Vanessa Lynn Williams

Vanessa Lynn Williams, March 18, 1963 (New York, NY) -

VP candidate for Citizens Running for Election as President Party (aka Move the U.S. Capital to Davenport, Ia. Party aka Grinning Idiot Party) (1984)

Running mate with nominee: Richard Arnold Grayson (b. 1951)
Popular vote: 0 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538

The campaign:

Richard Grayson was back as a political satire performance artist in 1984. His campaign for President mirrored that of Dizzy Gillespie two decades earlier in that both gentlemen named two female running mates in their faux-campaigns without settling on a single name. In 1964 Gillespie had named Ramona Crowell and Phyllis Diller, in 1984 Grayson named Meryl Streep and Jane Wyman.

Wyman, Ronald Reagan's former wife, was considered because "She dumped Ronnie once-- and she can do it again!," and Streep due to his liking of the slogan "Streep for Veep." On Streep, "She's intelligent and beautiful. She has a way of making her co-star look good. Besides, we need a actress to balance the race. And she's a much better actress than Reagan ever was. If I can't get Streep, I want Jane Wyman. She has experience dumping him."

The fact he was a couple years shy of the Constitutionally mandated age of 35 didn't bother him, "We'll just go without a president for two years and defer all our problems. It's the New Deferralism ... That's the best reason to vote for me. I can't hold office. For two years there will be no president. Things will run smoother. Reagan had his new federalism. I'll institute a new 'deferralism.' Everything will be deferred until I take office."

Late in the campaign Grayson told the press: "I asked Jane Wyman because she's had experience dumping Reagan, but that didn't work out. Then I asked Meryl Streep because I thought 'Streep for Veep' made a good slogan. Her lawyer sent me a discouraging letter. Now I've just asked Vanessa Williams, figuring she's got nothing to hide." He also had some R-rated comments but I'm aware this blog is read by school-age children so we'll just skip over that. At the time Williams was in the news as she handed in her Miss America 1984 crown after Penthouse published unauthorized photographs of her. Fortunately, her career later recovered and enjoyed tremendous success.

In addition to having multiple VPs Grayson appeared to be running under a variety of party names including Citizens Running for Election as President Party, also known by the acronym CREAP.

On his motives: "I urge all unemployed people to run for the presidency. I figured the presidency pays pretty well, $200,000 a year, and you get to live rent-free ... You don't have to do that much. You get your own plane and bowling alley. You can get on TV whenever you want. And you can sleep late." "My goal is to be a celebrity. After eight years, I don't want to teach anymore. There's a shortage of celebrities. I mean how many times can they put Linda Evans on the cover of People magazine? They need some new faces, like me."

On moving the US capital to Davenport, Iowa: "I think it would be a good place because it's centrally located and it has the famous Quad-Cities-- Davenport, Rock Island, Moline and whatever the other one is."

On building support: "I spend a lot of my time trying to get support. For instance, I just finished a letter to Mayor Daley asking if he'll chair my campaign in Chicago." When it was pointed out the Mayor had been dead for a number of years, Grayson replied, "a lot of dead people vote in Chicago." 

On military conscription: "Draft senior citizens; they have nothing to do anyway."

On his cabinet: Mr. T as Sec. of Defense ("he'd really stand up to the Russians"), Gloria Vanderbilt as Sec. of Treasury ("so the nation can have designer dollars"), John DeLorean as Sec. of Commerce ("he seems to know a good deal when he sees one"), Michael Jackson as Sec. of State ("he dances better than George Schultz").

Williams was even younger than Grayson, so both nominees were ineligible to serve if elected. If Williams had a response to being  the VP on this ticket, I have not seen it. Needless to say, there is no complete record of their popular vote results.

Election history: none

Other occupations: Miss America, singer, actress, fashion designer, author

Notes:
First African American to be crowned Miss America.
Great-great granddaughter of Republican Tennessee State Representative William A. Feilds.

Willie Mae Reid

Willie Mae Reid, March 27, 1939 (Memphis, Tenn.?) -

VP candidate for Socialist Workers Party (aka Independent) (1976, 1992)

Running mate with nominee (1976): Peter Miguel Camejo Guanche (1939-2008)
Running mate with nominee (1992): James Warren (b ca1952)
Popular vote (1976): 90,986 (0.11%)
Popular vote (1992): 2789 (0.00%)
Electoral vote (1976 and 1992): 0/538

The campaign (1976):

The 1976 Socialist Workers Party ticket named Peter Camejo for President and Willie Mae Reid for VP. Camejo had a special focus and experience in tapping into student unrest on college campuses and Reid was an activist in Chicago for African American and women's civil rights. Both of them reminded progressive voters that just because the Vietnam War had ended and Nixon had resigned there remained a multitude of social and economic problems to solve.

Reid spent time campaigning in Australia and New Zealand, connecting with allied political movements.

The student political activity that had helped several Leftist third parties enjoy a spike in popular votes in the 1960s and early 1970s was already cresting. Those that remained in the battlefield seemed to be growing smaller in number but also more militant, which in turn created more divisions within the Party. Camejo himself was expelled from the SWP by the next Presidential election. There is a considerable body of literature attempting to understand and define the subsequent decline of the SWP with descriptions of inner-Party authoritarianism being a common thread.

1976 remains as the year of the highest number of popular votes ever garnered by the SWP in a Presidential election. On the ballot in 27 states and Washington, DC they placed 7th nationally and outpolled all of the other traditional Leftist third parties. Their best showings were in Virginia 1.05%, New Mexico 0.59%, Mississippi 0.36%, District of Columbia and Massachusetts both 0.32%, and Indiana 0.26%.

