 and 2016 she cited a 2012 study in the Review of Black Political Economy by Rutgers professor Phillip Harvey^[122] showing that the multiplier economic effects of this "Green New Deal" would recoup most of the start-up costs of her plan.^[121]

In September 2016, Stein said she would consider using quantitative easing to establish a universal basic income or a Medicare for all package.^[123]

Financial reform and banking regulation

Stein called the Wall Street bailout an unconscionable^[124] waste.^[125] In 2012, Stein opposed the raising of the debt ceiling, saying that the U.S. should instead raise taxes on the wealthy and make military spending cuts to offset the debt.^[126]

In 2016, Stein said that she supported a new 0.5% financial transactions tax on the sale of stocks, bonds, and derivatives, and an increase in the estate tax to "at least" 55% on inheritances over $3 million.^[127]

During her 2012 and 2016 presidential runs, Stein called for "nationalizing" and "democratiz[ing]" the Federal Reserve, placing it under a Federal Monetary Authority in the Treasury Department and ending its independence.^{[128][129][130][131]}

She supported the creation of nonprofit publicly owned banks, pledging to create such entities at the federal and state levels.^[127] In a 2016 interview Stein said she believed in having "the government as the employer of last resort".^{[132][better source needed]} When asked what this entailed, she said that the idea was not yet fully developed but that a position paper was forthcoming.^{[132][better source needed]} Stein's 2016 platform pledged to guarantee housing but did not offer specifics.^{[128][132][better source needed]}

Stein has argued for "free higher public education".^{[132][better source needed]} Her 2024 campaign platform includes guaranteed public education at all levels, including tradeschools.^[133]

Stein opposes charter schools and has been critical of the Common Core, saying that teachers rather than "corporate contractors" should be responsible for education.^[134]

Technology in education

Stein feels that the move towards computerized education in kindergarten was bad for young children's cognitive and social development, saying, "We should be moving away from screens at all levels of education."^[135] She argues that increasing computerization benefits only device manufacturers, not teachers, children, or communities.^[135]

Health effects of Wi-Fi

In a question-and-answer session, Stein voiced concern about wireless internet (Wi-Fi) in schools, saying, "We should not be subjecting kids' brains especially to that ... We don't follow that issue in this country, but in Europe, where they do, they have good precautions around wireless, maybe not good enough."^[136] Stein later said, "we should listen to what scientific experts are saying and take precautions about how much we expose young children to WiFi and cellphones until we know more about the long-term health effects of this type of low-level radiation."^[137][138]

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times editorial board, Stein clarified that her statements on Wi-Fi were "not a policy statement" and that attention to her statement on Wi-Fi was "a sign of a gotcha political system".^[139]

Debt forgiveness

Stein favors canceling all student loan debt, saying that it could be done using quantitative easing, similar to the Wall Street bailout, without raising taxes.^[140] In this plan, the Federal Reserve could buy up student loans and agree not to collect the debt, thereby effectively canceling it.^[141] Stein has drawn parallels between her student loan proposal and the Wall Street bailout, saying that the US government bought up Wall Street debt and then canceled it. When asked why her plan includes canceling upper-income individuals, Stein responded that higher education "pays for itself" and that education is not a "gift", but a "right", and a "necessity".^{[132][better source needed]}

Stein is critical of the two-party system, and argues for ranked-choice voting as a favorable alternative to "lesser evilism".^[142][143] Calling for "more voices and more choices", the Stein campaign launched a petition demanding that all candidates appearing on a sufficient number of state ballots to be theoretically electable should be invited to participate in the presidential debates.^[144][145] Stein has advocated for campaign finance reform.^[146][147] Central to her campaign is an effort to "get the corrupting influence of private money out of politics" by instituting public financing of elections.^[148] In September 2016, Stein announced support for lowering the voting age to 16.^[149]

