James Arthur Edgerton, January 30, 1869 (Plantsville, Ohio) - December 3, 1938 (Beverly Hills, Va.)
VP candidate for Prohibition Party (1928)
Running mate with nominee: William F. Varney (1884-1960)
Popular vote: 20,095 (0.05%)
Electoral vote: 0/531
The campaign:
The 1928 Prohibition Party Convention came down to a choice of endorsing the Republican ticket of Hoover/Curtis or to run their own nominees. After hot debate, the Party nominated William F. Varney and James A. Edgerton of Fort Lyon, Va.
Edgerton had actually been a delegate at the neighboring Farmer-Labor Party convention, but apparently in the course of the failed talks of having the two parties combine forces, the Prohibition Party delegates were impressed and nominated the poet as their Vice-Presidential choice. Although Edgerton had actually won a contest for the VP position, he urged the Party to withdraw from the 1928 election and endorse Herbert Hoover. And the California delegation did just that, with Hoover being the Republican/Prohibition Party candidate option on the ballot in that state.
During the campaign Edgerton claimed he was a Democrat running in protest of Al Smith's willingness to repeal Prohibition.
The 1928 platform was brief. It heralded their past successes with promoting Prohibition and being the first party to support women's suffrage but then looked ahead with more or less a single-issue focus. Those who supported endorsing the Republicans made sure there was one very special provision at the very end of the document, and it was nearly put into action:
Seventh: That the Nominees of this Convention shall withdraw on request of the Executive Committee, at any time prior to September first next, and the said Committee is authorized and empowered to substitute other candidates supporting the objective named above.
A news report from Sept. 3, 1928 suggests that the Prohibition Party executives had seriously considered withdrawing the Party from the race and very nearly did so. Some of the pro-Hoover delegates from the earlier Prohibition Party convention were actually undercutting the Varney/Edgerton campaign.
In the end it was much ado about nothing. The Prohibition Party was barely on the radar on Election Day, finishing in 6th place even behind the Socialist Labor Party, and four years later some of the very people who wanted to endorse Hoover were calling him a turncoat.
Election history:
1937 - Governor of Virginia (Prohibition Party) - defeated
Other occupations: poet, author, newspaper and magazine editor, Post Office Department purchasing agent 1913-1920, member of War Industries Board 1917-1919, Federal prohibition director in NJ 1920, President of the National New Thought Alliance 1909-1914, International New Thought Alliance 1915-1923 and in 1934-1937, Presidential Elector for the Prohibition Party in Va. 1932.
Buried: Cedar Hill Cemetery (Suitland, Md.)
Notes:
Was active in the People's Party in the 1890s, Independence Party 1906, Farmer-Labor Party 1920s.
Buried in the same cemetery as Hinton Helper.
Graduated National Normal University (Lebanon, Ohio) 1887
Moved to Michigan in 1887, moved to Nebraska in 1890, was in Denver 1899-1903
Said to be a distant relative of Edwin M. Stanton and inventor Elisha Gray.
Married his second cousin Blanche Edgerton, March 21, 1895.
32nd Degree Mason.
