Story highlights

Stein's disdain for the Democratic Party is key to her campaign

She welcomes collaboration with Sanders

(CNN) —

There’s an independent senator – a democratic socialist, no less – with climate change on the brain making a real play for the Democratic nomination against Hillary Clinton, who exudes establishment politics.

What’s the Green Party, which has been railing against the Democratic Party for years, to do in the year of Bernie Sanders?

For Jill Stein, 2012 Green Party presidential nominee and current candidate, the answer seems to be keep on going.

“Forward movement is a good thing, but I always include that it’s not enough, and we have to have a base where we can truly build,” Stein told CNN. “That cannot be done inside of the corporate, establishment political parties.”

Stein’s third party bid for the presidency is centered on student debt, climate change and opposition to the economic and political establishment – also focal points for the Sanders campaign, a similarity Stein readily acknowledged.

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