The left-wing environmentalist Green Party will hold its presidential nominating convention this weekend in Troy. Members will have the opportunity to support three candidates, including the party’s nominee in 2012 and 2016 — Dr. Jill Stein of Massachusetts.

Stein is the current frontrunner for the Green Party’s presidential nomination. Stein will face Jasmine Sherman, a nonprofit executive from North Carolina, and Jorge Zavala, a businessperson from California. Stein entered the race after Cornel West, a professor and activist, dropped out of the race for the Green Party nomination to run as an independent.

The party has struggled to achieve more than one million votes nationally, achieving that mark in 2016 with Jill Stein and in 2000 with consumer advocate Ralph Nader.

In New York, the party lost its automatic ballot access after the voter threshold was raised under the Cuomo administration. In 2020, the Hawkins-Walker ticket received 32,832 votes, falling behind the Democratic, Republican and Libertarian tickets but besting the Independence Party’s candidate Brock Pierce.