Over the summer, more than 40,000 people in New Jersey voted “uncommitted” in the Democratic presidential primary election, reportedly reflecting a then-mounting unrest spurred by the Biden administration’s handling of the war in Gaza.
Left-leaning students and professors who continued their protest vote in the general election, however, told the The Daily Princetonian that the choice to withhold support for the Harris campaign was motivated by more than just the war in Gaza — including labor, climate change and broad disillusionment with the Harris campaign and the Democratic party.
Even so, Green Party candidate Jill Stein, proved not to be a widely appealing alternative.
Huws Landsberger GS, a New Jersey resident, voted for Jill Stein, citing issues with what he called the Democratic Party’s “incrementalism.”
“I believe that the party is beholden mostly to the interests of Wall Street and the military industrial complex, both of which I strongly disagree with,” he said.
While the war in Gaza factored into Landsberger’s decision, he said he was motivated by a broader anti-war belief.
“We start a lot of wars, and the Democrats are just as bad in that as the Republicans,” he said. “I can’t stand by that.”
Landsberger added that he did not know anyone else who voted for Stein.
Bryce Springfield ’25, the labor coordinator and former president of the Princeton Young Democratic Socialists of America, also voted for Jill Stein.
“I think that this election, we had a unique opportunity to leverage the mass movement going on for Palestinian liberation to pressure the Harris campaign,” he said.
Springfield, who voted in Florida, where Stein received 0.4 percent of the vote, spoke at the Resistencia en Acción New Jersey rally for migrant rights on Nov. 6.
“We can’t expect either party to protect migrants when we saw with our own eyes the callous crackdowns that were happening in Princeton under Democratic administrations at all levels of government,” he said.
In contrast, Nipuna Ginige ’26, a member of Students for Justice in Palestine, reluctantly voted for Harris in Arizona. He outlined a number of issues with the Democratic Party, including their positions on climate change, human rights, and “the ongoing genocide in Gaza.”
“It’s this common belief of we don’t have any sort of real faith in Kamala Harris, in the Democratic Party, and honestly, by extension, the whole system,” he said. “But as activists, we’re going to continue fighting for many things … and under a Harris presidency, it’s easier to do that work.”
History professor Vera Candiani did not vote for anyone at all.
“If there had been a labor party based on the unions … basically driven by the working class in this country, and completely independent from the Democrats and the Republicans — that is, from the parties of capitalism, then I would have voted for them,” she said.
Third party voters that the ‘Prince’ spoke to expressed no regret following the victory of Donald Trump.
“I think that at the end of the day, what [Trump’s win] shows is that the Democratic Party … offered no tangible plan for workers,” Landsberger said regarding why Harris lost. “So I think that these types of policies that they put forward are just not something that I want to support.”
Candiani said that young people should move towards “forming organizations that are not electorally oriented” with two purposes: self-defense for “communities that are going to be coming under attack” as well as providing avenues for change.
Springfield agreed, saying that “voting is probably close to the bottom in terms of most effective ways to engage in politics.”
Candiani also spoke at the Nov. 6 rally and the Nov. 8 walkout in Firestone Plaza. At both events, she denounced the Republican party and Democratic Parties, calling the Democratic Party “genocidal and imperialist” on Nov. 6.
“The Democratic Party has not stood with the working class. It has not stood with the immigrant rights movement. It has not mandated abortion rights into federal law,” she said on Nov. 8.
In Mercer County, 65.5 percent of voters voted for Kamala Harris this election, 3.6 percentage points fewer than 2020. Just one percent voted for the Green Party ticket.
Ben Goldston is a News contributor for the ‘Prince.’
Miriam Waldvogel is an associate News editor and the investigations editor for the ‘Prince.’ She is from Stockton, Calif. and often covers campus activism and University accountability.
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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