Verne La Rue Reynolds

Verne La Rue Reynolds, March 7, 1884 (Kansas) - September 16, 1959 (Phoenix, Ariz.)

VP candidate for Socialist Labor Party (1924)

Running mate with nominee: Frank T. Johns (1889-1928)
Popular vote: 28,633 (0.10%)    
Electoral vote: 0/531

The campaign:

Frank Johns was regarded as the "bridge-builder" and Verne Reynolds the "agitator," and both of them were considered "new blood" candidates helping to re-energize the Socialist Labor Party.

The SLP aimed most of their campaign attacks on La Follette's Progressive Party while their rivals the Socialist Party of America had actually endorsed the La Follette/Wheeler ticket. During the campaign Johns accurately predicted that a second World War was imminent.

On the ballot in 18 states the SLP's best results was a paltry 0.34% in Connecticut, followed by 0.33% in Johns' home state of Oregon. In spite of this poor showing, the SLP was generally quite pleased with the Johns/Reynolds team and would nominate them again in 1928, but Fate would step in.

Election history:
1922 - US House of Representatives (Md.) (Labor Party) - defeated
1923 - Governor of Maryland (Labor Party) - defeated
1928 - US President (Socialist Labor Party) - defeated
1932 - US President (Socialist Labor Party) - defeated

Other occupations: steamfitter, newspaper ad salesman, oil field worker, insurance agent, traveling salesman, farmer, author, boarding house cook, fireman on an oil tramp 

Buried: ?

Notes:
Lived in Texas, Oklahoma, California,  Baltimore (1918), New York City (1920s), Michigan,
 Phoenix.
Father of science fiction writer Mack Reynolds (1917-1983)
Was the son of Seventh Day Adventist missionaries.
Wife Pauline died Nov. 30, 1991 in San Luis Obispo, Calif. at age 102
Atheist.
*Washington State trivia! - Johns was the third person on a presidential ticket who once lived in the
 Evergreen State. The first was Ulysses S. Grant who was stationed at Vancouver 1852-1854. The
 second was Emil Seidel (Socialist Party of America VP nominee 1912) who was sent by the SPA to
 live in Redmond, Wash. in 1901. Johns spent his teen years in Spokane, graduating from high school
 there.

Caleb Leroy Harrison

Caleb Leroy Harrison, September 20, 1879 (Monocacy Station, Penn.) - June 8, 1938 (Chicago, Ill.)

VP candidate for Socialist Labor Party (1916)

Running mate with nominee: Arthur E. Reimer (1882–1969)
Popular vote: 15,295 (0.08%)
Electoral vote: 0/531

The campaign:

This was the first national election in which the Socialist Labor Party had to struggle without the sectarian leadership of Daniel De Leon, who died in 1914. His handpicked replacement, Danish-born Arnold Petersen, proved a durable choice as he led the Party until 1969.

The 1916 platform was another mini-essay, concluding with: "And we also call upon all other intelligent citizens to place themselves squarely upon the ground of Working Class interests, and join us in this mighty and noble work of human emancipation, so that we may put summary end to the existing barbarous class conflict by placing the land and all the means of production, transportation, and distribution into the hands of the people as a collective body, and substituting  the Co-operative Commonwealth for the present state of planless production, industrial war and social  disorder--a commonwealth in which every worker shall have the free exercise and full benefit of his faculties, multiplied by all the factors of modern civilization."

For such a tiny political party the campaign certainly attracted a considerable amount of fear and paranoia that would only increase in the coming years. Reimer was jailed in Butte, Mont. and Harrison in Homestead, Penn. for making speeches that were considered too radical.

On the ballot in 18 states, their best finish was in Maryland with 0.29%.

Election history:
1908 - Pennsylvania General Assembly (Socialist Labor Party) - defeated
1910 - US House of Representatives (Penn.) (Socialist Labor Party) - defeated
1911 - Berks County, Penn. County Controller (Socialist Labor Party) - defeated
1912 - US House of Representatives (Penn.) (Industrialist Party) - defeated
1914 - Governor of Pennsylvania (Industrialist Party) - defeated
1916 - Presidential nomination of the Socialist Labor Party - defeated

Other occupations: machinist, roller in a pipe mill

Buried: Acacia Park Cemetery and Mausoleum (Chicago, Ill.)

