Mark Stewart is running for president of the United States, but he knows he wont win.

That said, hes officially on the ballot the Vermont Secretary of States office released its official list of presidential primary candidates this week, and Stewarts name is there, along with names like Biden, Bloomberg, Warren, Sanders and Trump.

Im on the ballot to try to make a stink in four states, Stewart said.

Vermont approved his ballot application he submitted a petition with 1,200 names on the list and hell be running in the Democratic primary for sure in New Hampshire and California. Rhode Island is still a hurdle, but hes confident hell make it on that states ballot, too.

Im not doing Connecticut, he said. The ballot access to too hard.

Stewart knows that winning the presidency is unrealistic, but his goal is not actually a victory.

What he wants is for an outsider, for a free-market Libertarian, to voice issues within the primary process, to roll back socialism and try to extinguish the leftist lurch that leaders in the democrat party have.

I dont believe your average Democrat voter really buys into all the big government promises that these televised candidates want, he said.

Stewart is also vying to be the Libertarian Partys choice for vice president, and hopes that running for president will help him be seen as a fighter.

If I have a little cred as a warrior it might help, he said.

But Stewart said his primary goal is to inspire other potential candidates.

I know there will be other candidates for state house seats and maybe even congressional seats that have until now felt stymied, he said. We need more people running for offices. if more candidates are in the mix we get better public servants.

Stewart whose full name is Mark Stewart Greenstein is originally from West Hartford, where he still calls home. He founded and runs an SAT-prep firm, and said he intends to spend no more than $99,900 on his own campaign.

This is not the first time hes run a long-shot campaign for national office. Four years ago, he was on the ballot in Rhode Island, for the sole purpose of beating Hillary Clinton. He received 240 votes, which put him in third place.

The main mission four years ago was not to run for president, but to stop Hillary, he said.

He ran for Senate in New York also for the stated purpose of beating Clinton in 2006. This year, he tried for the 5th Connecticut State Senate District, and garnered 0.5 percent of the electorate, a total of 51 votes.

In 2018 he ran an unsuccessful bid for Connecticut governor, against Ned Lamont. He qualified for the November ballot, but said it did not go well. He received only 0.1 percent of the vote.

In that race, he ran under the Amigo Constitution Party, but Stewart is currently trying to form a new political party he calls EPIC, an acronym for Every Politically Independent Citizen.

The new party will run a convention in August. Stewarts last primary in this election cycle will be when Rhode Islanders go to the polls on April 28, 2020, called the Acela primary. That will give his EPIC party enough time to register any candidates for office who have become disillusioned with the major parties, he said.

As for why hes running as a Democrat, in the Democratic primary, Stewart said its because they need the most help.

They are so wayward in their leadership, he said. They give rise to leftism, which I will define as people who want to take America down.

But the EPIC party will not be choosy when it comes to political affiliation.

This is a beautiful way to offer conservatism as a candidate and not be painted as pro-Trump, he said.

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Yes, there's a candidate for president from Connecticut - CT Insider