Stein says that climate change is a "national emergency"^{[132][better source needed]} and calling it "a threat greater than World War II."^[150] Her platform includes a plan to declare a climate emergency under the National Emergencies Act to help prioritize renewable energy and clean transportation efforts.^[151] Stein has written: "We need climate mobilization comparable to what the US did after WWII."^{[152][non-primary source needed]} She has described the Paris Climate Agreement as inadequate, saying it will not stop climate change.^{[132][better source needed]} She has said that she would "basically override" the agreement and create a more effective one.^{[132][better source needed]}

Stein wants to "treat energy as a human right".^[153] Her platform includes support for a constitutional amendment guaranteeing the right to "clean air, land, and water."^[154]

Regulation

Stein's platform includes the goal of achieving 100% clean renewable energy by 2035.^[155]

Fossil fuels

Stein supports a national ban on fracking on the grounds that "cutting-edge science now suggests fracking is every bit as bad as coal".^{[128][156][157]}

Nuclear power

Stein has spoken against nuclear energy, saying it "is dirty, dangerous and expensive, and should be precluded on all of those counts."^[157] In March 2016, she tweeted, "Nuclear power plants = weapons of mass destruction waiting to be detonated."^[158] In 2012, Stein said, "three times more jobs are created per dollar invested in conservation and renewables. Nuclear is currently the most expensive per unit of energy created."^[159]

Implications

Stein says that she will "ensure that any worker displaced by the shift away from fossil fuels will receive full income and benefits as they transition to alternative work."^[153] She has further argued that moving away from fossil fuels will produce substantial savings in healthcare costs.^[160]

In 2016, Stein has argued that the cost of transitioning to 100% renewable energy by 2030 would in part be recouped by healthcare savings, citing studies that predict 200,000 fewer premature deaths as well as less illness. She has noted that when Cuba lost Soviet oil subsidies it experienced plummeting diabetes (down 50%), CVD (down 30%) and all-cause (down 18%) death rates.^[156]

Stein takes a non-interventionist approach to foreign policy.^[161] At a rally in 2016, she criticized the US's "expanding wars", saying that the US had "already" been bombing seven countries.^[162]

In 2012, Stein favored maintaining current levels of international aid spending.^[163]

Jill Stein's platform, as represented by the Green Party of the United States, rejects "the Zionist concept of an exclusive Jewish homeland at the expense of the indigenous Palestinian population."^[165] Stein's platform advocates for a policy shift in the U.S. government to recognize the equal civil and human rights of all people in the region, irrespective of their religious affiliations.^[165] The platform calls for the U.S. to suspend all military and foreign aid to Israel until it complies with international law including withdrawal from the occupied Palestinian territories and dismantling of all Israeli settlements in the West Bank and of the West Bank separation barrier.^[165]

Stein, who is Jewish, criticizes US support for what she describes as Israeli policies of "apartheid, assassination, illegal settlements, blockades, building of nuclear bombs, indefinite detention, collective punishment, and defiance of international law."^[166] She supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel^[167] and regards Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a "war criminal".^{[168][better source needed]} When asked in September 2016 whether she had a "position on whether a two-state solution is a better solution than a one-state solution", Stein answered by describing limitations of a two-state solution, specifically calling out the geographical fragmentation of Palestine, but that she is "not committing one way or the other at this point."^[156] The Green Party platform Stein is running on in 2024 calls for reaffirming "the right of self-determination for both Palestinians and Israelis, and their right to live in a single undivided secular and democratic state where all residents have full and equal rights, and freedoms."^[165]

In November 2023, Stein released a statement denouncing Israel's invasion of the Gaza Strip and U.S. military funding of Israel.^[169] She condemned Israeli war crimes in Gaza, as well as the Biden administration's role in facilitating them. Stein said that President Joe Biden and the Democratic and Republican leaders are full partners in Benjamin Netanyahu's crimes. She demanded a ceasefire, an end to the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip, humanitarian and medical aid, the release of hostages and political prisoners, and an end to the "occupation" and "apartheid".^[170][171]

Stein wishes to cut U.S. military spending by at least 50%.^[128][172] and would close US overseas military bases. She has said that they "are turning our republic into a bankrupt empire".^[128] She wants to replace the lost military jobs "with jobs in renewable energy, transportation and green infrastructure development"^[153] and to "restore the National Guard as the centerpiece of our defense".^[153]

Stein wants to remove U.S. nuclear weapons from foreign countries.^[173] Stein has been sharply critical of the use of drones, calling them a human rights violation and an "illegal assassination program" saying that they are "off target nine times out of ten."^[174]

According to Stein, the United States should use force only when there is "good evidence that we are under imminent threat of actual attack".^[156] When asked by the Los Angeles Times editorial board whether that standard would have prevented US involvement in World War II, Stein answered, "I don't want to revisit history or try to reinterpret it, you know, but starting from where we are now, given the experience that we've had in the last, you know, since 2001, which has been an utter disaster, I don't think it's benefited us."^[156] Stein criticized the 2003 invasion of Iraq, U.S.-led War in Afghanistan and U.S. involvement in the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen, stating: "We are party to the war crimes that are being committed by Saudi Arabia, who’s using cluster bombs made by us. And we’ve supplied $100 billion worth of weapons to the Saudis in the last decade...It’s against our own laws. The Leahy bill requires that we not sell weapons to human rights abusers."^[175]

When asked whether US should withdraw from all of its mutual defense treaties, Stein answered that the treaties need to "be looked at one by one", mentioning NATO in particular.^[156]

On the subject of NATO, Stein has said that NATO has violated international law in Libya, and that it is part of "a foreign policy that has been based on economic and military domination".^{[132][better source needed]} When asked whether she agreed with Ajamu Baraka's description of NATO as "gangster states", Stein answered that she would not use Baraka's language but that "he means the same thing I'm saying".^{[132][better source needed]}

When asked by The Washington Post about NATO's role in protecting the Baltic states against Russia, Stein responded: "At this point, I'm not prepared to speak to that in detail" but said that NATO has not followed its stated policy after the fall of the Berlin Wall not to move "one inch to the East". She further argued that there has been provocation on both sides and that a diplomatic approach is necessary.^{[132][better source needed]} Stein has said that NATO fights invented enemies in order to provide work for the weapons industry.^[176] Stein accused NATO member Turkey of supporting Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, saying that "we need to convince Turkey, our ally in theory, to close its border to the movement of jihadi militias across its border to reinforce ISIS."^[175]

In a July 2015 interview, Stein said that NATO "pursued a policy of basically encircling Russia—including the threat of nukes and drones and so on." She was asked whether the US should aid the Ukrainian government following the 2014 revolution, to which she responded by advocating for "establishing a neutral Ukraine that would allow Russia to not feel under attack". She said that the US "helped foment a coup against a democratically-elected government", contending that the post-revolution government contained "ultra-nationalists and ex-Nazis".^[177]

Asked in a September 2016 Vox interview about Russian military policy in Crimea and Ukraine, Stein responded, "These are highly questionable situations. Why are we—Russia used to own Ukraine. Ukraine was historically a part of Russia for quite some period of time, and we all know there was this conversation with Victoria Nuland about planning the coup and who was going to take over ... Let's just stop pretending there are good guys here and bad guys here. These are complicated situations. Yeah, Russia is doing lots of human rights abuse, but you know what? So are we."^[123]

Asked in a September 2016 Politico interview if she considered Putin an "incipient despot", Stein responded, "To some extent, yes, but there could be a whole lot worse ... when we needlessly provoke him and endanger him and surround him with war games—you know, this is sort of the Cuban Missile Crisis on steroids, what we are doing to Russia right now, and I don't think this is a good idea."^[178]

In October 2016, Stein characterized the conflict as "the Cuban Missile Crisis in reverse, on steroids". She said that Russia had been "surrounded" with NATO assets.^[175]

In a 2024 interview, Stein condemned Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine and said that Russia was provoked by NATO's enlargement.^[179]