Notes:
Moved to Chicago from Wilkinsburg, Penn. 1915-1916. Was a resident of Wyomissing, Penn. until
 ca. 1913.
By 1920 had converted to communism, assuming a leadership role. Using the pseudonym Atwood, he
 helped unify the Canadian communist groups in 1921.
On Aug. 22, 1922 he was arrested with 16 others in the historic raid at a Bridgman, Mich. communist
 meeting.
Buried in the same cemetery as Mike Royko.
Vanished from the political radar after 1923 so far as I can ascertain.
[Update: Mar. 12, 2021. Cassidy Stephenson writes: "I am the great-great granddaughter of Caleb Harrison, the vice presidential candidate for the socialist labor party in 1916. I actually went to Acacia Park cemetery to see his grave two days ago and they said he was cremated and we have no idea who has the ashes or if anyone ever even picked him up."  -- If any of you readers out there can answer Cassidy's question please drop us a line]

August Gillhaus

August Gillhaus, June, 1867 (New York, NY?)- May 4, 1932 (New York, NY)

VP candidate for Socialist Labor Party (aka Industrial Labor Party) (1912, 1920)

Running mate with nominee (1912): Arthur E. Reimer (1882-1969)
Running mate with nominee (1920): William Wesley Cox (1865-1948)
Popular vote (1912): 29,324 (0.19%)
Popular vote (1920): 31,084 (0.12%)   
Electoral vote (1912): 0/531
Electoral vote (1920): 0/531

The campaign (1912):

The Socialist Labor Party was pretty much lost in the shuffle in an election year when other third parties were taking up all the political oxygen. The Party continued their trajectory to an isolated and sectarian philosophical territory. It would be the final election in which SLP leader and polarizing figure Daniel De Leon was involved.

The Party's 1912 platform was unusual due to the length of the text. However it was still familiar in that the content was not so much specific statements on various policies but more of a general essay on class struggle.

The SLP was on the ballot in 21 states, placing dead last in every single one. Their two best results, both at 0.66% were Minnesota and Connecticut.

The campaign (1920):

The post-WWI government "Red Scare" prosecution of any organization to the left of the Democratic Party impacted the SLP's ability to spread their message via the postal service. Also, the SLP's membership included many immigrants who were threatened with deportation.

The SLP lost a number of members to the Communist Party in the wake of the Russian Revolution, these defectors were  characterized by the SLP as "a handful of sentimentalists." The differences between the SLP and the Communists would sharpen in the coming years.

On the ballot in only 14 states, where they placed last every time, their strongest result was in Minnesota with 0.79%.

Election history:
1903 - New York State Assembly (Socialist Labor) - defeated
1904 - US House of Representatives (NY) (Socialist Labor) - defeated
1905 - New York City Controller (Socialist Labor) - defeated
1908 - US President (Socialist Labor) - defeated
1914 - New York State Engineer and Surveyor (Socialist Labor) - defeated
1916 - US Senate (NY) (Socialist Labor) - defeated
1917 - New York City Controller (Socialist Labor) - defeated
1918 - Lt. Governor of New York (Socialist Labor) - defeated
1929 - New York City Controller (Socialist Labor) - defeated
1930 - Attorney General of New York (Socialist Labor) - defeated

Other occupations: bricklayer, engineer, cigar maker

Buried: possibly cremated and placed in a SLP-owned niche, Fresh Pond Crematory and Columbarium (Middle Village, NY)

Notes:
The first time a prior presidential nominee of any party subsequently ran for Vice-President.
Charles Gillhaus, his father, had immigrated to New York from Germany in 1864.

Donald Lapthorp Munro

Donald Lapthorp Munro, May 6, 1859 (St. John, NB) - March 8, 1934 (Cradock, Va.)

VP candidate for Socialist Labor Party (1908)

Running mate with nominee: August Gillhaus (1867-1932)
Popular vote: 14,031 (0.09%)
Electoral vote: 0/483

The campaign:

At ever at war with other groups, a proposed unification with the Socialist Party of America failed to materialize and the SLP also had problems with the IWW.

SLP leader Daniel De Leon nominated Morris (“Morrie”) R. Preston (1882-1935) for President. Donald L. Munro was selected as his running mate. The only problem was that Preston had been locked up in a Nevada prison since 1907, serving a 25-year sentence for killing a man during a picketing struggle. There is some question as to whether Preston was even a member of the SLP. In any case, he declined the nomination and August Gillhaus was substituted.

