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Green Party presidential candidate Dr. Jill Stein is no stranger to presidential elections.

The mother, physician, and environmental-health advocate also represented the Green Party during the 2012 election and currently holds the record for receiving the most votes ever by a woman candidate running for the nation’s highest office.

Dr. Stein joined Roland Martin on NewsOne Now to talk about her bid for the Oval Office and why African-American voters should consider supporting the Green Party presidential ticket in November.

Speaking about the attack Republicans are waging on voting rights across America, Stein said, “We need to restore the Voting Rights Act. Since it was repealed, we’ve seen state after state – voter ID laws that are used to disenfranchise the African-American vote. 

“We’ve seen the closing of voting stations, a repeal of early voting, the things that make it harder for African-Americans in particular to vote,” Stein said.

During their conversation, Dr. Stein explained why casting a ballot for her is not a wasted vote. She detailed the litany of woes America is facing from an economy that is stuck, a labor force that is experiencing slow job growth, down to the economic disparities the African-American community is facing.

The Green Party presidential candidate asked, “Who got hit harder in the Wall Street crash?” Her answer: African-Americans felt the brunt of the economic crash because “the average wealth of the African-American family was slashed – was cut in half.”

Stein also made mention of the systematic racism African-Americans have faced throughout the history of the United States as a major road block for Blacks building wealth and said an “entire generation of young people are locked into student loan debt without the ability to earn their way out of it.

“I am the one candidate in this race that is not taking money from lobbyists, from big corporations, or from super PACs, so I actually have the liberty to stand up for what it is that we really need, and African-Americans in particular really need, as the most disenfranchised group in our society.”

As a solution to the doom and gloom, Stein suggested America needs an “emergency jobs program that guarantees a good wage job to everyone, like the New Deal.”

The Green Party is calling for a “Green New Deal.” Stein said this will also fix the climate change crisis and drew parallels with global climate change to the historic flooding in Louisiana, Hurricane Katrina, and Superstorm Sandy.

Dr. Stein then reminded viewers the Black community “gets hit hardest” and recovers slower than the rest of the nation when disaster strikes.

“I’m here with the liberty to stand up for what everyday people need and especially for what the African-American community needs and that’s not only jobs, it’s free higher education, it’s healthcare as a human right.”

Watch Roland Martin and Dr. Jill Stein discuss her candidacy and the reasons why African-Americans should consider the Green Party a viable option in the 2016 presidential election in the video clip above. Then watch part two of Martin and Dr. Stein’s conversation below, in which the Green Party presidential candidate shares her views on school choice.

PHOTO CREDIT: Getty

Watch NewsOne Now with Roland Martin, in its new time slot on TV One.

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