Matilde Zimmermann, September 6, 1943 (Washington, DC) -
VP candidate for Socialist Workers Party (aka Independent) (1980, 1984)
Running mate with nominee (1980): Cleve Andrew Pulley (b. 1951)
Running mate with nominee (1980): Richard Congress (b. 1943)
Running mate with nominee (1980): Clifton DeBerry (1923-2006)
Running mate with nominee (1984): Melvin T. Mason (b. 1943)
Popular vote (1980 Pulley): 6,264 (0.01%)
Popular vote (1980 Congress): 4,029 (0.00%)
Popular vote (1980 DeBerry): 38,738 (0.04%)
Popular vote (1984): 24,699 (0.03%)
Electoral vote (1980, 1984): 0/538
The campaign (1980):
In 1980 Socialist Workers Party VP nominee Matilde Zimmermann found herself running with three different Presidential candidates, which I believe was a first in US history. The official standard bearer was Andrew Pulley, who had formerly been the SWP VP nominee in 1972. He had a problem with the Constitution since he was still under the age of 35 and many states would not place him on the ballot. On the
Washington State Voters Pamphlet the SWP protested, "Pulley does not appear on the ballot due to the reactionary age requirement for President in the Constitution." The Pulley/Zimmermann ticket did show up as an option in six states, however.
In Ohio only, Pulley was substituted by Richard H. Congress. PNW Trivia Alert: He had actually run for Congress in 1970 as the SWP candidate right here in Washington State! I would have loved to have seen (if they existed) his "Congress for Congress" yard signs, but I lived in a different district.
Clifton DeBerry, the SWP 1964 Presidential candidate had been the stand-in during Pulley's 1972 VP run and now he was the stand-in for Pulley's Presidential run. This would be DeBerry's final appearance on any ballot. The DeBerry/Zimmermann ticket was offered as an official choice in 21 states.
Zimmermann was occasionally covered by the media as she urged the US to pull out of Korea, establish foreign relations with Cuba, shut down nuclear power plants, end draft registration, establish national health insurance, and support the Equal Rights Amendment.
She summed up major the party nominees: "As a candidate, Carter promised to stand up for the working man. He was to cut military spending. He has done just the opposite. But I don't think the other candidates are different from Carter. They're all for maintaining the status quo, in which the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Carter is balancing the budget on the backs of working people. He wants to take money from the needy and give it to the greedy. But our party speaks for working people, while the Democrats and Republicans speak for the oil, automobile and nuclear power industries."
Having peaked in Presidential popular votes in 1976, the SWP numbers begin their decline in 1980. The DeBerry/Zimmermann team's strongest showings were in Pennsylvania 0.44%, Massachusetts 0.15%, Virginia 0.11%, and Alabama and District of Columbia 0.10% each. Pulley/Zimmermann's strongest finish by far was in Mississippi 0.26%. Congress/Zimmermann received 0.09% of the Ohio vote.
The campaign (1984):
In 1984 the SWP nominated Melvin T. Mason for president, and in their perpetual act of Constitutional civil disobedience, nominated Andrea González, age 33 on Election Day, as the VP. Zimmermann was selected as the stand-in VP and she was on the ballot in 23 states and DC with Mason.
In the time period between the 1980-1984 elections the SWP had experienced a major upheaval in leadership and direction. In general terms it was no longer a party advocating Trotsky's permanent revolution. Now it could be more accurately described as a Castroist party. In-house critics, later purged or self-exiled from the Party, accused the SWP of returning to a Stalinist philosophy and embracing personality-driven regimes. Some of them went so far as to label the SWP a cult.
Mason, a former member of the Black Panther Party, told a reporter: "The greatest example of a Socialist government is Cuba, and Nicaragua is right behind, but it's still developing." Zimmermann seemed to have had a lower profile in this campaign if news accounts are any reflection, which granted is not an entirely accurate indicator.
The massive loss of SWP membership was reflected in the rapidly diminishing popular vote compared to previous elections. As low as the 1984 returns were, the SWP would never again (as of 2016) equal it.
The Mason/Zimmermann ticket's highest percentages were in Kentucky 0.23%, Nebraska 0.16%, Minnesota 0.15%, Mississippi and South Dakota 0.11% each, and Ohio 0.10%.
Election history:
1986 - Governor of California (Independent) -
defeated
Other occupations: writer for the
Militant, author, professor, National Secretary of the GI Civil Liberties Defense Committee
Notes:
Was a write-in the 1986 election.
Spent some of her childhood in the Philippines.
Joined SWP ca. 1968.
Bernie Sanders was an SWP Elector in 1980 (the SWP ticket recieved 75 write-in votes in Vermont)
and supported the Presidential ticket in 1984. I was driving a taxicab in Burlington in 1979 and who
knows, I could've driven Bernie to a SWP meeting.
Some sources, including ballots, list her as Matilde Zimmerman.
