Angela Yvonne Davis

 Washington State Voters Pamphlet: 1980 (above), 1984 (below)

Angela Yvonne Davis, January 26, 1944 (Birmingham, Ala.) -

VP candidate for Communist Party USA (aka People Before Profits Party aka Independent) (1980, 1984)

Running mate with nominee (1980, 1984): Gus Hall (1910-2000)
Popular vote (1980): 44,933 (0.05%)
Popular vote (1984): 36,386 (0.04%)
Electoral vote (1980, 1984): 0/538

The campaign (1980):

In the course of gathering the story of the typical third party Vice-Presidential candidate I usually have to scrape and dig to find even the most meager nuggets of data and information. But in the case of Angela Davis my challenge will be to sift through mountains of history and try to focus on her two runs as VP for the CPUSA.

Among the third party VPs for 1980 and 1984 Davis was easily the one who arrived as the most widely recognized national figure, and among the most controversial. It was a rare instance of the running-mate being better known than the Presidential nominee, in this case Gus Hall. She had been identified with the Black Panther Party, anti-war activity, Communist groups and countries, feminism, and prison reform. In a highly publicized criminal case, she had been held in prison 1970-1972 on three felony charges regarding her purchase of firearms that were later used in a Marin County, Calif. courtroom takeover that resulted in four deaths, including the judge. For a brief time Davis was on the Ten Most Wanted List when she became a fugitive. After her capture and subsequent trial she was eventually found not guilty.

The 1980 CPUSA platform included support of the ERA, transfer of money from the military to schools and hospitals and mass transit, outlawing the KKK and the Nazis, opposition to the draft, not allowing American companies to close plants and move out of the country, six-hour workday with 8-hour wages, and ratification of SALT II.

On the ballot in close to 30 states, the Hall/Davis ticket placed 6th nationally. Davis helped the Party gain a little more publicity than usual. It always amazes me how the CPUSA really outdid other third parties in terms of campaign buttons, stickers, and pamphlets. The major source of their electioneering funds was assumed to originally be in the form of rubles but we'll never know the exact amount or percentage of contributions from the CCCP because the CPUSA has hardly been transparent about these sort of things.

Strongest popular results were in: District of Columbia 0.21%, Illinois 0.20%, Arkansas and Hawaii 0.15% each, Alabama and New York 0.12% each. 

The campaign (1984):

Four years later the CPUSA offered the same Hall/Davis team. In this Orwellian year they spent more energy campaigning against President Reagan than they did in promoting their own agenda. In some ways they were giving a backhanded endorsement to the Mondale/Ferraro Democratic ticket.

Describing Reagan as a "nuclear madman," Davis told the press, "We understand millions of people are not going to vote for the Communist Party this time around. We are working primarily to defeat Reagan, a mouthpiece for the military-industrial complex that is willing to risk the sake of our planet for profits."

Hall added, "As the election approaches, Reagan's now calling for peace. He used to be a lousy actor, but now he's getting good at it." Davis said, "We do have problems with Mondale, who vacillates and thinks the way to win is by courting people who ordinarily would be in the Republican constituency. But if we do not defeat Reaganism this year, there is a possibility of nuclear holocaust."

This would be the final Presidential campaign for the CPUSA. Davis' star power presence on the ballot probably helped slow the rate of decline, but the popular votes were diminishing. More importantly, changes taking place in the soon to be former Soviet Union would shake the philosophical foundation of the American party and cut off financial support. Also, many of the idealistic young Leftists of the 1970s had become materialistic Yuppies of the 1980s. For a second time, Reagan won in a landslide.

The CPUSA finished in 8th place nationally. On the ballot in almost a dozen states they finished strongest in: Alabama 0.32%, Hawaii 0.24%, Maine 0.23%, Arkansas 0.17%, and District of Columbia 0.12%.

Election history: none

Other occupations: teacher, lecturer, author

Notes:
When skyjacker Garrett Brock Trapnell took control of a jet in 1972 he not only demanded money, he wanted Angela Davis released from prison and he wanted a pardon from President Nixon among other things. Instead he was made an involuntary guest of the Crowbar Hotel. During the 1980 election he was incarcerated in Marion and ran for President with VP and fellow convicted skyjacker Martin Joseph McNally under the Nationalist Christian Democratic Party.