Preston, by the way was released in 1917, died as a result of falling off a telephone pole in 1935, and was posthumously pardoned by the Nevada State Supreme Court in the 1980s when the evidence was revisited. Some sources call him Martin Preston.

With votes counted in 16 states, the SLP won 0.32% in Connecticut and it went downhill from there. Gillhaus will emerge later as a SLP VP candidate in 1912 and 1920.

Election history:
1898 - US House of Representatives (Penn.) (Socialist Labor) - defeated
1900 - US House of Representatives (Penn.) (Socialist Labor) - defeated
1902 - Lt. Governor of Pennsylvania (Socialist Labor) - defeated

Other occupations: machinist, toolmaker, presidential elector for Socialist Labor Party in Va. 1924-1928

Buried: Olive Branch Cemetery (Portsmouth, Va.)

Notes:
Presbyterian
Buried in the same cemetery as the author V.C. Andrews.
His Canadian birth possibly disqualified him for the VP office had he been elected.

William Wesley Cox

William Wesley Cox, February 5, 1865 (Effingham, Ill.) — October 29, 1948 (St. Louis, Mo.)

VP candidate for Socialist Labor Party (1904)

Running mate with nominee: Charles Hunter Corregan (1860-1946)
Popular vote: 33,454 (0.25%)   
Electoral vote: 0/476

The campaign:

The Socialist Labor Party platform of 1904 was a short document serving more as a general mission statement rather than providing details on specific policies. An example: "We hold that the existing contradiction between the theory of democratic government and the fact of a despotic economic system of the private ownership of the natural and social opportunities divides the people into two classes, the Capitalist Class and the Working Class; throws society into the  convulsions of the Class Struggle, and perverts Government to the exclusive benefit of the Capitalist Class."

VP candidate Cox "spent 5 months in Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Missouri, speaking every evening in open air."

SLP's sectarian leader Daniel De Leon, known for not suffering fools gladly, praised the Corregan/Cox ticket--"A vote under the Arm and Hammer of the Socialist Labor Party, a vote for Corregan and Cox and the S.L.P. ticket straight, is a vote that will help to clear the path of the capitalist and fakir vermin that now clogs Labor’s progress and renders the progress backward."

Corregan/Cox were on the ballot in 18 states but only cracked 1% with Washington State (1.10%).

Election history:
1898 - US House of Representatives (Ill.) (Socialist Labor Party) - defeated
1900 - Lt. Governor of Illinois (Socialist Labor Party) - defeated
1902 - US House of Representatives (Ill.) (Socialist Labor Party) - defeated
1914 - US House of Representatives (Mo.) (Socialist Labor Party) - defeated
1916 - Missouri Secretary of State (Socialist Labor Party) - defeated
1918 - US Senate (Mo.) (Socialist Labor Party) - defeated
1920 - US President (Socialist Labor Party) - defeated
1922 - US Senate (Mo.) (Socialist Labor Party) - defeated
1924 - Governor of Missouri (Socialist Labor Party) - defeated
1926 - US Senate (Mo.) (Socialist Labor Party) - defeated
1928 - US Senate (Mo.) (Socialist Labor Party) - defeated
1930 - Missouri State Senate (Socialist Labor Party) - defeated
1932 - Governor of Missouri (Socialist Labor Party) - defeated
1934 - US Senate (Mo.) (Socialist Labor Party) - defeated
1936 - Governor of Missouri (Socialist Labor Party) - defeated
1940 - Governor of Missouri (Socialist Labor Party) - defeated
1944 - US Senate (Mo.) (Socialist Labor Party) - defeated

Other occupations: coal miner, brick-maker, Methodist/Church of God/Christian Church preacher, interior decorator

Buried: Sunset Memorial Park and Mausoleum (Affton, Mo.)

Notes:
Member of ACLU
In his 1934 race for the US Senate he was defeated by Harry Truman.
Lived in Collinsville, Ill. in 1904.
PoliticalGraveyard.com includes Cox in the category of "Politicans Who Lost The Most Elections"
Became an agnostic and joined the SLP in 1898
Died at his home as a result of a fall.

Valentine Remmel

Valentine Remmel, March 9, 1853 (Pittsburgh, Penn.) - May 9, 1929 (Pittsburgh, Penn.)

