Benjamin McLane Spock, May 2, 1903 (New Haven, Conn.) – March 15, 1998 (La Jolla, Calif.)
VP candidate for National Conference for a New Politics (1968)
VP candidate for Peace and Freedom Party (1968)
VP candidate for People's Party (1976)
Running mate with nominee (1968): Martin Luther King (1929-1968)
Running mate with nominee (1968): Dick Gregory (1932-2017)
Running mate with nominee (1976): Margaret Nusom Wright (1922-1996)
Popular vote (1968): 1680 (0.00%)
Popular vote (1976): 49,016 (0.06%)
Electoral vote (1968, 1976): 0/538
The campaign (1968):
In early 1967 several Leftist activists had been attempting to convince Rev. Martin Luther King of making a run for President in 1968. In August 1967 at a convention held by a loose alliance of progressive and civil rights groups called the National Conference for a New Politics, Rev. King and Dr. Benjamin Spock were nominated as a Presidential ticket. The group never met again. King refused to fully embrace the electioneering idea and was assassinated before any effort could be seriously pursued.
Meanwhile, after his unsuccessful run for Mayor of Chicago in 1967 as an independent, comedian and activist Dick Gregory wanted another try at elected office and decided to run for President as an outsider. As he said in an interview during the 1968 campaign, "I feel the two-party system is obsolete. The two-party system is so corrupt and immoral that it cannot solve the problems confronting the masses of people in this country. I did agree to accept the nomination in various states from independent organizations who had already had a position on the ballot and this why I have accepted."
Gregory ran in several states as a write-in or sometimes showed up on the ballot itself, under the banner of multiple political parties, with various running mates. No matter what the platform of the party he was using as a vehicle, Dick Gregory was still Dick Gregory.
When the newly created Peace and Freedom Party held their first chaotic convention, Dick Gregory was outvoted in the nomination process by Black Panther Party leader Eldridge Cleaver. In Pennsylvania and Virginia, Gregory was run under the Peace and Freedom Party banner anyway, with anti-war Dr. Benjamin Spock as his running mate. Spock managed to withdraw from the Pennsylvania ticket, replaced by Mark Lane. This left Virginia as the only state where this team was presented and Spock was considered a "stand-in" until someone else came along. But someone else did not come along.
Before Dr. Spock became known as a Leftist activist, he was already a celebrity as the author of the national best-seller Baby and Child Care (1946). The book came back to haunt him during the Youth Rebellion of the late 1960s/early 1970s, with many on the conservative side blaming Spock's promotion of "permissiveness" as one of the causes of the Generation Gap. Spock regarded these attacks as ad hominem and groundless.
The Gregory campaign placed 5th nationally (outpolling Cleaver) with 47,149 popular votes (0.06%). The Gregory/Spock ticket earned 1680 (0.12%) popular votes in Virginia.
The campaign (1976):
The People's Party was a confederation of minor parties, mostly local. In 1976 those parties included the Peace and Freedom Party (Calif.), Human Rights Party (Mich.), Vermont Liberty Union, and the Bicentennial Reality Party (Wash.)
The Presidential nominee was Margaret Wright, who was radicalized during union activity as a "Rosie the Riveter" worker for Lockheed during WWII. She later became a civil rights activist and by the late 1960s was the Black Panther Party Minister of Education. In 1976 the People's Party nominated Wright for President and Gray Panthers founder Maggie Kuhn (1905-1995), an activist for seniors, as her running mate. Kuhn declined, so the 1972 People's Party Presidential nominee, Dr. Benjamin Spock was selected as the replacement Vice-Presidential choice.
Wright scraped up enough money to make campaign visits in her old Ford station wagon. The ticket was on the ballot in six states. Wright wanted to be on the ballot in the Green Mountain State under the banner of the the Vermont Liberty Union Party (which was running Bernie Sanders for Governor in 1976) but could not file for want of the $1000 fee required.
The final popular vote results for the Wright/Spock ticket: California (Peace and Freedom Party) 0.53%, Michigan (Human Rights Party) 0.10%, Washington (Bicentennial Reality Party) 0.07%, Wisconsin (Independent) 0.04%, Minnesota and New Jersey (both People's Party) 0.03% each. California provided 41,731 of their national 49,016 tally.
Election history:
1968 - Peace and Freedom Party nomination for US President - defeated
1968 - Freedom and Peace Party nomination for US President - withdrew
1972 - Democratic Party nomination for US Vice-President - defeated
1972 - Liberal Party nomination for US President - defeated
1972 - US President (People's Party) - defeated
1980 - Peace and Freedom Party nomination for US President - defeated
Other occupations: doctor, author, honorary co-chair (with Gore Vidal) of the New Party.
Buried: Seaview Cemetery (Rockport, Maine)
Notes:
I am told I was raised by the precepts of Spock's book and here I am running a blog about third party Vice-Presidential candidates so obviously I turned out quite normal.
