Vacant, October, 1972 - November 7, 1972
VP candidate for Independent (1972)
Running mate with nominee: Jean Pierre (b ca1905)
Popular vote: 0 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538
The campaign:
There have been plenty of characters running for President without naming a running mate. In fact, the very idea of having a two-person ticket is a matter of custom and not mandated by the Constitution. Usually these solo Presidential candidates brush off the lack of a VP nominee by saying they are still looking for the right person. But occasionally, as in the case with Gracie Allen of the Surprise Party in 1940 who said she would not abide any Vice in her administration, the Presidential candidate will deliberately address and eschew the idea of having a Vice-President. The conscious choice of not having running mate as a matter of principle is worthy of inclusion for the purposes of this blog.
Such was the case in 1972 with an independent Presidential candidate named "Miss Jean Pierre," a self-described former professional dancer and retired legal secretary with 40 years experience in New York City who claimed she had also run in 1964 and in 1968 but I have not found any primary sources to back up that assertion.
Appearing in Iowa late in the campaign season (she arrived by bus), her literature (composed of a half dozen of her poems) had a Concord, NH address. She expressed disdain for politicians and political parties: "I consider politicians one step higher than the criminal."
Her platform and some choice quotes:
She had a "master plan" she refused to reveal for fear of the politicians ruining it. "If they gave me $10 million in cash I would not give them my plan because they would not be able to carry it out properly."
"The people will be glad to make me their dictator after my first six months in the White House."
Congress should eliminated or at least cut in half. "I won't need a Congress."
Instead of long and drawn out Presidential campaigns, all candidates should have a single 15 or 20 minute "audition" one month before the election in front of news media in the US Senate chamber.
And as for the office of Vice-President, she called the position "unnecessary." Hence, no running mate.
The number of write-in votes acquired by Pierre nationally has unfortunately not been recorded.
Election history: none
Other occupations: none
Buried: vanished in thin air
Notes:
Anyone out there have more information?