VP candidate for Socialist Labor Party (1900)

Running mate with nominee: Joseph F. Malloney (ca. 1865- ?)
Popular vote: 40,943 (0.29%)             
Electoral vote: 0/447

The campaign:

The 1900 Socialist Labor platform was more of a general essay than a traditional bullet-point list of statements. The document concluded with this lengthy sentence:

"We, therefore, call upon the wage workers of the United States, and upon all other honest citizens, to organize under the banner of the Socialist Labor Party into a class-conscious body, aware of its rights and determined to conquer them by taking possession of the public powers; so that, held together by an indomitable spirit of solidarity under the most trying conditions of the present class struggle, we may put a summary end to that barbarous struggle by the abolition of classes,  the restoration of the land and of all the means of production, transportation and distribution to the people as a  collective body, and the substitution of the Co-operative Commonwealth for the present state of planless production,  industrial war and social disorder; a commonwealth in which every worker shall have the free exercise and full benefit of  his faculties, multiplied by all the modern factors of civilization."

In this election cycle the SLP experienced a huge split, with at least half of their membership joining the more moderate and less ideologically pure Social Democratic Party. Defectors included past SLP candidates Wing, Matchett, and Maguire.

Remmel had been arrested in the campaign for conducting a meeting in the street without a permit.

The SLP was on the ballot in 23 states. Their best results were in Rhode Island (2.52%) and California (2.50%, where they placed third) but in both cases they were not up against any other third party except the Prohibitionists. In states where they competed for votes against the Social Democrats they trailed every time. Yet, their 0.29% share of the national poll was the highest percentage of the popular vote the SLP would ever get in a Presidential election.

Election history:
189-? - Mayor of Pittsburgh, Penn. (Socialist Labor Party) - defeated
1898 - US House of Representatives (Socialist Labor Party) - defeated
1899 - Supreme Court Judge (Penn.) (Socialist Labor Party) - defeated
1900 - Socialist Labor Party nomination for US President - defeated
1910 - US House of Representatives (Socialist Party) - defeated

Other occupations: glass blower

Buried: South Side Cemetery (Pittsburgh, Penn.)

Notes:
Son of German immigrants who arrived in America in 1845.
Started working in a glass factory in 1864 as a child laborer after his father was injured working in a coal mine.
Joined the Socialist Labor Party in 1895.

Matthew Maguire

Matthew Maguire, June 28, 1850 (some sources have 1855) (Manhattan, NY, or, Atlantic Ocean enroute to USA) - January 1, 1917 (Paterson, NJ)

VP candidate for Socialist Labor Party (1896)

Running mate with nominee: Charles H. Matchett (1843-1919)
Popular vote: 36,373 (0.26%)            
Electoral vote: 0/447

The campaign:

The 1896 SLP slogan was: "Vote for the overthrow of Capitalism! Vote for Cooperative Commonwealth!" Their platform was against child labor, supported equal wages for equal work for men and women, and a progressive income tax.

Matchett, who has been the SLP VP nominee in 1892 ran a spirited campaign. They were on the ballot in 20 states but only cracked 1% in three: New York (1.24%), New Jersey (1.07%) and Rhode Island (1.02%). In all the races except New York where they placed 4th, they were outpolled by the other third parties and landed in 5th or 6th place.

Election history:
1880 - US House of Representatives (NY) (Greenback/Socialist Labor Fusion) - defeated
1894-1898 - Alderman (Paterson, NJ) (Socialist Labor Party)
1896 - Socialist Labor Party nomination for US President - defeated
1898 - Alderman (Paterson, NJ) (Socialist Labor Party) - defeated
1898 - Governor of New Jersey (Socialist Labor Party) - defeated

Other occupations: machinist, newspaper publisher and editor, labor organizer

Buried: Holy Sepulchre Cemetery (Totowa, NJ)

Notes:
Left the Socialist Labor Party to join the Socialist Party of America.
Possible creator of Labor Day.
Catholic.
Was initially politically active with the Greenback Party.
If SLP had won, Maguire's alleged birth while enroute across the Atlantic to Irish parents might
 have been a Constitutional issue for eligibility for office.

Charles Horatio Matchett

Charles Horatio Matchett, May 15, 1843 (Brighton, Mass.) – October 23, 1919 (Allston, Mass.)

