Estelle Christine DeBates

Estelle Christine DeBates, February 24, 1960 (Sioux Falls, SD) -

VP candidate for Socialist Workers Party (aka Independent) (1992)

Running mate with nominee: James Warren (b ca1952)
Popular vote: 20,823 (0.02%)
Electoral vote: 0/538

The campaign:

It was the second Presidential run in a row for Socialist Workers Party nominee James Warren of Chicago. Warren's running mate in the now much more depleted SWP was Estelle DeBates, a Brooklyn-based staff writer for The Militant, a SWP organ. DeBates was 32 years old, younger than the minimum age mandated by the Constitution for Vice-President. On this basis there were some states that would not allow her name on the ballot, so 1976 VP Willie Mae Reid was brought back to act as a stand-in VP in those jurisdictions.

DeBates, who had grown up on a farm in South Dakota, had been an activist for the pro-choice movement, against the US involvement in Central America, and had already run twice for public office under the SWP banner.

She had no illusions about winning. Debates told a reporter, "The aims of the Communist Manifesto won't be realized overnight. But we want to reach out to the small layer of people who are receptive to our ideas and build the leadership of the working class."

Underlying her sense of internationalism, DeBates spent part of her campaign in other nations  including Canada, North Korea, South Africa, Japan, and Sweden.

In Utah, where Reid was actually listed as the VP on the ballot, DeBates spoke at a rally against the death penalty in connection with a contemporary case: "History has shown it is used against working people. We'll go back to a day when union organizers are executed, fighters for women's rights. These are the people who will be on the death row in the future." However, revealing the SWP bias in favor of Castro, she would not condemn Cuba's use of executions, which she claimed were "extremely rare and are only carried out for extreme acts which endanger the revolution."

In the 1980s the SWP counted US Rep. Bernie Sanders of Vermont as one of their own, but they basically condemned him in the 1992 election due to his endorsement of the Clinton/Gore ticket.

The 1992 election total popular vote results of 23,096 for the SWP would be the last time until 2016 (where they earned 12,467 votes) when the Party finished in the five-figure category. The Warren/DeBates portion of the campaign was on the ballot in seven states + DC and write-ins in six others. In New York they finished with an impressive 4th place out of 11 (0.23%). Other results: New Jersey and North Dakota 0.06% each, Alabama and District of Columbia 0.05% each, Minnesota 0.04%, Vermont 0.03%, Washington 0.02%.

Election history:
1986 - US House of Representatives (Ky.) (Socialist Workers Party) - defeated
1991 - Chicago (Ill.) City Clerk (Socialist Workers Party) - defeated

Other occupations: Staff writer for the Militant, worker in garment and machine tool industries

Notes:
Joined the Young Socialist Alliance in 1982

Willie Mae Reid

Willie Mae Reid, March 27, 1939 (Memphis, Tenn.?) -

VP candidate for Socialist Workers Party (aka Independent) (1976, 1992)

Running mate with nominee (1976): Peter Miguel Camejo Guanche (1939-2008)
Running mate with nominee (1992): James Warren (b ca1952)
Popular vote (1976): 90,986 (0.11%)
Popular vote (1992): 2789 (0.00%)
Electoral vote (1976 and 1992): 0/538

The campaign (1976):

The 1976 Socialist Workers Party ticket named Peter Camejo for President and Willie Mae Reid for VP. Camejo had a special focus and experience in tapping into student unrest on college campuses and Reid was an activist in Chicago for African American and women's civil rights. Both of them reminded progressive voters that just because the Vietnam War had ended and Nixon had resigned there remained a multitude of social and economic problems to solve.

Reid spent time campaigning in Australia and New Zealand, connecting with allied political movements.

The student political activity that had helped several Leftist third parties enjoy a spike in popular votes in the 1960s and early 1970s was already cresting. Those that remained in the battlefield seemed to be growing smaller in number but also more militant, which in turn created more divisions within the Party. Camejo himself was expelled from the SWP by the next Presidential election. There is a considerable body of literature attempting to understand and define the subsequent decline of the SWP with descriptions of inner-Party authoritarianism being a common thread.

1976 remains as the year of the highest number of popular votes ever garnered by the SWP in a Presidential election. On the ballot in 27 states and Washington, DC they placed 7th nationally and outpolled all of the other traditional Leftist third parties. Their best showings were in Virginia 1.05%, New Mexico 0.59%, Mississippi 0.36%, District of Columbia and Massachusetts both 0.32%, and Indiana 0.26%.

Both Camejo and Reid would reappear on Presidential tickets.

The campaign (1992)

James "Mac" Warren, the SWP's 1992 Presidential candidate had a few things in common with Willie Mae Reid including that he was a Chicago-based African American who had run against a member of the Daley family for Mayor. Also, Warren and Reid had previously been on Presidential tickets. Warren was the SWP nominee in 1988.

Warren's running mate in the now much more depleted SWP was Estelle DeBates, a staff writer for The Militant, a SWP organ. DeBates was 32 years old, younger than the minimum age mandated by the Constitution for Vice-President. On this basis there were some states that would not allow her name on the ballot, so Willie Mae Reid was chosen to act as a stand-in VP in those jurisdictions. By 1992 Reid was living in Houston, Tex., possibly having moved there as part of the SWP's 1980s activist relocation program-- not unlike missionary work.

Reid was the official running mate in Illinois, Iowa, New Mexico, Tennessee (her native state), Utah, and Wisconsin. She was considered the write-in SWP VP in Delaware and Ohio. The Warren/Reid team finished strongest in Utah with 0.04%. Warren's total popular vote with both running mates was 23,612 (0.02%).

Other occupations: author, garment worker, office worker, computer programmer, hospital kitchen worker

Election history:
1974 - US House of Representatives (Ill.) (Socialist Workers Party) - defeated
1975 - Mayor of Chicago, Ill. (Socialist Workers Party) - defeated
1985 - Mayor of Houston, Tex. (Nonpartisan) - defeated
1990 - US House of Representatives (Tex.) (Independent) - defeated
1991 - Mayor of Houston, Tex. (Nonpartisan) - defeated
1996 - US House of Representatives (Mich.) (Independent) - defeated

Notes:
Opponents in the 1975 race included Richard Daley (winner) and write-in J. Quinn Brisben. Daley
 had been the running mate with Pigasus in the Youth International Party in 1968 and Brisben would
 be the Socialist Party USA VP in 1976, so the 1975 Chicago Mayoral election had three third party
 vice-presidential candidates in competition. Pretty groovy, eh?
Winner of the 1996 race was John Conyers.
Joined the SWP in 1971.
Some sources give her year of birth as 1937.
Moved to Chicago in 1960.