Christina Gloria López

 

Christina Gloria López, July 7, 1968 (Phoenix, Ariz.) -

VP candidate for Freedom Socialist Party (aka Independent aka Non Affiliated) (2012)

Running mate with nominee: Stephen Gaylord Durham (b. 1947)
Popular vote: 117 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538

The campaign:

The Freedom Socialist Party was founded in [Washington State Trivia Alert!!!] Seattle in 1966. According to their version of events--

The FSP’s creators left the Socialist Workers Party over the SWP’s failure to recognize the inherently revolutionary character of the struggles for Black and female liberation. FSP founders also disagreed with the SWP majority of the time by believing that a genuine workers’ state was established in China after the 1949 revolution.

But our predecessors would not have left the SWP had they been able to continue fighting for their positions. They were forced to strike out on their own because of an anti-democratic clampdown on internal debate, and the FSP was born.

Black liberation and socialist feminism to the fore. The theory of revolutionary integration that FSP founders proposed to the SWP in 1963 put forward the belief that the African American freedom struggle would grow into a movement to transform the whole system. The progress of the indomitable civil rights movement and the forming of the Black Panther Party confirmed this conviction.

FSP also predicted the women’s liberation movement that exploded on the scene in 1969.

Early FSP members included three-time SWP VP Myra Tanner Weiss (1952,1956,1960) and her husband Murry.

For decades the FSP did not engage in national Electoral politics with their own nominees. In 2004 they gave qualified endorsements for the SWP and Workers World Party. But on Jan. 26, 2012, for the one and only time in their history (as of 2020) the FSP nominated a Presidential ticket with Stephen Durham of New York for President and Christina López of Seattle for VP.

The 2012 FSP platform was relatively brief but to the point--

Full employment
Disarm the US war machine and use the money to create a massive, publicly funded training and jobs program at union wages with childcare available. Repeal union-busting laws. Reduce the workweek to 30 hours with no cut in pay to create more jobs. Lower the retirement eligibility age to 55 to create employment for young people. Nationalize the banks and key industries under the management of workers’ committees. Ban speculation.

Government that helps the needy, not the greedy
Restore funds and programs that aid seniors, the poor, children, single mothers and the homeless. No cuts to Social Security, Medicaid or Medicare. Raise the minimum wage to $20 dollars an hour. Provide a guaranteed annual income. Free medical care for all, including reproductive services and abortion. End foreclosures and expand low-cost public housing.

Tax the rich and corporate profits
Simplify the tax code and eliminate loop holes and tax breaks for corporate giants. Shift the tax burden from workers and small businesses to the top one percent at a tax rate of 70%.

Liberation not discrimination
Equal rights and opportunity for all regardless of race, age, gender, nationality, sexual orientation, immigration status, or physical ability. End the war on women. Restore affirmative action programs with quotas. Full support for the sovereignty, human rights and cultural inheritance of indigenous peoples and their nations, in the U.S. and around the world. Dismantle Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Department of Homeland Security. Open the borders.

Ending US militarism, wars and occupations
For unilateral US nuclear disarmament. End the occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq. No war with Iran. Bring home all troops and mercenaries. Close all US bases abroad and shut down Guantánamo. Give soldiers the right to unionize and put them to work rebuilding the US infrastructure. Retrain veterans for productive civilian work. End arms shipments to the world.

Quality multicultural education for all ages
Tax corporate profits to pay for free multi-lingual public education, including ethnic studies, through college and trade school. End high-stakes testing and publicly funded charter schools. Protect the lives and rights of gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender youth. Cancel student debt. No military recruiting in schools.

Halting the racist “war on drugs” and abuse of police power
Treatment and job training, not prison, for addicts. Legalize drugs under community control. Outlaw for-profit detention. Enact elected civilian review boards over the police. End the death penalty.

