Cornel West picks Melina Abdullah, professor and racial justice advocate, as running mate

Independent presidential contender Cornel West announced Melina Abdullah as his 2024 running mate on Wednesday, rounding out his left-wing ticket for the White House. 

In a radio appearance on The Tavis Smiley Show, West said that Abdullah will join his third-party presidential bid as he looks ahead to November.

“I wanted someone whose heart, mind and soul is committed to the empowerment of poor and working people,” West said. “She has a record of deep commitment and investment in ensuring poor and working people are at the center of her vision.”

Abdullah is a professor at California State University in Los Angeles and formerly chaired the Pan-African Studies department. Like West, she is a noted scholar and racial justice advocate.

“I was not expecting the phone call I got last week,” Abdullah said in the segment. “It was the furthest thing from my mind.”

“Immediately my heart just soared. I haven’t felt that kind of life-giving energy since the last child I had,” she said. “My soul and my spirit and it felt as though God was speaking to me said ‘yes’ immediately.”

Abdullah, a Black Lives Matter supporter, also identifies as Muslim. Speaking about what it means to be a Muslim running mate at a time of increased divisions in the country over faith and geopolitics, Abdullah sought to draw parallels between multiple religions.

“When we talk about Islam we talk about people who submit to the will of God,” she said. “Christianity and Islam and every other faith, if you think about the core of who we are as spiritual people, we’re all aligned.”

The decision to put forth his VP choice comes as the general election has pinned President Biden against former President Trump, with fellow Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. also competing for the outsider lane.

West needed to declare a vice president to appear on state ballots before their signature collection deadlines. According to a campaign press release, the 70-year-old philosopher and academic has qualified for four states, including South Carolina, Alaska, Utah and Oregon.

After initially running in the Democratic primary as part of the progressive wing, West then switched to the Green Party, veering farther left, before changing again to become the second Independent in the contest. A Washington outsider in the most literal sense, West has spent the majority of his career in academic and activism spaces, publishing extensively on philosophy and holding multiple advanced degrees, including a Ph.D in the subject from Princeton.

West’s platform, which is more liberal than Biden and Kennedy, has focused on wealth redistribution, corporate overreach and social justice as a way to uplift people from lower socio-economic backgrounds. His slogan centers around three principles: “truth, justice, love.”

“Both of us want to disrupt the narrative that you have only two choices,” Abdullah said about the platform. “We live in a world of abundance,” she added. “We enter this as faithful people.”