In a 2024 interview by Mehdi Hasan, Stein was asked whether she considers Vladimir Putin a "war criminal who should be on trial".^[180][181] Hasan juxtaposed her past remarks regarding Putin, Bashar al-Assad and Benjamin Netanyahu, repeatedly asking Stein why there had been no remarks from her characterizing Putin or Assad as a war criminal. She referred to John F. Kennedy, responding, "if you want to be an effective world leader, you don't start by name-calling and hurling epithets." She then claimed that there had been no decision by the International Criminal Court regarding Putin.^[181][182] Three days later, Stein's Twitter account posted a statement in response to the interview,^[183] mentioning Putin among "all war criminals".^[184]

On the eve of the 15-year anniversary of the September 11 attacks, Stein called for "a comprehensive and independent inquiry into the attacks," saying that the 9/11 Commission Report contained many "omissions and distortions."^[185] The next day, she said: "I think I would not have assassinated Osama bin Laden but would have captured him and brought him to trial."^[186]

Stein told CNN that she attended the conference to advocate for a ceasefire in the Middle East and to tell Russia to stop its military incursion in Syria.^[187] She has said that her approach to the Syrian Civil War would be to put in place a weapons embargo, freeze funds going to ISIL and other terrorist groups, and push for a peace process leading to a ceasefire.^{[132][better source needed]} Stein is also in favor of taking "far more" than the 10,000 Syrian refugees Obama pledged to take in.^{[132][better source needed]}

East Asia

Stein does not think the U.S. should become involved in territorial disputes in the South China Sea.^[177]

Brexit

Immediately after the UK voted to leave the European Union in June 2016, Stein came out in support of Brexit. Stein posted a celebratory statement on her website, saying the vote was "a victory for those who believe in the right of self-determination and who reject the pro-corporate, austerity policies of the political elites in the EU ... [and] a rejection of the European political elite and their contempt for ordinary people."^[188][189] She later changed the statement (without indicating so), removing words like "victory" and adding the line, "Before the Brexit vote I agreed with Jeremy Corbyn, Caroline Lucas and the UK Greens who supported staying in the EU but working to fix it."^{[188][189][190][191]}

Cuba

After the death of Cuban former communist leader Fidel Castro, Stein tweeted that "Fidel Castro was a symbol of the struggle for justice in the shadow of empire."^[192]

Jill Stein advocates "a welcoming path to citizenship for immigrants."^[128]

Stein is in favor of replacing the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) with a "Medicare for All" healthcare system^[163] and has said that it is an "illusion" that the former is a "step in the right direction" toward single-payer healthcare.^[193]

Stein has been critical of subsidizing unhealthy food products and of "agri-business" for its advertisements encouraging unhealthy eating. She has said that due to agri-business, Greeks no longer have the healthy diets they once did.^[125]

GMOs and pesticides

Stein supports GMO labeling, a moratorium on new GMOs, and the phasing out of existing GMO foods, unless independent research "shows decisively that GMOs are not harmful to human health or ecosystems".^[194][195] Speaking of the health effects of foods derived from GM crops, she has said: "And I can tell you as a physician with special interest and long history in environmental health, the quality of studies that we have are not what you need. We should have a moratorium until they are proven safe, and they have not been proven safe in the way that they are used."^[194]

Commentators have criticized Stein's statements about GMOs, writing that they contradict the scientific consensus, which is that existing GM foods are no less safe than foods made from conventional crops.^[196][197] Among the critics was Jordan Weissmann, Slate's business and economics editor, who wrote in July 2016: "Never mind that scientists have studied GMOs extensively and found no signs of danger to human health—Stein would like medical researchers to prove a negative."^[119]

In Environmental Threats to Healthy Aging (2008), Stein concludes her section on pesticides by saying: "[M]any but not all studies find that acute high-dose and chronic lower-dose occupational exposures to some neurotoxic pesticides are linked to an increased risk of cognitive decline, dementia or Alzheimer's disease."^[198]

In 2000, Stein and her coauthors wrote, "Twenty million American children five and under eat an average of eight pesticides every day through food consumption. Thirty-seven pesticides registered for use on foods are neurotoxic organophosphate insecticides, chemically related to more toxic nerve warfare agent developed earlier this century." They further noted the ubiquity of these pesticides in the home and at schools, citing Schettler et al.^[199] for the claim that "the trend is toward increasingly common exposures to organophosphates. For example, chlorpyrifos detections in urine increased more than tenfold from 1980 to 1990."^[200]

