Cornel West survives Democratic challenge in Wisconsin, will remain on state’s presidential ballot

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Wisconsin Elections Commission voted Tuesday to keep independent presidential candidate Cornel West on the ballot, rejecting a challenge filed by an employee of the Democratic National Committee.

The commission ousted one presidential candidate — independent Shiva Ayyadurai — an anti-vaccine activist who was born in India to parents who weren’t United States citizens. The U.S. Constitution requires presidential candidates to be natural born U.S. citizens.

There will be eight presidential candidates on the ballot in Wisconsin, including Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump. Six other lesser-known candidates will also be on the ballot: West; Green Party nominee Jill Stein; Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who suspended his campaign last week to endorse Trump; Randall Terry of the Constitution Party; Chase Oliver of the Libertarian Party and Claudia De la Cruz of the Socialism and Liberation Party.

Kennedy’s campaign sent the Wisconsin Elections Commission a letter dated Friday asking that his name be removed from the ballot. Although Kennedy has said he would try to remove his name from the ballot in battleground states, he has made clear that he wasn’t formally ending his bid and said his supporters could continue to back him in the majority of states where they are unlikely to sway the outcome.

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No one challenged Kennedy’s appearance on the ballot. The commission did not discuss his request to be removed.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Monday rejected an attempt by Democrats to remove Stein from the ballot.

The presence of independent and third party candidates on the ballot could be a key factor in a state where four of the last six presidential elections have been decided by between 5,700 votes and about 23,000 votes.

In 2016, Stein got just over 31,000 votes in Wisconsin — more than Trump’s winning margin of just under 23,000 votes. Some Democrats have blamed her for helping Trump win the state and the presidency that year.

Ayyadurai’s candidacy was challenged by Mike Hoffman, an employee of the Republican National Committee.

Ayyadurai was born in India, immigrated to the U.S. at age seven and became a naturalized citizen at 20. That made him eligible to run for other offices, including for the U.S. Senate in Massachusetts in both 2018 and 2020.

Ayyadurai, who represented himself on Tuesday, did not refute the fact that he was born in India, but instead argued that the Wisconsin Elections Commission didn’t have the legal authority to remove him from the ballot.

The commission voted 5-1 to remove him without discussion.

An employee of the Democratic National Committee challenged West’s ballot status, claiming that his nomination papers were not properly notarized. West argued that his nomination papers were substantially in compliance with the law.

The commission rejected the complaint on a 5-1 vote, siding with West.

West, a left-wing academic and progressive activist, is a long-shot presidential candidate. He is at the center of multiple legal and political battles as Democrats and Republicans seek to use the impacts of third-party candidates who could take support from their opponents. A judge in Michigan on Saturday ordered that West be placed on the ballot after he was disqualified.

Republicans and their allies have worked to get West on the ballot in Arizona, Wisconsin, Virginia, North Carolina, Nebraska, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Maine, all in the hope that West will help boost former President Donald Trump’s chances of winning later this year by pulling support from Harris. West does not need to win a state to serve as a spoiler candidate — a few thousand votes in battleground states could be decisive.

Trump won Wisconsin in 2016 by fewer than 23,000 votes and lost it in 2020 by less than 21,000 votes.