James Lawrence, 1939/1941 -
VP candidate for Socialist Equality Party (2004)
Running mate with nominee: William Van Auken (b. 1950)
Popular vote: 1,859 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538
The campaign:
The Socialist Equality Party did not run a Presidential ticket in 2000, but in 2004 the Party was back on the national scene. The SEP ticket was comprised of veteran members Bill Van Auken of New York and Jim Lawrence of Ohio.
Lawrence was a retired auto worker for General Motors and a member of the United Auto Workers. Some critics felt the ticket would have better been served if Van Auken and Lawrence had flipped their positions on the ballot.
The SEP had the sort of platform consistent with being a Trotskyist party, with a particular emphasis on anti-imperialism. They also had sort of a reputation of not playing well with other groups on the Left and going it alone, similar to the now nearly defunct Socialist Labor Party.
In a round-up essay profiling rival Left-wing political parties in the US in 2004, the Freedom Socialist Party summarized their view of the SEP thusly-- "The Socialist Equality Party is running Bill Van Auken and Jim Lawrence. Best known for the World Socialist Website, the SEP has never made it into the 21st century — barely into the 20th. The party disdains the battles for civil rights, feminism and gay liberation, and says unions are a waste of time. And it has a history of using the bosses' courts to try to destroy other Marxist groups." I found plenty of sources in 2004 where the SEP spoke up for civil rights, but then again the FSP seemed to be writing from some experience of interacting with the SEP.
On the ballot in five states, Van Auken/Lawrence finished with 0.02% in Colorado, Minnesota and New Jersey, and 0.01% in Iowa and Washington.
Election history:
1996 - US House of Representatives (Ohio) (Socialist Equality Party) - defeated
Other occupations: auto worker, union activist
Notes:
His son David Lawrence was a SEP candidate for US Congress in Ohio also in 2004.
The website 4truthseekers.org identified Van Auken in 2004 as a "Reptilian/human hybrid," so there
you have it.
