Valentine Remmel, March 9, 1853 (Pittsburgh, Penn.) - May 9, 1929 (Pittsburgh, Penn.)
VP candidate for Socialist Labor Party (1900)
Running mate with nominee: Joseph F. Malloney (ca. 1865- ?)
Popular vote: 40,943 (0.29%)
Electoral vote: 0/447
The campaign:
The 1900 Socialist Labor platform was more of a general essay than a traditional bullet-point list of statements. The document concluded with this lengthy sentence:
"We, therefore, call upon the wage workers of the United States, and upon all other honest citizens, to organize under the banner of the Socialist Labor Party into a class-conscious body, aware of its rights and determined to conquer them by taking possession of the public powers; so that, held together by an indomitable spirit of solidarity under the most trying conditions of the present class struggle, we may put a summary end to that barbarous struggle by the abolition of classes, the restoration of the land and of all the means of production, transportation and distribution to the people as a collective body, and the substitution of the Co-operative Commonwealth for the present state of planless production, industrial war and social disorder; a commonwealth in which every worker shall have the free exercise and full benefit of his faculties, multiplied by all the modern factors of civilization."
In this election cycle the SLP experienced a huge split, with at least half of their membership joining the more moderate and less ideologically pure Social Democratic Party. Defectors included past SLP candidates Wing, Matchett, and Maguire.
Remmel had been arrested in the campaign for conducting a meeting in the street without a permit.
The SLP was on the ballot in 23 states. Their best results were in Rhode Island (2.52%) and California (2.50%, where they placed third) but in both cases they were not up against any other third party except the Prohibitionists. In states where they competed for votes against the Social Democrats they trailed every time. Yet, their 0.29% share of the national poll was the highest percentage of the popular vote the SLP would ever get in a Presidential election.
Election history:
189-? - Mayor of Pittsburgh, Penn. (Socialist Labor Party) - defeated
1898 - US House of Representatives (Socialist Labor Party) - defeated
1899 - Supreme Court Judge (Penn.) (Socialist Labor Party) - defeated
1900 - Socialist Labor Party nomination for US President - defeated
1910 - US House of Representatives (Socialist Party) - defeated
Other occupations: glass blower
Buried: South Side Cemetery (Pittsburgh, Penn.)
Notes:
Son of German immigrants who arrived in America in 1845.
Started working in a glass factory in 1864 as a child laborer after his father was injured working in a coal mine.
Joined the Socialist Labor Party in 1895.
