Enoch Arden Holtwick, January 3, 1881 (Rhineland, Mo.) – March 28, 1972 (Greenville, Ill.)
VP candidate for Prohibition Party (1952)
Running mate with nominee: Stuart Hamblen (1908–1989)
Popular vote: 73,412 (0.12%)
Electoral vote: 0/531
The campaign:
Overtures were apparently made to Gen. Douglas MacArthur offering the Presidential nomination for the Prohibition Party in Nov. 1951. Mac did something he didn't do with the America First, Christian Nationalist, and Constitution parties (all of whom went ahead and nominated him whether he liked it or not)-- he actually released an official statement declining the honor: "I am not a candidate for the office of president and have no political ambitions of any sort ... While I do not associate myself with some of the principles enunciated by your party, I have always understood and respected the high moral and spiritual tone of its activities."
While the General rejected the offer, another well known character was actively lobbying for the nomination, the Rev. Homer Aubrey Tomlinson. The Party rejected his advances and Tomlinson went on the create the Church of God Party for the 1952 Presidential election.
Meanwhile longtime Prohibition Party office-seeker Enoch Arden Holtwick, a 70-year old educator was the odds-on favorite to win the nomination, having coming close to winning the position in 1947. But singing cowboy star and recording artist Stuart Hamblen, a recovering alcoholic-- who was converted in 1949 at a Billy Graham tent revival-- took the convention by storm when his song It Is No Secret What God Can Do was played. The final delegate tally was close but Holtwick once again missed the nod. This time he was awarded with the nomination as running mate.
The 1952 platform was a bit more centrist than the previous few election cycles. In the age where segregation was still the law in the South, the Prohibition Party did make a stand against racial discrimination. The most glaring thing about this particular platform was the frequent use of the word "deplore," which was associated with the more Right-leaning planks:
Constitutional Government
We are strongly opposed to atheistic communism and every other form of totalitarianism. We deplore their infiltration throughout the nation. We challenge all loyal citizens to work against this menace to civilization. We are convinced that the best safeguard against these dangerous doctrines is to protect the rights of our citizens by enforcing the provisions of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
Free Enterprise
We deplore the current trend toward a socialistic state, with its increasing emphasis upon governmental restraint of free enterprise, regulation of our economic life, and federal interference with individual freedom. We declare ourselves in favor of freedom of opportunity, private industry financed within the structure of the present anti-trust laws, and an economic program based upon sound business practice.
Social Security and Old Age Pensions
We endorse the general principle of social security, including all employed groups. We deplore, however, the widespread current abuses of its privileges and the maladministration of its provisions for political ends, and pledge ourselves to correct these evils.
Their national 0.12% share of the popular vote would be the last time the Party would finish with more than 1/10th of one percent. To their credit they finished 4th in a crowded field, with only the Progressive Party beating them in the third party category.
Out of 20 states where their votes were recorded their strongest finishes were in Indiana (0.78%), Kansas (0.67%), and Alabama (0.43%).
Holtwick would be the Presidential nominee in the next round, 1956.
Election history:
1912 - California State Assembly (Prohibition Party) - defeated
1914 - California State Assembly (Prohibition Party) - defeated
1916 - California State Assembly (Prohibition Party) - defeated
1936 - Treasurer of Illinois (Prohibition Party) - defeated
1938 - US Senate (Ill.) - defeated
1940 - US Senate (Ill.) - defeated
1942 - US Senate (Ill.) - defeated
1944 - US Senate (Ill.) - defeated
1947 - Prohibition Party Presidential nomination - defeated
1948 - US Senate (Ill.) - defeated
1950 - US Senate (Ill.) - defeated
1951 - Prohibition Party Presidential nomination - defeated
1956 - US President (Prohibition Party) - defeated
1960 - Governor of Illinois (Prohibition Party) - defeated
Other occupations: bookkeeper, real estate salesman, educator, President of Wessington Springs Seminary (South Dakota), President of Pacific Junior College (Los Angeles, Calif.), history and political science teacher at Greenville College (Greenville, Ill.)
Buried: Mount Auburn Cemetery (Greenville, Ill.)
Notes:
Winner of the 1948 Senate race was Paul Douglas, of the 1950 Senate race, Everett Dirksen.
Methodist.
Ranks #9 playback.fm's "Most Famous Person Named Enoch"
USC MA 1914, dissertation was entitled The Role of the Third Party in American Politics.
Filed for Gov. of Illinois in 1960 according the newspapers but apparently was not on the ballot?
