Darlington Hoopes

 

James Hudson Maurer, 1928-1932 SPA VP nominee and Hoopes (left) in 1932

Darlington Hoopes, September 11, 1896 (Vale, Md.) – September 25, 1989 (Sinking Spring, Penn.)

VP candidate for Socialist Party of America (1944)

Running mate with nominee: Norman M. Thomas (1884-1968)

Popular vote: 79,017 (0.16%)

Electoral vote: 0/531

The campaign:

Norman Thomas, who had already run for President four times, was wanting to hand the torch to a younger generation and that hope rested on the 1940 VP nominee and second in command Maynard Kreuger. But Kreuger did not want it. So once again Thomas accepted the Presidential nomination in what was becoming a personality-driven rather than process-driven political party. Darlington Hoopes, much more of a centrist than Kreuger, was selected as the running mate. Hoopes was from the Socialist hotbed of Reading, Penn. and had experience as an elected SPA public servant passing legislation on child labor.

It was during this campaign Thomas supposedly said in a speech: "The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism. But, under the name of 'liberalism,' they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program, until one day America will be a socialist nation, without knowing how it happened ... I no longer need to run as a Presidential Candidate for the Socialist Party. The Democratic Party has adopted our platform." According to Snopes this is a bogus quote but it is repeated frequently by those on the Right as a form of confirmation bias without giving any source of the utterance. However, it is true that many of the Socialist ideas were co-opted by both of the major parties, but the capitalist system remained essentially intact and dominant, even under FDR.

After initially opposing America's entry into WWII, Thomas and the SPA supported the war effort but had fears of the USA entering a period of endless militarism and he anticipated the Cold War. "Sooner or later the USSR ... is bound to forget its present alliance and to aid native revolt against white-predominately British-supremacy. If we fight again with and for Britain ... it will be a terrible and unsuccessful [third world] war. That war, or long sustained preparation for it, will doom our democracy."

Thomas was one of the very few people (along with J. Edgar Hoover!!) to speak out against the internment of Japanese Americans.

The resulting national vote was the worst in the history of the SPA. With votes recorded from 29 states, including some where they were only write-ins, they didn't crack 1% in any of them-- although in Wisconsin, once a SPA stronghold, they finished with 0.99%.

Election history:
1929 - Judge, Berks County, Penn. - defeated
1931-1936 - Pennsylvania House of Representatives (Socialist Party of America)
1936-1940 - City Solicitor (Reading, Penn.)
1936 - Pennsylvania House of Representatives (Socialist Party of America) - defeated
1938 - Pennsylvania House of Representatives (Socialist Party of America) - defeated
1940 - Pennsylvania House of Representatives (Socialist Party of America) - defeated
1942 - Pennsylvania House of Representatives (Socialist Party of America) - defeated
1944 - Pennsylvania House of Representatives (Socialist Party of America) - defeated
1950 - Pennsylvania State Senate (Socialist Party of America) - defeated
1950 - US House of Representatives (Penn.) (Socialist Party of America) - defeated
1952 - US House of Representatives (Penn.) (Socialist Party of America) - defeated
1952 - US President (Socialist Party of America) - defeated
1956 - US President (Socialist Party of America) - defeated
1958 - US House of Representatives (Penn.) (Socialist Party of America) - defeated

Other occupations: attorney

Buried: Maidencreek Friends Meeting Burial Ground (Berks County, Penn.)

Notes:
Attended Quaker school.
Joined the Socialist Party of America in 1914.
Was part of the "Old Guard" that split from the SPA in 1936-1937 and formed the Social Democratic
 Federation. He later returned.
A member of the Darlington-Butler political dynasty in Pennsylvania, including 5 members of US Congress.

Maynard C. Krueger

Maynard C. Krueger, January 16, 1906 (Gregory Landing, Mo.) – December 20, 1991 (Pleasanton, Calif.)

VP candidate for Socialist Party of America (1940)

Running mate with nominee: Norman M. Thomas (1884-1968)

Popular vote: 116,599 (0.23%)

Electoral vote: 0/531

The campaign:

The tattered remains of the Socialist Party of America after years of infighting and splits left a small group that would be in a defensive damage control mode as they regrouped. The headquarters was moved from Chicago to New York. This would be Norman Thomas' fourth run for US President. His running mate, university professor Maynard C. Krueger was considered a member of  the "militant" left wing of the party.

Krueger's age, under the Constitutional requirement of 35 became an issue, but he pointed out that by Inauguration Day he was would be 35 years and 4 days old.

As war waged in Europe, the SPA's antiwar platform took a pacifist nonintervention stance, condemning US aid to the UK and France.

Montana Democratic US Sen. Burton Wheeler (the 1924 VP nominee of the Progressive Party) revealed years later he voted for the Thomas/Krueger ticket in 1940. Wheeler himself had been urged to run as an isolationist third party candidate.

With votes recorded in 30 states the SPA's best results were in Wisconsin (1.07%), Maryland (0.62%), Washington and Montana (both 0.58%). Although the Thomas/Krueger ticket's national percentage was dismal they still came in third. In 1940 all of the third parties results combined total amounted to less than 1%.

Election history:
1948 - US House of Representatives (Ill.) (Independent) - defeated

Other occupations: University professor in economics and social sciences (Albion College, University of Pennsylvania, University of Chicago), Vice-President of the American Federation of Teachers 1930s, author

Buried: cremated.

Notes:
Surname rhymes with "eager"
Was an associate of George Orwell in Paris in the late 1920s.
Left the SPA in 1952 and endorsed Adlai Stevenson that year.