TEMPLE, Texas — The clash between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden Tuesday in the first presidential debate left many wondering who else is on the 2020 ballot.
One of those candidates is Howie Hawkins with the Green Party. He is a Marine Corps veteran who served in the Vietnam War. In June he clinched the Green Party nomination. He said the debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden was a train wreck.
"If the Greens had been in there, we have something constructive to contribute,” Hawkins said. "We have real solutions to life or death issues."
Issues like how to handle the Coronavirus, something which Hawkins said neither candidate had a good plan.
"What we've been talking about in our campaign is invoke the Defense of Production Act, get the testing up, the contact tracing up, and isolate those exposed or infected," Hawkins said. "That will suppress community spread. Then we can go back to work or to school safely."
Hawkins said he believes Tuesday’s debate was an example of negative partisanship.
"The Biden supporters aren't so enthusiastic about him, but they hate Trump,” Hawkins said.
Hawkins’ running mate, Angela Nicole Walker, is a veteran and labor activist. Their ticket will appear on the 2020 General Election Ballot in 30 states and territories, including Texas, and will conduct a write-in campaign in 17 other states.
Hawkins said if you are on enough ballots to get most electoral colleges then you should get to debate.
"I think it would have been a lot more constructive,” Hawkins said. “Instead, we got this miserable thing we just witnessed. This was like a bad high school debate. It was embarrassing. I would conclude no one won this. They both lost."
The Green Party is an independent political party that is connected to American social movements and is part of a global green movement that shares key values that include peace and non-violence, ecological wisdom, grassroots democracy and social justice.
Hawkins' media spokesman said that on the night of the debate, his website was overloaded with traffic which caused it to crash.
Dr. Jo Jorgensen is The Libertarian Party Nominee for President. She thinks voters need more voices and better choices.
Jorgensen was nominated to be the Libertarian nominee in May at the party's convention. She is the first woman presidential nominee for the Libertarian Party.
After Tuesday’s debate between Trump and Biden, Jorgensen took to social media to say, "Voters deserve a real choice, not these fake debates between two men who are very similar when it comes to the important issues."
She tweeted that after the debate her campaign saw a spike in contributions and traffic to her website.
Her platform includes cuts to federal spending, bringing home troops, creating a free market in health care, ending drug prohibition and pardoning all nonviolent, victimless drug offenders in federal prison.
Jorgensen’s running mate is Jeremy "Spike" Cohen. Their ticket will appear on the ballot in all 50 states. According to the Libertarian Party, the ticket will also be on the ballot in Washington D.C.
The Libertarian Party was founded in 1971. According to their website, they seek to substantially reduce the size and intrusiveness of government and cut and eliminate taxes at every opportunity. Jorgensen was the libertarian vice-presidential nominee in the 1996 election.
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