Mary Alice Herbert, February 28, 1935 (Dover, Del.) -
VP candidate for Socialist Party of the United States of America (aka Socialist Party USA aka Socialist Party aka Natural Law Party aka United Citizens Party aka Protecting Working Families) (2004)
Running mate with nominee: Walter Frederick Brown (b. 1926)
Popular vote: 10,606 (0.01%)
Electoral vote: 0/538
The campaign:
In 2004 the Socialist Party of the United States of America nominated 78 year old attorney Walter F. Brown for President. He was a former Democratic State Senator in Oregon (PNW trivia alert!!!) with a long record of progressive activism including being a member of the Socialist Party in earlier days. Mary Alice Herbert, a perennial candidate with the Liberty Union Party in Vermont, was nominated for Vice-President.
Herbert had a political alliance with Eric Chester and ran as his provisional VP in 2004 and in 2008. In the former campaign she retained the position of official running-mate even after the Party selected Walter F. Brown as the nominee.
Even though the SPUSA campaign webpage included: "We support the rights of all women to birth control information and supplies, and to all reproductive health services (including abortion)," it turned out Presidential nominee Brown held anti-abortion views and as a result there was an effort by some factions of the Party to rescind his nomination. Party leaders were also not enamored with Brown's style, as politics1 reported, "Some SPUSA insiders gripe that Brown insists upon total day-to-day control of all aspects his own campaign, even writing his own press releases, newspaper ads, etc. They note it took over a week after Brown won the nomination for him to finalize the press release announcing his victory."
The Liberty Union Party in Vermont, which had endorsed the SPUSA in half of the previous eight Presidential elections including 1996 and 2000, endorsed the Workers World Party for the first and only time in their history. Although Herbert was a long-time member and was listed on their campaign webpage promoting her as the SPUSA VP, Brown's name was totally absent.
Even so, the Brown/Herbert team picked up endorsements from a couple local remaining remnants of the now defunct Natural Law Party in Delaware and Michigan, and the United Citizens Party in South Carolina. In Louisiana they were called Protecting Working Families.
The Brown/Herbert ticket was on the ballot in 7 states and certified write-ins in 9 others. Their strongest vote results: South Carolina 0.13%, Louisiana 0.09%, Florida 0.05%, and Delaware 0.03%.
Mary Cal Hollis, the 2000 VP was on the ballot with Brown in Colorado only.
In spite the non-support from much of the Party after the abortion issue, the SPUSA enjoyed their highest national vote result since it was founded in 1976 and the number not been matched since then. It was thought the SPUSA picked up a significant amount of voters on the Left disappointed with Nader's independent run as well being disenchanted with the Greens.
Election history:
1984 - Vermont State House of Representatives (Liberty Union Party) - defeated
1990 - Vermont Secretary of State (Liberty Union Party) - defeated
1992 - Vermont Secretary of State (Liberty Union Party) - defeated
1994 - Vermont Secretary of State (Liberty Union Party) - defeated
1996 - Governor of Vermont (Liberty Union Party) - defeated
2006 - Lt. Governor of Vermont (Liberty Union Party) - defeated
2008 - Socialist Party of the United States of America nomination for US Vice-President - defeated
2012 - Vermont Secretary of State (Liberty Union Party) - defeated
2014 - Vermont Secretary of State (Liberty Union Party) - defeated
2016 - Vermont Secretary of State (Progressive Party) - primary - defeated
2016 - Vermont Secretary of State (Liberty Union Party) - defeated
2018 - Vermont Secretary of State (Progressive Party) - primary - defeated
2018 - Vermont Secretary of State (Democratic Party) - primary - defeated
2018 - Vermont Secretary of State (Liberty Union Party) - defeated
Other occupations: teacher
Notes:
She was Republican earlier in life.
1996 opponents included Howard Dean (winner) and Denny Lane.
First third party VP I have located who was born in Delaware.
