I doubt that anyone thinks former Harvard professor and now Princeton University professor emeritus Cornell West has a chance to win the presidency, but he could well pull black and radical leftist votes from the Democrats' nominee.  He says he's running on the ticket of "The People's Party," founded in 2016 to support a Bernie Sanders candidacy that did not happen.

West announced his candidacy on Twitter with a video:

I am running for truth and justice as a presidential candidate for the People’s Party to reintroduce America to the best of itself - fighting to end poverty, mass incarceration, ending wars and ecological collapse, guaranteeing housing, health care, education and living wages for… pic.twitter.com/u3NYGUbG1S

— Cornel West (@CornelWest) June 5, 2023

The black-oriented site The Root summarizes the video's content:

"We're not talking about hating anybody, we're talking about loving, we're talking about affirming, we're talking about empowering those who have been pushed to the margins," he commented. "Because neither political party wants to tell the truth about Wall Street, about Ukraine, about the Pentagon, about Big Tech. Do we have what it takes? We shall see."

The clip also included West talking to Bill Maher about how the only options voters have are "neofascists like brother Trump or milquetoast neoliberals like brother Biden." West is running as a third-party candidate and endorsed Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders in both the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections.

His campaign website is here, featuring a somewhat rabble-rousing style-photo...

...and a program that includes the following:

Create True Democracy

Clean out government corruption and create a true democracy. Get money out of politics and ban corporate lobbying. Enact term limits in Congress and switch to hand-counted paper ballots.

Revitalize Our Economy

Guarantee quality education, housing, a living wage, and paid leave to all. Curb inflation, support unions, and expand Social Security. Fix our infrastructure and forgive all student debt.

Medicare for All

Guarantee health care to all like every other major country on Earth. Ensure comprehensive care including dental, vision, hearing, mental, substance abuse, and long-term. Lower drug prices and abolish medical debt

End the Wars

Bring our troops home and invest those trillions of war dollars into American communities. Support veterans, stop all foreign military aid, close the bases, disband NATO, and ban nuclear weapons globally.

Expand Civil Liberties

Guarantee equal rights to all Americans. Restore free speech, press freedoms, and net neutrality. End surveillance, the drug war, and mass incarceration. Protect choice, stop CBDCs, regulate AI, and break up Big Tech.

Protect the Environment

Clean up pollution in our food, water and air. Tackle climate change and shift to regenerative agriculture. Remove oil and gas subsidies, end drilling on public lands, and invest in clean energy.

I have never taken West seriously as an intellectual.  He left Harvard after being criticized by its president for making rap songs instead of scholarly work and found refuge at Princeton.  He became an emeritus professor there at a relatively young age.

Fox News opinion host Laura Ingraham pointed out last night that he can steal black votes from Biden and that a few of his left-wing populist issues have some appeal to conservative populists as well: