West Picks Fellow Professor, Black Lives Matter Activist, as Running Mate

LOS ANGELES — Independent presidential candidate Dr. Cornel West has chosen fellow university professor and Black Lives Matter activist Dr. Melina Abdullah, of California State University, to be his running mate in the 2024 presidential election.

West, the popular author, lecturer and Dietrich Bonhoeffer professor of Philosophy and Christian Practice at Union Theological Seminary in New York, revealed his choice on the nationally syndicated “The Tavis Smiley Show.”

Abdullah, a co-founder of Black Lives Matter Los Angeles, is professor of Pan-African Studies at California State’s Los Angeles campus.

In announcing his selection of Abdullah, he alternately called her one of the “great freedom fighters” and one of the “great love warriors” of her generation.

Smiley immediately asked West to explain his choice.

“I wanted somebody whose heart, mind and soul is committed to the empowerment of poor and working peoples of all colors — even though we always begin on the chocolate side of town, as you know,” the presidential candidate said.

“Melina has a history of longevity … in the struggle. She’s been to jail many times. She’s hit the road many times … [and] she has a record of deep commitment and investment in ensuring that poor and working people are at the center of her vision,” West said.

“Putting it another way, I wanted to run with someone who would put a smile on the face of [voting and women’s rights activist] Fannie Lou Hamer and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., from the grave,” he continued.

“That’s the highest standard,” West said. “That’s not a typical standard of a garden variety politician.”

“I’m talking about somebody,” he said of Abdullah, who “year after year, decade after decade, has been committed to the empowerment of those [Afro-Caribbean political philosopher] Frantz Fanon called ‘the wretched of the Earth.’”

Abdullah has never run for office before and told Smiley that both she and West “want to disrupt the narrative that you have only two choices” when it comes to candidates for president.

“The world tries to tell us that we are tethered to certain ideas that we don’t have to be tethered to, we can be expansive, and imaginative, right?” she asked. 

“We can remember that we live in a world of abundance where people can have all of what they need, and most of what they want,” Abdullah continued. 

“So we’re building a campaign that says you should be able to have just one job and earn enough to pay your rent or mortgage,” she said. “We are saying that we as a nation should have an education system — from preschool to grad school — that should be accessible to everyone.

“And we’re saying, we can have the kind of world where safety comes from building strong communities, not from putting more police on trains and buses and in schools,” Abdullah said.

“We enter this race as people who are thinkers, that’s what we’re paid to do. My actual paycheck comes from teaching and thinking and writing,” she added.

Abdullah said she’s proud of her association with the Black Lives Matter movement and “will never step back from that.”

“I will never step back from saying we must end state-sanctioned violence against Black people and work toward Black freedom,” she said.

But she also quickly pointed out that Black Lives Matter, which currently has 33 chapters across the United States and is adding nine more this year, won’t be endorsing the Cornel/Abdullah ticket or any other.

“Black Lives Matter does not endorse candidates,” she said flatly.

“But the agenda, the Black Lives Matter agenda of ending state-sanctioned violence and building a world where our children and our people can live and walk freely, comes with me into this race,” she said.

“So while Black Lives Matter will not be endorsing me, it’s my prayer and hope that people with Black Lives Matter will come with us,” Addullah said.

Elsewhere in the interview, the newly minted vice presidential candidate said she’s coming into the race with a simple mantra, “Just do the work and live as righteously as possible.”

As he has in a number of venues, West rejected criticism that his progressive, third party candidacy will ultimately prove just effective enough to take crucial votes from President Joe Biden in what’s widely expected to be a precariously close race against former President Donald Trump.

“Trump is leading the country toward a second Civil War. Biden is leading the world toward World War III,” West told Smiley.

“That’s the choice you have if you only are tied to the duopoly. We are providing an alternative,” he said.

On Thursday night, West revisited the subject, during an appearance on “CNN NewsNight.”

“Trump may end up in jail and Biden may run out of gas and do an LBJ thing and pull out and they’ll have to move to the B team as we move to [the Democratic National Convention] in Chicago,” he told anchor Abby Phillip.

“We don’t know,” he said. 

“In light of that uncertainty,” West continued, “what we have to do is be true to our calling — telling the truth, seeking justice and standing in solidarity with oppressed people here and around the world.”

In an email to The Well News, Matt Corridoni, spokesman for the Democratic National Committee, responded by saying, “Despite Cornel West announcing a running mate, our view remains the same: only two candidates have a path to 270 electoral votes, President Biden and Donald Trump.

“The stakes are high and we know this is going to be a close election – that’s why a vote for any third party candidate is a vote for Donald Trump,” Corridoni said.

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