U.S. Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein says she's riding a wave of support unlike anything she's experienced in past campaigns -- and is unfazed by warnings that her run could tip the scales in Donald Trump's favor in a tight race.
Speaking to AFP after polls closed in Michigan, where her outspoken criticism of US support for Israel has struck a chord with the battleground state's large Muslim and Arab-American communities, the 74-year-old took aim at Democrats for branding her a "spoiler."
"This is self-serving propaganda," said Stein at a watch party in Dearborn, home to the United States' largest concentration of people of Middle Eastern heritage.
"They're basically trying to blame and shame voters for exercising their values and for participating in the competition that elections are supposed to represent."
Democrat Kamala Harris is locked in an extremely tight race against Trump, including in Michigan, and her supporters fear that Stein will siphon crucial slivers of votes.
But Stein, who previously ran for president in 2012 and 2016 and made two earlier unsuccessful bids for governor of Massachusetts, said her left-wing platform as the "anti-genocide, pro-worker, climate emergency" candidate is resonating with voters like never before.
"I'm not used to people walking up to me on the street -- strangers crying, hugging, and thanking me for trying to save their family," she said, celebrating her diverse coalition of support, which includes Muslim, Jewish, LGBTQ communities, and more.
Stein's platform demands an immediate end to US support for Israel's military actions in Gaza and Lebanon, the lifting of the aid blockade, and the release of all hostages and political prisoners.
- 'Wind at our back' -
She draws strength from her own background.
Growing up in a Reform Jewish household in the shadow of the Holocaust, her community grappled with existential questions: Is there life after genocide? How do you restore faith in the world?
"In my circles, the answer to that was, we affirm life after genocide by resolving that we will not allow this to happen again," she says -- a philosophy that's guided her from a medical career to activism and politics.
"The mother of all illnesses is our sick political system," she added.
While the Green Party aims to crack five percent of the national vote — unlocking around $12 million in federal funds to scale up operations — polling suggests that's a long long shot, with numbers hovering around one percent.
The party has faced uphill battles for ballot access, which Stein blames on Democrats and "their army of lawyers" for deploying underhanded tactics to keep the Greens off ballots.
Still, Stein says attacks from Democratic heavyweights like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez -- who labeled her "not serious" and "predatory" -- and hostility from Democratic-leaning platforms such as The Breakfast Club radio show, have only energized the Green base.
"We have huge work ahead," she acknowledged, but added she's emboldened "that we could prevail against the Democratic smear machine."
"I think the wind is at our back. This is a perfect storm, and we're going to be growing and surging forward from here."