Martin Joseph McNally

Martin Joseph McNally, ca1944 (Michigan) -

VP candidate for Nationalist Christian Democratic Party (1980)

Running mate with nominee: Garrett Brock Trapnell (1938-1993)
Popular vote: ? (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538

The campaign:

The evening of Thanksgiving Eve, 1971 was a typically nasty one here in Washington State for that time of year. Lots of rain and high winds. I remember it very well as we were glued to the local TV watching a live skyjacking taking place by a fellow the media later called D.B. Cooper. He was holding a Northwest Orient Airlines jet and crew hostage in exchange for 200 grand at Sea-Tac Airport. If the weather had not been so awful we could've run outside and watched the jet pass over our farm just minutes before Cooper bailed out two counties away and became part of Pacific Northwest folklore.

Personally, I think he sunk to the bottom of a lake or river and since Mt. St. Helens blowed up real good whoooee (as my friends Big Jim McBob and Billy Sol Hurok like to say) in May 1980, the odds of finding his body are pretty slim.

And speaking of 1980, among the Vice-Presidential candidates that year was one of Cooper's many imitators, one Martin Joseph McNally (aka Robert Wilson). He skyjacked a passenger airliner in 1972 and in the '80 election was serving a life sentence plus 75 years in prison in Marion, Ill.

The presidential candidate was Garrett Brock Trapnell, another Cooper-inspired skyjacker, who was also a bigamist, con man, bank robber, jewel thief, and, as it turns out, politician. When Trapnell took control of the jet in 1972 he not only demanded money, he wanted Angela Davis (a future third party VP candidate!) released from prison and he wanted a pardon from President Nixon among other things. Instead he was made an involuntary guest of the Crowbar Hotel. During the 1980 election he was also incarcerated in Marion.

Trapnell and McNally's escapades both before and after they met are the stuff of adventure movies. But I'll just focus on their much less action-packed run for the White House in 1980-- otherwise this profile will turn into a book.

Trapnell had announced his Presidential run in 1979 under the Nationalist Christian Democratic Party banner. His platform was short on specifics but he did state he wanted Secret Service protection and some of that public money doled out to the other major politicians running for the White House. McNally's name as the VP choice first appears in news articles around April Fools Day 1980.

By 1980 both Trapnell and McNally had become sort of jailhouse lawyers and they kept the courts constantly busy with various cases. In terms of their campaign, they went to court to be placed on the Indiana ballot during the primary, but learned that "minor" parties were excluded from the primaries in the Hoosier State. At the same time this was going on the duo were also in court over their alleged involvement with a prison breakout.

There is a legal point that could have complicated things in the event the Trapnell/McNally ticket had won. There is no law preventing felons or imprisoned people from serving in office as President if elected although getting on the ballot appears to be a state-by-state decision. It is plausible that President Trapnell could have pardoned himself. However the fact they were both "residents" of the same state poses a Constitutional problem that has never been tested. McNally's last address had been in Michigan so maybe he could have argued that was his real residence.

There have been a few previous tickets where one of the candidates was in jail or prison during part or all of the election but this was the first time I am aware of where both the Presidential and Vice-Presidential nominees were behind bars.

Not on the ballot and apparently not certified write-ins, there is no record of how many votes the Trapnell/McNally ticket received. A couple sources mention McNally himself ran for President, year unspecified, but I cannot ascertain if this is in error or if he really ran and I have never come across a solid reference to it. [Update: An observant reader provided documentary verification that McNally filed with the FEC in 2000 for President as a member of the National Christian Party]

Election history:
2000 - US President (National Christian Party) - defeated

Other occupations: US Navy, service station attendant, skyjacker

Notes:
Served 37 years in prison and was released Jan. 27, 2010.
A couple years ago I went on a long road trip and stayed the night in Marion, Ill. The drinking water
 alone in Marion might be punishment enough for anyone.
McNally's skyjacking plan was complicated when a drunken would-be hero named David J. Hanley
 rammed the jet at takeoff with his wife's Cadillac. So they had to switch to another jet. Hanley later
 ran for President in the Democratic Party primaries in 1976.