Wednesday, April 29, 2020

Georgia Loyce Burkhardt

Georgia Loyce Burkhardt, January 16, 1932 (North Carolina) - December 10, 1998 (Bedford, Ohio)

VP candidate for Independent (1996)

Running mate with nominee: Daniel Steven Burkhardt (1961-2004)
Popular vote: 11 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538

The campaign:

Dan S. Burkhardt and Georgia L. Burkhardt were certified write-in candidates in the state of Ohio, where they lived in the city of Macedonia.

Prior to running for President, Dan Burkhardt had run for Mayor and later City Council in Macedonia, and in 1994 as a write-in for the US Senate. Apparently all of those campaigns ended in defeat.

If I am correctly connecting the dots here, this was a son-mother ticket. Letters to the editor in other years suggest they were a bit Left of center but I could not locate any coverage of their 1996 campaign. The father and husband, Thomas Edward Burkhardt, lived from 1930 to 1980.

In 1992 the Looking Back Party ran Isabell Masters with Walter Ray Master, which I believe is the first mother-son ticket. The Burkhardts were, as far as I can ascertain, the first son-mother ticket.

The first son-father ticket I can locate is William James Barton with dad James William Barton as his running-mate for the Independent Party of America in 1980. The earliest example of a father-son ticket I can find is Jack Richard Moore with his son Jay Richard Moore for VP in the Common Man's Party (1988, 1992). Larry Brant Sargeant had his brother Perry David Sargeant as the VP for the American Freedom Party (1976). William Gahres' brother-in-law, Joseph F. Loughlin, had the second spot for the Down With Lawyers Party (1980). Frank Taylor of the United American Party (1976) had his wife's uncle Henry Albert Swan as a running-mate. Eugene Arthur Hem asked his sister Joanne C. Roland, to be his VP for the Third Party (1992). Isabell Masters ran with her son Walter as VP in 1992 in a mother-son for the Looking Back Party. In 1996 and 2000 she ran with her daughters as VP.

I'm sure there are many other family ticket combinations I am missing.  

On Election Day the Burkhardt/Burkhardt ticket finished with 11 popular votes. In the event they had won the election there would have been a Constitutional problem since they were residents of the same state.

Election history: none

Other occupations: housewife

Buried: Northfield Macedonia Cemetery (Northfield, Ohio)

Notes:
Born under the name Georgia Rogers.