Ronald Wayne Evans, March 23, 1927 (Michigan) - May 3, 1996 (New York, NY)
VP candidate for U.S. Labor Party (aka United States Labor Party aka Labor Party aka International Development Bank) (1976)
Running mate with nominee: Lyndon LaRouche (1922–2019)
Popular vote: 40,018 (0.05%)
Electoral vote: 0/538
The campaign:
The U.S. Labor Party was one of the more controversial groups to run in 1976. It would be easy to go down a winding rabbit hole attempting to summarize this party that many, including the Cult Education Institute, consider to be more of a cult than a political movement. Instead I'll begin with a personal story.
The first time I learned about the U.S. Labor Party and Lyndon LaRouche was in 1974 when I was in college. Not being much of a joiner by inclination, I was never a member of any campus political groups but several of my friends were active. They told me about this new U.S. Labor Party and they nicknamed them "The Nazis." According to our local Leftists, the LaRouche followers used a lot of Left-wing buzzwords in their rhetoric but were actually very militantly Right-wing in their policies and tactics, which included beating their third party rivals with billy clubs and other crude instruments.
I was friendly acquaintances with two brothers on campus and had actually previously worked with their father (a local Democratic Party kingpin) during a Congressional election campaign (which we won!). The more serious of the brothers was already involved with the U.S. Labor Party and from what I can glean quickly rose in the LaRouche organization over the decades and remains active to this day. I must say I could never imagine him swinging a billy club, but he was a very resolute fellow and his rhetoric was complex and difficult to follow. The other brother, who I was closer to, was a happier more carefree person with apparently more of an objective view concerning the U.S. Labor Party.
Flash forward three years later when I run into the fun brother on a street corner in Seattle's University District. He was hawking LaRouche newspapers in a most evangelical and stridently zealous way. In the 1970s it was not unusual to see friends drift away and get sucked into cults but this guy was totally gone. I asked him how he was doing and he exclaimed inches from my face, "Gotta stop Carter's drive for war!!!" After a couple more attempts to chat I realized he was encased in some kind of protective force field that would not be broken by trivial social human interaction.
Lyndon LaRouche originally entered the political realm through the Socialist Workers Party in the late 1950s/early 1960s but by 1973 he had created his own organization, called a personality cult by many, with a complex conspiracy-centered platform and named it the U.S. Labor Party. The USLP was the political organ of LaRouche's National Caucus of Labor Committees, formed in 1969. When I was first exposed to the U.S. Labor Party it was only about a year old.
1976 was LaRouche's first of many attempts for the Presidency. His debut running mate was R. Wayne Evans, a former chemical factory worker from Michigan and he was a true believer. One source reported Evans was just three years away from collecting his pension when he quit his job to devote his energies to the U.S. Labor Party. With LaRouche frequently out of the country, Evans shouldered a lot of the frontline campaigning.
In newspaper interviews Evans had dire predictions for the economic fate of the country if the U.S. Labor Party ticket failed to emerge victorious on Election Day. The Rockefellers and Henry Kissinger were subject to vitriolic attacks and it would seem the LaRouche/Evans team viewed Jimmy Carter as more of threat to society than President Ford. They felt Carter would start a thermonuclear war. Their platform promoted nuclear power and stepped up production of natural resources such as coal and oil while downplaying any environmental impact.
I found the gung-ho pro-nuclear policy quite interesting because the father of the U.S. Labor Party brothers was strongly anti-nuclear power.
The U.S. Labor Party and later LaRouche incarnations appeared to be very well financed compared to other struggling third parties and they used their resources in legal fights for ballot access and set precedents for the benefit of other minor political parties.
Not only did they seem to enjoy a generous source of funding but for a new party right out of the gate they were well organized. They were on the ballot in DC and 23 states-- an impressive achievement. Their strongest states were Virginia (0.44%), Idaho (0.22%), Massachusetts (0.19%), Connecticut (0.13%), Ohio (0.11%), and Vermont (0.10%).
After the election the USLP filed suit in three states challenging Carter's victory. Although the U.S. Labor Party no longer existed by the 1980 election, LaRouche made seven more runs for the White House chiefly via the Democratic Party primaries and his story becomes even more bizarre in the 1980s. Meanwhile, Wayne Evans fades from the political scene following 1976.
Other occupations: steelworker, chemical plant worker
Election history:
1974 - Lt. Governor of Michigan (U.S. Labor Party) - defeated
Buried: cremated
Notes:
Was a Democrat until 1974.
One source cites his death date as March 3, 1996.
Possibly a member of the Beaverton, Mich. City Council at one time?
