John Anderson Brooks, June 3, 1836 (Mason County, Ky.) – February 3, 1897 (Memphis, Tenn.)
VP candidate for Prohibition Party (1888)
Running mate with nominee: Clinton B. Fisk (1828-1890)
Popular vote: 249,819 (2.20%)
Electoral vote: 0/401
The campaign:
The 1888 Prohibition Party platform extended beyond the alcohol issue. They included statements supporting anti-polygamy, pro-civil service, recognizing the Sabbath as a civil institution, and preventing those who are convicts, inmates or physically dependent to immigrate into the country. They also endorsed suffrage for all races but did not mention gender. Unlike other third parties, the Prohibitionists did not use their platform document to condemn Chinese Americans.
With a campaign slogan of "Dare to do Right," the Fisk/Brooks ticket on the Party's 5th run for the presidency scored the second highest national popular vote in their long history. In a field where seven parties were in competition the Prohibition Party placed third.
They were on the ballot in all the states except for one. Their best showing was in Minnesota (5.82%). This was an election where the popular vote winner Cleveland lost to the electoral vote winner Harrison, and in some states it could be argued the Prohibition Party were the spoilers.
Election history:
1884 - Governor of Missouri (Populist Party/Peoples Party/Prohibition Party) - defeated
Other occupations: Minister in the Disciples Church and then (1895) the Christian Church, President of Prohibition Alliance of Missouri 1880-1884, lecturer, President of Flemingsburg College (Ky.).
Buried: Elmwood Cemetery (Kansas City, Mo.)
Notes:
If elected, would have become President after the death of Fisk July 9, 1890. If elected for another term in 1892, he would have died during his last month in office.
Graduate of Bethany College, Va. (now West Va.) 1856
Was a Whig until the Civil War, then a Democrat prior to 1884.
Grew up on a farm with some slaves and had strong anti-abolitionist views in the late 1850s which he later apologized for and sought redemption in his 1888 acceptance speech for the Prohibition Party VP nomination.
At one point in the Civil War, slipped out of town while a minister in Eminence, Ky. to avoid arrest from the Union Army due to his sympathies to the South. He returned once the excitement had died down.