VP candidate for Socialist Labor Party (1892)

Running mate with nominee: Simon Wing (1826-1910)
Popular vote: 21,173 (0.18%)        
Electoral vote: 0/444

The campaign:

Under the influence of Marxist intellectual Daniel De Leon who had joined them in 1890, the Socialist Labor Party made their first foray into national elective politics. The Party's nominating and platform-writing convention for 1892 had just eight delegates.

The platform included government ownership of utilities, compulsory education up to 14 years of age, progressive income tax, anti-child labor, equal wages for equal work for both genders, direct vote, suffrage for all races and genders, abolition of capital punishment, and most interesting of all:

"Abolition of the Presidency, Vice-Presidency and Senate of the United States. An executive board to be established, whose members are to be elected; and may at any time be recalled by the House of Representatives, as the only legislative body."

They were on the ballot in five states (NY, NJ, Conn., Mass., Penn.) cracking more than 1% only in NY (1.34%). But this was a third party that would live on for decades.

Election history:
1894 - Governor of New York (Socialist Labor Party) - defeated
1895 - Mayor of Brooklyn, NY (Socialist Labor Party) - defeated
1896 - US President (Socialist Labor Party) - defeated
1897 - New York City Council (Socialist Labor Party) - defeated
1900 - Presidential Elector (NY) (Social Democratic Party of America) - defeated
1903 - New York Court of Appeals (Social Democratic Party of America) - defeated
1903 - New York Court of Appeals (Socialist Party of America) - defeated
1910 - US House of Representatives (NY) (Socialist Party of America) - defeated
1913 - Alderman, New York City (Socialist Party of America) - defeated
1914 - US House of Representatives (NY) (Socialist Party of America) - defeated

Other occupations: US Navy sailor during the Civil War, beer bottler, clerk, carpenter, electrician, telephone company foreman, Esperanto teacher, shoe factory worker

Buried: cremated, ashes in Mount Auburn Cemetery (Cambridge, Mass.)

Notes:
Left the Socialist Labor Party to join the Socialist Party of America.
Was divorced according to 1910 Census
Ashes are in the same cemetery as fellow 3rd party VP candidates Henry Lee (1782-1867 Nullifier Party 1832) and Edward Everett (1794-1865 Constitutional Union Party 1860)

Barzillai Jefferson Chambers

Barzillai Jefferson Chambers, December 5, 1817 (Montgomery County, Ky.) – September 16, 1895 (Cleburne, Tex.)

VP candidate for Greenback Party 1880
Running mate with nominee: James B. Weaver (1833-1912)
Popular vote: 308,649 (3.35%)              
Electoral vote: 0/369

The campaign:
By 1880 the Greenbacks had widened their appeal, adding urban and industrial laborers to their ranks. Weaver and Chambers set out to actively campaign but shortly after the convention the 62-year old Chambers fell from a train in Kosse, Tex., broke some ribs, and had to curtail his political activities as he was bedridden for some weeks.

Chambers represented a more extreme wing of the party, a faction that had already held their own convention (Union Greenback Party) nominating him for VP. When re-unification took place with the regular Greenback Party, Chambers retained the second-place spot. Members of the Socialist Labor Party also came on board.

Along with their historical single-issue monetary policy, the Greenbackers also supported Chinese labor exclusion, women's suffrage, a graduated income tax, and the 8-hour workday. The Party was listed under slightly different names state by state.

Although the Garfield-Hancock popular vote was incredibly close, the vote was more lopsided in the Electoral College. The Greenbacks did not appear to be spoilers in the outcome. On the ballot in all but 4 states, the Greenbackers polled the strongest in Texas (11.34%), Iowa (10.11%), Michigan (9.89%), Kansas (9.87%), Missouri (8.84%) and West Virginia (8.05%)

Election history:
1847 - District Surveyor of the Robertson Land District (Tex.)
1871? - Alderman (Cleburne, Tex.) (Democratic)
1876 - Texas State Legislature (Democratic) - defeated
1878 - Texas State Legislature (Greenback Party) - defeated

Other occupations: Captain in Texas War of Independence, surveyor, attorney, soldier in Confederate Army (Tex.), delegate to the Texas Constitutional Convention of 1875, newspaper publisher, chairman of the Texas Greenback Party 1882, 

Buried: Cleburne Memorial Cemetery (Cleburne, Tex.)

Notes:
Joined the Greenback Party in 1877.
Was a Freemason.
Belonged to the Christian Church.
Sometimes listed as "Benjamin J. Chambers"