Bernie Sanders supporters seem to be turning their donations and support to Jill Stein, the Green Party presidential candidate, as her campaign saw a 1,000 percent surge in donations in just 24 hours after Sanders endorsed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for president.
The second-time runner for the presidency Stein said Wednesday that donations to her campaign have increased tenfold in just over 24 hours.
“There’s been an explosion of Berners coming in through every portal of the campaign, and it’s really exciting,” Stein told US Uncut in a phone interview. “There is so much courage out there to stand up to the marching orders handed down by the usual suspects.”
According to US Uncut, the Green Party has received over US$80,000 in contributions since Tuesday and over half of those came from first-time donors.
About 615 of the contributions totalled US$27, which is the same amount that has been solicited by the Sanders campaign over the past months. Stein’s social media accounts on Facebook and Twitter have also seen a surge in growth over the past 24 hours, according to US Uncut.
The progressive Green Party candidate expressed her disappointment with Sanders’ decision to endorse the former first lady and called on his supporters to join her campaign and vote for her instead of Clinton.
“I call on the tens of millions inspired by Bernie Sanders’ call for political revolution, the 60 percent of Americans who want a new major party, and the independents who outnumber both Democrats and Republicans to reject the self-defeating strategy of voting for the lesser evil and join our fight for the greater good,” she said during a livestream on Facebook in response to the endorsement.
A limited poll by The Guardian Wednesday showed that the majority of Sanders supporters will be voting for Stein in November.