Jill Stein Announces Presidential Candidacy on the Green Party Ticket at State House Press Conference

BOSTON/State House - Physician and environmental activist Jill Stein of Lexington announced her candidacy for President of the United States on the Green Party ticket at a press conference outside the State House on Monday. Best known as the 2002 Massachusetts Green-Rainbow Party gubernatorial candidate, Stein hopes to win her national party's nomination and be a progressive voice for working families in the 2012 election.

"I'm running because America deserves a new deal - a Green New Deal that provides a secure future for We the People and the planet we depend on," Stein said early in her prepared remarks. She went on to outline a five-point plan for economic and environmental recovery that included a major public jobs program, a fully taxpayer-funded national health care system, forgiveness on all student debts, a moratorium on home foreclosures, and an end to all US military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Green Party plans to get on the ballot in at least 45 states in 2012, and become a significant force in national politics - despite serious obstacles put in front of "third party" candidates in many states as a barrier to entry. Stein will have to run against at least one other Green Party candidate to secure the party nomination.