Billy Marvin Davis, April 22, 1938 (Bay Springs, Miss.) - July 16, 2018 (Aldie, Va.)
VP candidate for Independent (aka Independent Democrat aka Hawaiians for LaRouche aka Independents for LaRouche aka Independent Party) (1984)
Running mate with nominee: Lyndon LaRouche (1922–2019)
Popular vote: 78,809 (0.09%)
Electoral vote: 0/538
The campaign:
Having attempted to gain the Presidency in 1980 and 1984 via the Democratic Party primaries, Lyndon LaRouche was back as an independent in the 1984 general election. As you might recall he ran for President in 1976 under the banner of the U.S. Labor Party.
His running mate for 1984 was Billy M. Davis, an attorney who was more of a true farmer at heart. Davis had been part of the American Agricultural Movement and had run for Governor of Mississippi as a LaRouche Democrat in the 1983 primary. Davis called himself a "mainline Democrat." During the 1984 Democratic primaries Davis was touted as LaRouche's future Secretary of Agriculture.
LaRouche had recently married, moved to Virginia, and lived in an armed fortress complete with camouflaged armed guards since he claimed he had many enemies out to assassinate him.
LaRouche supported the Reagan administration's Strategic Defense Initiative (aka "Star Wars") and proposed expanding use of lasers (they called it "beam technology") for wartime use. Now solidly and openly shifted to the Right wing to the point of being called fascist by critics, LaRouche had become an ardent anti-Communist and accused Walter Mondale of being a Soviet agent. President Reagan was considered a good man who was being given bad information by the "palace guard." LaRouche also proposed high tariffs, more nuclear power plants, and identified himself as anti-abortion.
Both LaRouche and Davis gave urgent warnings concerning the just-around-the-corner collapse of the world monetary system, the final stages of the decimation of U.S. agriculture, war with the Soviet Union and Nicaragua, and the downfall of Western civilization in general. In early September Davis predicted the Soviets would invade and take over West Germany between October 1st through 14th, 1984. Their public statements brought to mind a doomsday cult, but as the decades went on the End Time dates kept moving farther into the future but seldom beyond three years. Those who opposed LaRouche were deemed insane, drug dealers, homosexuals, or Soviet agents. Hence, I suppose, the extreme security at his estate.
VP Davis was quite active in electioneering. He echoed some of LaRouche's conspiracy theories. For example, Davis claimed one reason President Reagan performed so badly in his televised debate with Mondale was due to White House Chief of Staff James Baker deliberately misleading Reagan so that he would "come off as bumbling." Also, the hand of Kissinger was behind everything. Davis told the media, "Mondale is owned by Kissinger, and Reagan is controlled by Kissinger. So you've got a Kissinger and a Kissinger. What kind of a choice is that?" Before the 1984 election LaRouche's anti-Semitism was more apparent, but during this campaign "Kissinger" became sort of a wink-wink code as his organization soft-pedaled this bigoted aspect of their philosophy.
At one point in the campaign NBC TV First Camera broadcasted an unflattering report on LaRouche describing how he ran his organization like a cult and would likely be arrested on some kind of fraud (which in fact happened before the 1988 election). He apparently had made statements about assassinating President Carter. One ADL critic called him "a small time Hitler." LaRouche sued for defamation but to no avail.
LaRouche purchased half hour chunks of television air time to present his case, a remarkable and expensive feat for any third party. You can find some of these today on Youtube and hear his complex assertions from the man himself if you are interested. This would save me the trouble of trying to repeat it here and pretend to make sense out of his complicated conspiracy theories.
On the ballot in just under 20 states and DC, the LaRouche/Davis ticket placed third in Iowa, North Dakota, Texas, and Virginia (the last state by default, there were no other third parties on the ballot). The highest percentages came from: Virginia 0.62%, Iowa 0.47%, North Dakota 0.41%, Colorado 0.36%, Texas 0.27%, Washington 0.25%, Ohio 0.24%, Arkansas and Louisiana 0.21% each.
On a forum for recovering LaRouche followers, one person made the following contribution in 2018: "In the 1980s, we recruited a real nice guy named Billy Davis from the farm movement. My understanding is that we tore his family apart as investments and retirement funds were liquidated for us. He was our VP candidate and was at one time a big deal in our Leesburg Va operation. Eventually, he lost everything and instead of a nice retirement, had to go to work to just eat and live."
Election history:
1983 - Governor of Mississippi (Democratic) - primary - defeated
Other occupations: US Marine Corps, farmer, attorney, junior high school history teacher, beekeeper
Buried: ?
Notes:
Davis' obituary has no mention of his 1984 VP run.
