Edward Joseph Silverman, August 2, 1913 (Davidson County, Tenn.) - August 12, 1980 (Kenbridge, Va.)
VP candidate for Conservative Party of Virginia (aka Conservative Party aka Virginia Conservative Party) (1960)
Running mate with nominee: Claiborne Benton Coiner (1912-1963)
Popular vote: 4204 (0.01%)
Electoral vote: 0/537
The campaign:
In sort of a spin on the unpledged electors wave of the 1950s-1960s, the newly formed Conservative Party of Virginia ran a ticket that were pledged electors for other people. Originally the Party nominated Sen. Harry F. Byrd Sr. (D-VA) for President with Sen. Barry M. Goldwater (R-AZ) as his running mate. Both senators asked to be removed from consideration.
So the Party nominated segregation activists C. Benton Coiner for President with Edward J. Silverman as his running mate, making it the literary sounding Coiner/Silverman ticket. The fact that both were residents of Virginia and as such would pose a Constitutional problem if elected didn't seem to bother anyone. Remember, Harry Krajewski and Anna Marie Yezo of the Poor Man's Party had been kept off the ballot in New Jersey in 1960 for that very reason.
Coiner and Silverman pledged that if they won they would instruct their Electors to cast their votes for Byrd and Goldwater in a bid to throw the election into the US House. Goldwater's objection was strong enough that they substituted the pledged VP votes to arch-conservative journalist Thomas Jefferson Anderson (who would become a future third party VP and Presidential nominee himself).
Many conservatives in Virginia, although sympathetic to the new third party's platform, felt the election in Virginia was going to be too close and that Coiner/Silverman might hand the state to JFK, so they expressed their support but their votes still went to Nixon.
Silverman, who was connected with a small weekly newspaper in Blackstone, Va., was the segregationist du jour by virtue of his leading a rousing rally called the Bill of Rights Crusade while exhibiting his gift for oratory in Mar. 1959. Newspapers at the time identified him as a charismatic spokesperson for The Defenders of State Sovereignty. The demonstration, described with terms like "a last ditch effort" and "highly dramatic yet minimally effective" by reporters and historians, brought 5000 angry Virginians to the capitol steps at Richmond and launched Silverman's short 1960-1966 foray into elective politics.
On Election Day their 4204 votes amounted to 0.54% of the Virginia results. Their strongest showing was in Silverman's own Lunenburg County with 3.78%, followed by Orange County 3.00%, Surry County 2.77%, Nottoway County 2.56%. Nixon took the state by a comfortable margin.
C. Benton Coiner committed suicide by hanging, Oct. 3, 1963.
Election history:
1966 - US House of Representatives (Va.) (Conservative Party of Virginia) - defeated
Other occupations: newspaper advertising salesman, worker at Railway Handle Corp., newspaper editor
Buried: Kenbridge Heights Cemetery (Kenbridge, Va.)
Notes:
Sometimes listed as Edward M. Silverman
