Rosa Alicia Clemente, April 18, 1972 (New York, NY) -
VP candidate for Green Party of the United States (aka DC Statehood-Green Party aka Mountain Party aka Green-Rainbow Party aka Independent aka Pacific Green Party aka Unaffiliated) (2008)
Running mate with nominee: Cynthia Ann McKinney (b. 1955)
Popular vote: 161,870 (0.12%)
Electoral vote: 0/538
The campaign:
In 2008 the Green Party nominated former US Representative Cynthia McKinney for President. Serving from Georgia 1993-2003, 2005-2007, she found herself frequently operating on the Left side of the Democratic Party. Initially she ruled out running for President but changed her mind in the course of the election season. Her running-mate was Hip-Hop activist Rosa Clemente.
McKinney's political record was a mixed bag for progressives. She took strong positions regarding both domestic and international human rights and was firmly in the anti-war camp. In 2006 she had introduced articles of impeachment against President George W. Bush for abuse of office and unconstitutional actions but it failed to clear the House Judiciary Committee.
But on the other hand McKinney also had some serious baggage. She was inclined to promote various conspiracy theories and by 2008 had been associated with the 9/11 Truthers, a claim that the Dept. of Defense used the chaos of Hurricane Katrina to execute about 5,000 people by a bullet to the head, and was showing the early signs of a mindset that would later accept pizzagate, anti-vaccinations, portions of Holocaust denial, exposing "Zionist shill" operations, and many other alleged plots as fact. She would earn a place in the Encyclopedia of American Loons ("The Democrats' answer to Michele Bachmann, McKinney is really stunningly insane, and despite the good stuff she’s done, she is a real threat to sanity and society"), and Cracked's "The 6 Most Insane People to Ever Run for President." McKinney's supporters responded that painting her as a conspiracy nut was an effort to discredit her and hide the truth.
In 2006 McKinney made national news after she was accused of physically assaulting a Capitol police officer who stopped her entrance to an office building due to her lack of displaying the required credential identification.
Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! interviewed McKinney and Clemente and in her introduction stated, "The Green Party made history last week when it nominated the first all-women-of-color presidential ticket in US history." This is an often repeated claim about the McKinney/Clemente ticket but it is not really accurate. Earlier tickets included: Lenora Fulani with VPs Wynonia Brewington Burke, Mamie L. Moore, and Barbara R. Taylor (New Alliance Party, 1988), Lenora Fulani and Maria Elizabeth Muñoz (New Alliance Party, 1992), Isabell Masters and Shirley Jean Masters (Looking Back Party, 1996), Monica Gail Moorehead and Gloria Estela La Riva (Workers World Party, 1996, 2000), Isabell Masters and Alfreda Dean Masters (Looking Back Party, 2000).
During the Goodman interview, Clemente gave the listeners a little bit of autobiography and her mission--
I mean, thank you for having me, Amy. It’s a humbling experience, first and foremost. But, I mean, I’m a South Bronx Puerto Rican-born girl, 1972. I was in the South Bronx when hip hop, which is still now the voice of multi-racial young people all over the world, began. So I’m humbled, but I’m ready for the work. I’ve been in a great tradition of student activists coming from the State University of New York at Albany in the early ’90s to getting my Master’s at Cornell University under the mentorship of Dr. James Turner and being a community organizer with the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, but again under mentorship of the great late Richie Perez.
So I’m humbled, but I’m also excited, because I feel that many African American, indigenous, Asian, Latino youth in this country, mostly working class, are completely disenfranchised and marginalized from a two-party system. There’s over 40 percent of young people that still have not registered to vote, which shows their dissatisfaction with both the Republicans and Democrats. And I really want to bring the face of what hip hop has always been for me, a voice of the voiceless, the mic that speaks truth to power but also uses these elements to act against the status quo or the powers that be.
The Workers World Party endorsed McKinney in this election rather than running their own candidate. She was also endorsed by Roseanne Barr, Noam Chomsky, and Cindy Lee Miller Sheehan.
McKinney/Clemente were on the ballot in 32 states and theoretically could have won enough votes to achieve the magic 270 Electoral number to take office. They were also write-ins in 17 other states. Their strongest percentages on Election Day were in Louisiana (0.47%), Maine (0.40%), West Virginia (0.33%), Arkansas (0.32%), California (0.29%), Oregon (0.25%), and South Carolina (0.23%). They had earned a little more than 40,000 votes over the previous election for the Greens.
Election history: none
Other occupations: journalist, media consultant, speakers bureau
Notes:
In Nov. 2019 McKinney endorsed Adam Kokesh for the 2020 Libertarian Party Presidential nomination.
