Edwin Maurice Cooper, May 12, 1885 (Clay County, Neb.) - February 26, 1971 (Montebello, Calif.)
VP candidate for Prohibition Party (1956)
Running mate with nominee: Enoch Arden Holtwick (1881-1972)
Popular vote: 41,937 (0.07%)
Electoral vote: 0/531
The campaign:
Chairman Lowell H. Coate resigned his office, walked out the 1955 Prohibition Party convention and took about 20 delegates with him in an effort to form a new umbrella third party which became the Pioneer Party. This episode is covered in the Burr McCloskey profile.
Meanwhile, political nomad and retired General Herbert C. Holdridge was searching for a new home. He wanted the Prohibition Party Presidential nomination but settled for the position of running mate alongside Party stalwart Enoch Arden Holtwick. In 1952 Holdridge had been the American Rally nominee for President (without a VP nominee) parallel with his nomination from the American Vegetarian Party. He had a falling out with the AVP and withdrew/was removed from the ticket before the election. Holdridge quit the American Rally Party as well but waited until immediately after the 1952 election to do so. Burr McCloskey, the 1956 Pioneer Party VP nominee, had been Holdridge's 1952 campaign manager for both the AVP and American Rally.
After being the VP nominee for nearly year, Holdridge gained some unwanted publicity for the Prohibition Party when he was ejected from the August, 1956 Republican Party convention for handing out anti-Eisenhower literature described as "virulent" and "scurrilous." It was shortly after that incident he either voluntarily withdrew or was kicked out of the position of running mate for Holtwick. After a scramble the Party selected California attorney and Prohibition loyalist Edwin M. Cooper as the replacement.
Holtwick was 75, Cooper 71. Not quite the oldest combined ages on a Presidential ticket in US history, but close.
The 1956 Party platform was mostly a repeat of the 1952 version, but there was a new section in this one that could be considered quite progressive:
Extension of Democracy
To help perfect our political democracy and extend it to all who live under our flag we urge;
(1) The submission to the people of an amendment to the Constitution to provide for the election of the President and Vice-President directly by the people;
(2) Immediate home rule and the franchise and representation in Congress for the District of Columbia;
(3) Immediate statehood for Alaska and Hawaii;
(4) Encouraging Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam and Samoa to advance as rapdily as possible to complete internal self-government;
(5) We recognize the right of all Indians to full citizenship.
On the ballot in 10 states, their best showings were in New Jersey (0.37%), Kansas (0.35%), and Indiana (0.33%). That doesn't look very exciting but they actually fared better than most of the other third parties in the 1956 Presidential race.
Election history:
1954 - Attorney General of California (Prohibition) - defeated
1958 - Attorney General of California (Prohibition) - defeated
Other occupations: attorney, YMCA leader
Buried: Rose Hills Memorial Park (Whittier, Calif.)
Notes:
Methodist
Sometimes called Edward M. Cooper
Buried in the same cemetery as Lewis Arquette, Ron Glass, William Hopper, Nguyen Coa Ky.
Graduate of USC Law School, passed the bar in 1910.
His opponent in the 1954 AG race was Edmund G. "Pat" Brown.
