Jill Stein’s own family is among the people who have asked her to withdraw from the presidential campaign.

One of her two sons told me The New York Times Over the weekend, Stein explained that she “doesn’t have the support of her family” in her “political activities.”

“When she told us that she would run again in October 2023, we asked her not to do so,” the son, who did not want to be named, told the newspaper.

Instead of honoring the wishes of her closest relatives, the 74-year-old Green candidate is running again – with a no vote real Path to victory – and was portrayed by the Democrats as a “spoiler” candidate.

Stein received the distinction from Democrats because she will appear on the ballot in nearly all swing states, including Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia and Arizona. The only battleground state where she will not be on the ballot is Nevada.

Although Stein is uncompromisingly progressive and staunchly opposed to almost everything Trump stands for, she has pushed forward with her unrealistic presidential bid, even though it will likely siphon votes away from Kamala Harris.

This makes many Democrats uncomfortable. Stein has appealed to voters who oppose sending U.S. aid to Israel even as the country ignores the Biden administration’s calls for a ceasefire. If even a few thousand voters in a swing state fill out the bubble next to Stein’s name, it could give Donald Trump an election victory.

The idea behind this logic is that Stein voters would otherwise vote for Harris if the Green Party candidate was not on the ballot. Trump has proudly admitted this himself, declaring at a rally in June – in the same breath in which he called Robert F. Kennedy a “total fake” – that he “likes” Stein “a lot.”

“Do you know why?” Trump asked his crowd. “It takes 100 percent away from them.”

The Democrats have also addressed the issue and organized a negative advertising campaign against Stein in the home stretch of the election. That campaign included putting up billboards in every swing state that read, “Jill Stein helped Trump once. Don’t let her do it again.”

Stein did not run in 2020, but received nearly 1.5 million votes nationwide in Trump’s surprise victory in 2016. In key states like Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, Stein’s vote total exceeded Trump’s margin of victory in that election.

Stein denied in an interview with US magazine that she had “any responsibility for Trump’s fate then or now.” Just. Still, she has accepted the support of a group called Abandon Harris, which is committed to defeating the vice president.

“The goal is to punish the vice president,” the group’s founder, Hassan Abdel Salam, said at a rally in Michigan earlier this month Just reported. Stein was the event’s keynote speaker.

Stein is unaware of her role as a spoilsport, but she denies that attracting potential Harris voters is the only reason she is sticking with her campaign.

“I myself am not talking about defeating a candidate,” she told the Just. “But I really understand — for the communities that are being devastated right now by Kamala Harris and Biden — I completely understand why their number one directive right now is to make it clear that this comes with a price.”