Vaccinations and regulations

In response to a Twitter question about whether vaccines cause autism, Stein first answered, "there is no evidence that autism is caused by vaccines," then revised her tweet to "I'm not aware of evidence linking autism with vaccines."^[201]

Dan Kahan, a professor at Yale who has studied public perception of science, says that it is dangerous for candidates to equivocate on vaccines, "Because the attitudes about vaccines are pretty much uniform across the political spectrum, it doesn't seem like a great idea for any candidate to be anti-vaccine. The modal view is leave the freaking system alone."^[202] Emily Willingham, scientist and contributor at Forbes, described Stein's statements on vaccines as "using dog whistle terms and equivocations bound to appeal to the 'antivaccine' constituency".^[203]

In a later interview at the Green party convention, Stein answered "no" to the question "do you think vaccines cause autism?"^[204] She called this a "nonsense issue, meant to distract people" and likened it to smear campaigns used in previous presidential elections, citing the "Swiftboat issue" or the "birther issue,"^[204] pointing out that in her previous published work on autism and child development issues,^[200] no mention was made of vaccines.^[204]

When asked about vaccines by Jacobin editor Bhaskar Sunkara, Stein responded: "One of the issues I used to work on was reducing mercury exposure. That was an issue at one point in vaccines. That's been rectified," adding, "there are issues about mercury in the fish supply that many low-income people and immigrant communities rely on, and in indigenous communities especially. This is a huge issue and the FDA has refused for decades to regulate and to warn people."^[205]

In an interview with The Washington Post, Stein stated that "vaccines have been absolutely critical in ridding us of the scourge of many diseases," and said that "[t]here were concerns among physicians about what the vaccination schedule meant, the toxic substances like mercury which used to be rampant in vaccines. There were real questions that needed to be addressed. I think some of them at least have been addressed. I don't know if all of them have been addressed."^[206][207]

In July 2018 Washington Post interview, Stein said that vaccines should be approved by a board that people can trust, and "people do not trust a Food and Drug Administration," or Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "where corporate influence and the pharmaceutical industry has a lot of influence." According to The Guardian, eleven members of the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee are medical doctors who work at hospitals and universities, and two work at pharmaceutical companies, GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi Pasteur US. In response, Stein said that "Monsanto lobbyists help run the day in those agencies and are in charge of approving what food isn't safe".^{[206][208][207]}

In an October 21, 2016, interview, producer Bec Gill with the ScIQ YouTube channel asked Stein: "You talk extensively on your concern about corporate influence over U.S. vaccine regulations. My question is, what evidence do you have that corporate influence has caused either the FDA or the CDC to make decisions that endanger American children's health?" Stein offered as evidence Vioxx and Monsanto.^[209]

Black Americans

Stein has deplored what she and others identify as the structural racism of the U.S. judicial and prison system. On Juneteenth in 2016, Stein called for reparations for slavery.^[210]

Stein has promised that "the Green New Deal prioritizes job creation in the areas of greatest need: communities of color" and said that the war on drugs had disproportionately affected communities of color.^[211] In accepting the nomination of the Green party, she reiterated this support, calling for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission "to provide reparations to acknowledge the enormous debt owed to the African American community."^[160]

Asked by The Washington Post whether she agreed with Ajamu Baraka's characterization of President Obama as an "Uncle Tom", Stein replied that it would be better to ask Baraka about his choice of words, but added that he "was speaking to a demographic that feels pretty locked out of the American power structure."^{[132][better source needed]}

Native Americans

Stein has supported the Great Sioux Nation's opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline, and in September 2016 joined protesters in North Dakota. In 2016, both Stein and her running mate, Ajamu Baraka, faced misdemeanor criminal charges for spray-painting bulldozers at the construction site of the pipeline with "I approve this message" and "decolonization" respectively.^[212][213]

In 2012, Vote Smart reported that Stein wanted to "slightly decrease" spending on space exploration. She favored maintaining current levels of spending on scientific and medical research. In 2016, Stein said NASA funding should be increased, arguing that by halving the military budget, more money could be directed towards "exploring space instead of destroying planet Earth."^[163][214]

In her 2016 acceptance speech for the Green Party nomination, she called for "end[ing] the war on whistleblowers, and free[ing] the political prisoners ... Leonard Peltier, Mumia Abu Jamal, Chelsea Manning, Julian Assange, Edward Snowden, Jeffrey Sterling, and Edward Pinkney".^[160] She said that she would have Snowden in her Cabinet if elected.^[215] In an op-ed on the subject of WikiLeaks, Stein argued that Assange was doing what other journalists should be doing but are not, and added that whistleblowers have been increasingly subject to "character assassination" and prosecution during the Obama administration.^[216]

In 2004, Stein ran for state representative for the 9th Middlesex District, which included portions of Waltham and Lexington. She received 3,911 votes (21.3%) in a three-way race, ahead of the Republican candidate but far behind Democratic incumbent Thomas M. Stanley.^[217]

In 2005, Stein set her sights locally, running for the Lexington Town Meeting, a representative town meeting, the local legislative body in Lexington, Massachusetts. Stein was elected to one of seven seats in Precinct 2.^[218] She finished first of 16 candidates, receiving 539 votes (20.6%). Stein was reelected in 2008, finishing second of 13 vying for eight seats.^[219] Stein resigned during her second term to again run for governor.^[220]

Stein ran as the Green-Rainbow Party candidate in the 2002 Massachusetts gubernatorial election with Tony Lorenzen as running mate. She obtained 76,530 votes (3.5%).^[221]

Massachusetts gubernatorial election, 2002^[222]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Republican	Mitt Romney	1,091,988	49.18%	0.8%
	Democratic	Shannon O'Brien	985,981	44.40%	2.2%
	Green-Rainbow	Jill Stein	76,530	3.44%	3.44
	Libertarian	Carla Howell	23,044	1.04%	0.64
	Independent	Barbara Johnson	15,335	0.69%	0.70
	Write-in		1,301	0.07%	0.05
	Blank		26,122	1.17%
Total votes			2,220,301	100.00	+ 4.04

At the Green-Rainbow Party state convention on March 4, 2006, Stein was nominated for Secretary of the Commonwealth. In a two-way race with the three-term incumbent, Democrat Bill Galvin, she received 353,551 votes (17.7%).^[223]

On February 8, 2010, Stein announced her second candidacy for governor.^[225] Her running mate was Richard P. Purcell, a surgery clerk and ergonomics assessor.^[226] In the November 2 general election, Stein finished fourth, receiving 32,895 votes (1.4%), again far behind the incumbent, Democrat Deval Patrick.^[227]

Massachusetts gubernatorial election, 2010^[228]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic	Deval Patrick (incumbent)	1,112,283	48.42	7.21
	Republican	Charlie Baker	964,866	42.00	6.67
	Independent	Tim Cahill	184,395	8.03	1.06
	Green-Rainbow	Jill Stein	32,895	1.43	0.51
	Write-in	All others	2,600	0.11	0.01
Total votes			2,297,039

Stein received 469,015 votes (0.36%), the largest number of votes any woman presidential candidate had received.^[229][230] She received 1% or more of the vote in three states: Maine (1.1%), Oregon (1.1%), and Alaska (1.0%).

Stein received 1% of the national popular vote in the election.^[232] She finished in 4th with over 1,457,216 votes (more than the previous three Green tickets combined) and 1.07% of the popular vote.

Stein is married to Richard Rohrer, who is also a physician. They live in Lexington, Massachusetts, and have two sons.^{[3][235][236]}

In the 1990s, Stein sang in a folk rock duo called Somebody's Sister, alongside Ken Selcer. They released three albums: Somebody's Sister in 1995, Green Skies in 1997 and Circuits to the Sun in 1999.^[237][238]

• Jill Stein at Curlie
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Jill Stein at IMDb 
• Jill Stein 2024 Presidential Campaign Official Platform
• Green Party platform