Job Harriman, January 15, 1861 (Frankfort, Ind.) – October 26, 1925 (Sierra Madre, Calif.)
VP candidate for Social Democratic Party (1900)
Running mate with nominee: Eugene Debs (1855-1926)
Popular vote: 87,945 (0.63%)
Electoral vote: 0/447
The campaign:
A group of dissidents within the Socialist Labor Party insultingly called the "Kangaroos" split away and nominated Job Harriman for President. But as the 1900 election season heated up, the SLP refugees negotiated with the Social Democrat Party and the result was a Debs-Harriman ticket, which was something of an uneasy alliance. In 1901 the groups experienced a difficult merger to form the Socialist Party of America.
Harriman's energy level for a national campaign was greatly compromised by his long-term tuberculosis.
The SDP was on the ballot in 33 states and in a result that greatly disappointed Debs they placed 4th after the Prohibition Party. Their two best states were Massachusetts (2.32%) and Washington (1.87%). Still, they outpolled their SLP rivals in every state where they were competing for votes and would become the dominant socialist political group in elective politics for several decades.
Election history:
1896 - US House of Representatives (Calif.) (Socialist Labor Party) - defeated
1898 - Governor of California (Socialist Labor Party) - defeated
1911 - Mayor of Los Angeles, Calif. (Nonpartisan) - defeated
1913 - Primary for Mayor of Los Angeles, Calif. (Nonpartisan) - defeated
Other occupations: Disciples of Christ minister, attorney, utopian community organizer
Buried: Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale, Calif.)
Notes:
Left the ministry and became an agnostic.
Died as a result of tuberculosis. Cremated.
Graduate of Butler University 1884.
Moved to San Francisco in 1886 and then to Los Angeles in the late 1890s.
Participated in the Llano Cooperative Colony experiment first in California then in Louisiana.
Was a Democrat prior to joining the Socialist Labor Party.
Performed as an actor in the motion picture From Dusk to Dawn (1913) directed by Frank E. Wolfe.
