Helen Betty Halyard, November 24, 1950 -
VP candidate for Workers League (aka Workers League Party) (1984)
Running mate with nominee: Edward Winn (1937-1995)
Popular vote: 4341 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538
The campaign:
The Workers League (aka Workers League Party) was formed in 1966. Many members had come from the Socialist Workers Party but did not share the pro-Castro views of the SWP. 1984 was the first time the League entered the arena of Presidential politics although they had run candidates for other offices in the 1970s. Most of their activity was centered in the region of the industrial Rust Belt which in 1984 was in the midst of experiencing the industrial age being transformed into the information age, displacing thousands of workers.
The Workers League Party could be characterized as Trotskyite, international in outlook, and hard line in not working with mainstream parties. In some ways they filled the void left by the Socialist Labor Party in presenting an uncompromising Marxist (and anti-Stalinist) alternative for voters in 1984.
Presidential candidate Edward Winn was a bus mechanic for the NYC Transit Authority. VP nominee Helen Halyard of Hamtramck, Mich. had been a member of the Workers League since 1971. At age 33 during the 1984 campaign she was under the Constitutionally mandated age of 35 to hold the office she was seeking. As the candidates themselves would admit, the 1984 run was more about building the party than winning.
They called for nationalization of the banking system and redistribution of the assets in order to fight unemployment and restore cuts to social programs, 30 hour work week with 40 hour pay, $100 billion public works program, socialized medicine, elimination of the CIA and FBI, and US withdrawal from NATO.
The team was one of the few in US history where both nominees were African American and as such they were frequently asked to comment on the parallel Democratic Party primary Presidential run of Jesse Jackson. "We will never capitulate to any capitalistic candidates," Winn declared, "including Jesse Jackson." Al Sharpton was also included in their roster of capitalistic politicians. This was also in reaction to some other parties on the Left (e.g. Workers World Party) willing to endorse Jackson in the event he gained the nomination. Actually quite a bit of disdain was cast in the direction of the Workers World Party and the Socialist Workers Party.
The Workers League Party attained ballot status in six states, but Halyard was only listed as the VP in half of them, perhaps due to her age or the other two names were considered early filing stand-ins. The Party earned a total of 10,801 votes in the US (0.01%). The Winn/Halyard combination accounted for 4341 of those votes with the percentages being: New Jersey 0.05%, Pennsylvania 0.04%, and Michigan 0.01%.
Halyard remains active to this day in the Socialist Equality Party (the Workers League Party changed their name in the mid 1990s).
Election history:
1974 - US House of Representatives (NY) (Workers League Party) - defeated
1976 - US House of Representatives (NY) (Workers League Party) - defeated
1982 - US Senate (Mich.) (Workers League Party) - defeated
1985 - Mayor of Detroit, Mich. (Nonpartisan) - primary - defeated
1989 - Mayor of Detroit, Mich. (Nonpartisan) - primary - defeated
1992 - US President (Workers League Party) - defeated
1994 - US House of Representatives (Mich.) (Independent) - defeated
1996 - US House of Representatives (Mich.) (Socialist Equality Party) - defeated
Other occupations: Assistant National Secretary for Socialist Equality Party, Workers League Party Presidential Elector 1988
Notes:
Winner of the 1976 race was Charles Rangel.
Winner of the 1985 and 1989 races was Coleman Young.
A competitor and fellow runner up in the 1989 race was John Conyers.
Competitors in the 1996 race included John Conyers (winner) and Willie Mae Reid.
Wikipedia and some other secondary sources state Halyard was the 1988 Workers League VP
nominee but primary sources all show Barry Porster as the 1988 VP.
