Lawrence A. Holmes, 1952 (Roxbury, Mass.) -
VP candidate for Workers World Party (1980, 1992)
Running mate with nominee (1980): Deirdre Griswold (b. 1937)
Running mate with nominee (1992): Gloria Estela La Riva (b. 1954)
Popular vote (1980): 12,347 (0.01%)
Popular vote (1992): 181 (0.00%)
Electoral vote (1980, 1992): 0/538
The campaign (1980):
The Workers World Party had been around since 1959 but didn't enter the realm of Presidential elections until 1980. They began as a splinter group from the Trotskyist-turning-Castroist Socialist Workers Party. The WWP described themselves as Marxist-Leninist but they should have added Stalinist and Maoist as well. Unlike the SWP, the WWP supported the Soviet crackdown on the Hungarian Revolution, Mao's "Great Leap Forward," the Chinese invasion of Tibet, the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, and the government of North Korea.
During the Iranian Hostage Crisis, which was taking place during the campaign, the WWP Presidential candidate supported Iran. She also defended the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan.
Prior to running candidates for office, the WWP used mass demonstrations as a way to influence the political system. They were perhaps the earliest political party to openly protest the Vietnam War. They were also civil rights activists and took up the cause of soldiers and prisoners for a time.
The nominees for the first Presidential run of the Party were Deirdre Griswold for President and Larry Holmes for VP. Several sources, such as Wikipedia, claim Gavrielle Holmes (b. 1949) was the VP in 1980 but I have seen no primary sources to back that up.
For some reason Left-wing political parties seem to almost enjoy complicating the ballot registration process by presenting nominees who are below the Constitutionally mandated age of 35 for President and Vice-President. In some states this creates a major roadblock so then a stand-in is supplied. Such was the case with Larry Holmes who turned 28 in 1980.
Griswold and Holmes ran as a ticket for the Peace and Freedom Party nomination in California but lost out to Dr. Benjamin Spock.
On the composition of the ticket, Holmes remarked, "We are a likely combination. We get a lot of support. We find that people see a woman and black man as symbolic. The people must be against racism and sexism. We appeal to two large constituencies, women and minorities."
Holmes had earlier been discharged from the US Army as "undesirable" for his anti-war and unionizing activities. In explaining his actions he wrote, "I did it to protest the fact that I have been forced to enter the U.S. military machine which is perpetrating the genocide of the peoples of Indochina and other oppressed peoples around the world."
Although the WWP foreign policy was a tad bit unusual, on the domestic front they were not much different than most other Leftist political parties: gut the Pentagon budget and nationalize the energy industries, then use the money for social services, education, health care, etc. The WWP was also one of the earliest political parties to make Gay rights one of their priorities at the dawn of the Age of AIDS.
The Griswold/Holmes ticket could be found on the ballot in 9 states and DC. In Mississippi they earned 0.27% of the popular votes, in all others they were 0.04% or less.
The campaign (1992):
Holmes ran for President himself in 1984 and 1988, then in 1992 he was back in the role of running mate. In the meantime the WWP had approved of the Chinese government's crackdown at Tiananmen Square, had supported the regime of Nicolae Ceaușescu before he was executed in 1989, and praised Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, the Khmer Rouge, Idi Amin, and Muammar al-Gaddafi.
The Presidential candidate in 1992 was Gloria La Riva, who had been Holmes' VP in the previous two elections, so they basically switched places. La Riva characterized national elections as "just a transfer of power from one rich capitalist to another."
1992 did not seem to be a year where the Party put a lot of energy into a Presidential campaign. They were hopeful of making the ballot in Michigan, but that fell through. The only state where the La Riva/Holmes ticket was an option in the ballot was La Riva's home state of New Mexico where they had 181 votes.
Election history:
1980 - Peace and Freedom Party nomination for Vice-President - defeated
1984 - US President (Workers World Party) - defeated
1988 - Peace and Freedom Party nomination for US President - defeated
1988 - US President (Workers World Party) - defeated
Other occupations: soldier US Army, porter, restaurant worker, mailroom clerk, founder of International ANSWER, founder of Millions for Mumia (Abu Jamal),
Notes:
Not the boxer Larry Holmes.
