Carroll Marie Driscoll, 1936 -
VP candidate for Right to Life Party (aka Respect for Life Party) (1980)
Running mate with nominee: Ellen McCormack (1926-2011)
Popular vote: 32,320 (0.04%)
Electoral vote: 0/538
The campaign:
Ellen McCormack had become a national figure in 1976 when she ran for the Democratic nomination for US President as a single-issue anti-abortion advocate. In 1980 when the decade-old Right to Life Party in New York entered Presidential politics for the first time, McCormack was selected as the nominee.
McCormack's presence on the ballot signaled the Right to Life Party was moving from a grassroots effort to a bona fide political party. In her previous campaign she had been the first woman to receive Secret Service protection on the campaign trail as well as meet the conditions for federal matching funds.
The Right to Life Party ran to the Right of Ronald Reagan and would not endorse him for President. He was considered too equivocal on the subject, having endorsed pro-choice Republican candidates and not having a strong enough record fighting against abortion while Governor of California by their measurements. The Party felt that Reagan's selection of George H.W. Bush, who they saw as a liberal on the subject, was a betrayal to the cause. Roger Stone, now convicted of multiple felonies but back then a Reagan campaign spokesperson, accused McCormack of being on "an ego trip."
Some pundits wondered if McCormack would be a spoiler against the Republicans, and some Republicans said out loud they were being "blackmailed" by "zealots" into pandering for the RTL endorsement. The anti-abortion groups in the Empire State were divided, the Political Action Committee of the New York State Right to Life Committee endorsed Reagan.
It appears Carroll Driscoll was selected as the Right to Life Party VP simply due to her place of residence.
Driscoll, a housewife and mother, was asked to run by her anti-abortion Long Island NY-based activist sister. McCormack needed a running mate who was not a resident of New York, and since Driscoll lived in Mendham, NJ, that was enough to fit the bill. "I said, 'You've got to be crazy,'" Driscoll explained, "I do wholeheartedly believe in their platform, but I don't follow politics at all." She said she could not remember who she voted for President in 1976. She agreed to run if McCormack, who she had never met up to that point, did all the campaigning. Driscoll was the mother of seven children and understandably didn't have the time or resources to spend on electioneering.
Although McCormack bristled when described as having only a single-plank platform, it is indeed difficult to find where the Right to Life Party stood on other issues in 1980. McCormack herself said she was opposed to capital punishment and RTL political spots included opposition to euthanasia. The Pope's image was massively marketed in newspaper ads shortly before the election.
On the ballot in three states, their popular vote results were New York 0.39%, Kentucky 0.33%, and New Jersey 0.13%. Reagan was the victor in each case.
Election history: none
Other occupations: housewife
Notes:
Registered Republican.
Washington State trivia alert!!! Driscoll was in Moses Lake, Washington in 1960, circumstances unknown, possibly at the same time future fellow third party VP Robert Craig Knievel lived there.
