Amanda Lepore

 

                                                                                 Needles and Lepore

Amanda Lepore, November 21, 1967 (Cedar Grove, N.J.) -

VP candidate for Wig Party (2012)

Running mate with nominee: Sharon Needles (b. 1981)
Popular vote: ? (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538

The campaign:

In a campaign that seemed a bit like an echo of Joan Jett Blakk's 1992 run in the Queer Nation Party, drag performer and singer Sharon Needles announced her run for the Presidency in the summer of 2012 as part of the Wig Party.

2012 had been an eventful and busy year for Needles. In April she was the winner of RuPaul's Drag Race, and was crowned "America's Next Drag Superstar." Pittsburgh [one of my favorite cities, I must say] where Needles resided, had a City Council that declared June 12 to be "Sharon Needles Day." She had become a spokesperson for PETA and vegetarianism. In October Needles landed a gig as a horror host for the Logo TV network. Also in 2012 she was working on her debut album, which was released shortly after the election.

Although there were unsourced reports that Needles' running-mate was reality TV star Alana Frances "Honey Boo Boo" Thompson (born 2005), a more accurate document pointed instead to New York-based transgender celebrity and performance artist Amanda Lepore. When asked by College Magazine in late Oct. 2012 who she wanted as VP, Needles responded, "Amanda Lepore. Dedicated, seasoned, and age appropriate." Ouch.

Here is a sample from that interview--

What in your opinion is the single greatest threat to the global environment and how can you help solve it?

Though I love the environment and have such a big heart for animals, I have to admit drag queens are one of the worst things for the environment. We are slathered in nothing but Chinese-made plastics adhered by toxic adhesives. But when the major oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico occurred, it was the drag community that showed up in with stockings and panty hoses to sift the oil from the gulf. It’s ups and downs, it’s gives and takes.

If the Needles/Lepore ticket had won on Election Day, the "inappropriate" under-35 age of the standard bearer would have made her ineligible to attain office per the Constitution.

Election history: none

Other occupations: nail salon worker, dominatrix, cosmetics salesperson, singer, performance artist, actor, author

Notes:
Born Armand Lepore.
In 2014 Needles wrote and performed I Wish I Were Amanda Lepore, with Lepore herself featured in the video. A few lyrics--
Silicone
Tiny waist
Red carpet lips
Porcelain face
A mannequin
She's got it all
She's built for men
A blow up doll

Miriam Ben-Shalom

Miriam Ben-Shalom, May 3, 1948 (Waukesha, Wis.) -

VP candidate for Queer Nation Party (1992)

Running mate with nominee: Joan Jett Blakk (b. ca1957)
Popular vote: ? (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538

The campaign:

Joan Jett Blakk was the drag persona of Chicago-based Terence Smith created in 1974. "I kind of think of myself," Blakk said in an interview, "as a combination of Divine, David Bowie in his early days, and Grace Jones--mix that all up and you’re talking Joan Jett Blakk."

Blakk ran for Mayor of Chicago in 1991, and having weathered the political spotlight in one major campaign, ran for President in 1992 under the auspices of the Queer Nation organization. It was recognized the effort was purely for publicity and getting the word out rather than ballot access or winning.

Blakk was, as far as I can ascertain, "the first queer, black drag-queen" to run for President. But she was not the first Gay activist to be on a ticket. I believe that place in the record books belongs to Harold Franklin Moore, who was the VP on the Oregon ballot with Lenora Fulani under the New Alliance Party (listed as "Independent") in 1988. Moore died as a result of AIDS in 1989.

The electioneering was campy but had a serious foundation. With the AIDS pandemic still going strong under the regime of the two-term Ronald Reagan who never once addressed it in public, even four years later under George H.W. Bush it remained a national health crisis the major parties were too afraid to adequately address for fear of being perceived as pro-Gay.

Her campaign slogan was "Lick Bush in '92." To be precise she used the term "camp-pain"-- "putting in the camp, taking out the pain, honey." Blakk promised to paint the White House lavender or pink, have "Dykes on Bikes" patrol our national borders, universal healthcare, pro-choice, abolish student debt, move the capital to Palm Springs, "give everything back to the Indians and let them take from there," be the first president to take calls directly from constituents, instead of the FBI we'll have the Fashion Bureau of Investigation, "fire everyone in Washington," the whole country needs redecorating, and to generally make America "more fabulous, more fruitful, and more glamorous."

There was a method to this camp-pain, Blakk said, "You can watch the news and never hear the word 'Gay’ mentioned. That just unnerves me. But with this campaign, they'll have to say the word; I'll make them."

Blakk's operatives, in a method that was accused of being made behind closed doors by an all boys club, chose Miriam Ben-Shalom in June 1992 to be Blakk's running-mate. Ben-Shalom had become a national figure, a hero to many, for challenging the military's discriminatory treatment of Gay soldiers. She had been discharged from the Army against her wishes and fought in the courts to be reinstated in 1987 but in 1990 the Army pushed her out again. Still, her reinstatement had been a victory no matter how short-lived. By 1992 she was a civilian but continuing to be an activist.

Demonstrating that the Gay community was a broader and more diverse movement than mainstream Americans realized, the Blakk campaign experienced as much conflict from within as it did from the outside. In addition to the perceived gender split in the decision-making process for the campaign, a segment of the Queer Nation Party were not pleased that a person associated with the military had been selected as the VP. Others in the QNP felt the joke had gone awry and a serious social problem was being trivialized.

I could not locate any source demonstrating that Ben-Shalom had accepted the nomination or campaigned for the ticket.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Shivelva Kennedy-Sinatra (aka J.V. McAuley) was also on the ticket running for the position of First Lady, which must have a first in several categories.

Efforts were made, to no avail, to be placed on a few ballots. Although Blakk warned voters, "If you don't elect me President, we're gonna have to go to another planet," she ran again in 1996 under the Blakk Pantsuit Party.

Ben-Shalom went to become an even more controversial figure and was charged with being transphobic when she voiced her opinion that she felt the transgender movement was oppressive to women and had co-opted issues she had fought for earlier in her activism.

She also made the news when in Oct. 2016, at age 68, she taught a would-be carjacker in Milwaukee that he was messing with the wrong ex-Army sergeant as she thwarted his crime.

Election history: none

Other occupations: Israeli Army, US Army, technical college instructor, co-founder Gay Lesbian and Bisexual Veterans of America

Notes:
Converted from Catholicism to Judaism, became an Israeli citizen and served in the army of that country for a couple years. Returned to the US in 1971.