Both Camejo and Reid would reappear on Presidential tickets.

The campaign (1992)

James "Mac" Warren, the SWP's 1992 Presidential candidate had a few things in common with Willie Mae Reid including that he was a Chicago-based African American who had run against a member of the Daley family for Mayor. Also, Warren and Reid had previously been on Presidential tickets. Warren was the SWP nominee in 1988.

Warren's running mate in the now much more depleted SWP was Estelle DeBates, a staff writer for The Militant, a SWP organ. DeBates was 32 years old, younger than the minimum age mandated by the Constitution for Vice-President. On this basis there were some states that would not allow her name on the ballot, so Willie Mae Reid was chosen to act as a stand-in VP in those jurisdictions. By 1992 Reid was living in Houston, Tex., possibly having moved there as part of the SWP's 1980s activist relocation program-- not unlike missionary work.

Reid was the official running mate in Illinois, Iowa, New Mexico, Tennessee (her native state), Utah, and Wisconsin. She was considered the write-in SWP VP in Delaware and Ohio. The Warren/Reid team finished strongest in Utah with 0.04%. Warren's total popular vote with both running mates was 23,612 (0.02%).

Other occupations: author, garment worker, office worker, computer programmer, hospital kitchen worker

Election history:
1974 - US House of Representatives (Ill.) (Socialist Workers Party) - defeated
1975 - Mayor of Chicago, Ill. (Socialist Workers Party) - defeated
1985 - Mayor of Houston, Tex. (Nonpartisan) - defeated
1990 - US House of Representatives (Tex.) (Independent) - defeated
1991 - Mayor of Houston, Tex. (Nonpartisan) - defeated
1996 - US House of Representatives (Mich.) (Independent) - defeated

Notes:
Opponents in the 1975 race included Richard Daley (winner) and write-in J. Quinn Brisben. Daley
 had been the running mate with Pigasus in the Youth International Party in 1968 and Brisben would
 be the Socialist Party USA VP in 1976, so the 1975 Chicago Mayoral election had three third party
 vice-presidential candidates in competition. Pretty groovy, eh?
Winner of the 1996 race was John Conyers.
Joined the SWP in 1971.
Some sources give her year of birth as 1937.
Moved to Chicago in 1960.

Richard Joseph Daley

Richard Joseph Daley, May 15, 1902 (Chicago, Ill.) - December 20, 1976 (Chicago, Ill.)

VP candidate for Youth International Party (aka Yippies) (1968)

Running mate with nominee: Pigasus
Popular vote: 0 (0.00%)    
Electoral vote: 0/538

The campaign:

During his four runs for the Presidency 1952-1964, part of New Jersey pig farmer Henry B. Krajewski's (1912-1966) shtick was showing up in public with a piglet cradled in his arm. In 1968 the Yippies took the swine factor up a notch. They nominated a pig for President.

In what amounted to one of the more memorable bits of political theater in US history, members of the Youth International Party nominated a 145 pound pig named Pigasus for President on Aug. 23, 1968 shortly before the start of the Democratic National Convention. The event took place at the Chicago Civic Center in front of the famous Picasso sculpture.

Musician Phil Ochs was part of the crew that purchased Pigasus for $20 from a nearby farm in the Libertyville area. At the debut rally, with 250-300 people estimated in attendance, Jerry Rubin began to read the announcement ("We want to give you a chance to talk to our candidate and to restate our demand that Pigasus be given Secret Service protection and be brought to the White House for his foreign policy briefing") when the police swooped in and arrested seven Yippies (including Rubin and Ochs) and confiscated Pigasus.

They were charged with disorderly conduct and obstructing traffic, and then placed in jail where a law enforcement officer was alleged to have told them they were going to be locked up for a long time because "the pig squealed on you." They were soon released with bail fees of $25 each but the fate of the original Pigasus remains unclear.

The Yippies campaigned with other pigs in the course of the election season, one of them dubbed Pigasus II. After the election they showed up at Nixon's inauguration (or in-hog-uration as the Yippies termed it) with Ms. Pigasus who delighted the press by escaping from her cage and giving the spectators and police a merry chase.

On Sept. 9, 1968 following the bloodiest and most violent political convention in American history, Jerry Rubin announced to the press that the Yippies had decided to nominate Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley as their Vice-Presidential choice. If Daley's response to being named the running mate with a pig has ever been documented I cannot find it. Since the Mayor did not refute or withdraw from the ticket, he is included in this third party VP project.

The Chicago Civic Center, where Pigasus was first "arrested," was eventually renamed Richard J. Daley Center, which is part of the "Honorable Richard J. Daley Plaza," as Elwood Blues called it.

Election history:
1937-1939 - Illinois House of Representatives (Republican/Democratic)
1939-1947 - Illinois State Senate (Democratic)
1946 - Cook County Sheriff (Ill.) (Democratic) - defeated
1950-1955 - Cook County Clerk (Ill.) (Democratic)
1955-1976 - Mayor of Chicago (Ill.) (Democratic)
1968 - Democratic nomination for US Vice-President - defeated
1972 - Democratic nomination for US Vice-President - defeated

Other occupations: attorney

Buried: Holy Sepulchre Cemetery (Alsip, Ill.)

Notes:
His opponent in the 1959 primary for Mayor of Chicago was Lar Daly.
Two of his opponents in the 1967 race for Mayor of Chicago were Dick Gregory and Lar Daly.
One of his opponents in the 1975 race for Mayor was future 1976 Socialist Workers VP nominee
 Willie Mae Reid.
Buried in the same cemetery as Lar Daly.