Actress Roseanne Barr announced Thursday that she will seek the Green Party’s nomination for president.
“The Democrats and Republicans have proven that they are servants — bought and paid for by the 1% — who are not doing what’s in the best interest of the American people,” Barr said in a statement.
The Green Party will select its presidential candidate during the party’s July 12-15 convention in Baltimore, Md.
In an appearance on “The Tonight Show” last August, Barr mentioned her interest in presidential politics, suggesting she would be the candidate of a new party, the American Green Tea Party.
“I’ll forgive all student loans, all debts,” she told Jay Leno. “There’ll be no more money, no more money systems. Everything will be based on barter and growing and eating vegetables.”
But her candidacy took a serious turn with the Thursday announcement. The Green Party’s nomination would make her a notable left-wing addition to November ballots nationwide.
In 2008 the party nominated former Georgia Democratic Rep. Cynthia McKinney as its candidate for president. But McKinney failed to capture significant momentum, falling far short of consumer advocate Ralph Nader’s performance in 2000, when he played a crucial spoiler role for Democrats.
Also running for the Green Party’s nomination in 2012 is activist Jill Stein.
During the 2008 election, Barr memorably lashed out at television host Oprah Winfrey for endorsing Barack Obama’s candidacy.
“He has no ideas, no plan and nothing to add other than the cynical pacification of the masses with bedtime stories about hope, while calling Unions ‘special interest groups’ that need to be done away with,” Barr said of Obama, adding that he “votes with Bush constantly funding this terrible endless war.”
In 2008, Barr predicted, “When Americans find out that Obama backs right wing corporate racist anti worker bullshit, they will not vote for him, and the victory will go to the most racist right wing republican ever.”
Now, Barr said, she will “barnstorm American living rooms… Mainstream media will be unable to ignore me, but more importantly they will be unable to overlook the needs of average Americans in the run-up to the 2012 election.”