Freedom of association & speech
Repeal the Patriot Act and indefinite military detention of US and foreign citizens. Dismantle the FBI. Outlaw covert police spying and repression of free speech activities, including those involving international solidarity groups and Occupy Wall Street. Protect the rights of whistle blowers in the public and private sectors. Free all political prisoners.

Voters’ rights and ballot access
Standardize state laws regarding federal elections to make getting on the ballot easy for minor parties. Overturn discriminatory voter ID laws and restore prisoners’ and ex-felons’ voting rights. Enact proportional representation to break the twin party monopoly. Bar super PACs.

Planetary environmental sanity
Slash industrial fossil-fuel emissions. Phase out nuclear power. Make workplaces free of toxins. Fund publicly owned renewable energy sources. Expand public mass transit and make it free. Ban fracking. Clean up toxic waste dumps and poisoned waterways and end mountaintop removal mining.

Solidarity with workers worldwide
Overturn free trade and global financial deals that impoverish workers here and around the world. Nationalize US corporations that pollute, exploit and support corrupt regimes abroad. For a socialist world!

The FSP voter recommendations for Washington State voters contains the Party's view of the competition--

Writing in Stephen Durham and Christina López for President and Vice President is hands down the best choice. But when you open your ballot, you’ll find numerous other third party options for president and vice president. Two socialist parties gathered signatures to appear on the Washington State ballot, although they spent little time campaigning here. They are: Peta Lindsay/Yari Osorio, Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL); and James Harris/Alyson Kennedy, Socialist Workers Party (SWP). FSP gave critical support to PSL candidates in past elections, despite their lackluster approach to feminism and our differences over international issues. We drew the line this year after their horse- trading shenanigans at the Peace and Freedom Party Convention in California, which resulted in not a single socialist appearing on that state’s presidential ballot. The SWP has made little attempt to run a serious campaign.

Other names on the ballot include Ross C. (Rocky) Anderson/Luis J. Rodriguez, Justice Party; and Jill Stein/Cheri Honkala, Green Party. Neither group is anti-capitalist. They pledge only incremental change, instead of tackling the profit system head on.

Two rightwing parties are also in the running: the Libertarians, who boost unfettered capitalism; and the Constitution Party, which has close ties to the far-right, racist, anti-immigrant movement.

Oddly, the FSP did not endorse the 2012 Washington State Initiative 502, making the premise statement--

Initiative 502, Marijuana legislation — Vote NO

The FSP favors legalizing marijuana but this initiative is seriously flawed. It would subject minors, drivers and medical users to a wide range of serious new criminal charges, penalties, and high costs. Groups that have long sought legalization are divided over whether the initiative is a step in the right direction. After looking at who will most likely be targeted by I-502’s new penalties, the FSP cannot endorse it.

The Durham/López ticket were write-ins in at least 16 states, with the bulk of their reported total coming from California, then New York.

In 2016 and 2020 the FSP endorsed the Socialist Action candidate Jeff Mackler.

Election history: none

Other occupations: Organizer- Seattle Radical Women, Revlon Cosmetics employee, Administrative Specialist for City of Seattle, Justice Court Clerk for Maricopa County Justice Courts, author

Notes:
Seems to have moved to Seattle in 1998.
Full disclosure, I voted for FSP US Senate candidate Steve Hoffman in the Washington State 2018 blanket primary. I also voted for Initiative 502 in 2012.

Maura DeLuca

 

Maura DeLuca, September 24, 1978 -

VP candidate for Party for Socialist Workers Party (2012)

Running mate with nominee: James Edward Harris Jr. (b. 1948)
Popular vote: 1,796 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538

The campaign:

In keeping with what was becoming a tradition of nominating ineligible candidates, the Socialist Workers Party in 2012 selected James E. Harris with under-35 years of age Maura DeLuca as his running-mate. Alyson Kennedy, the 2008 VP nominee, was called in to act as the stand-in VP in a half dozen instances.

The SWP appeared to be in sort of a cryogenic holding pattern, not helped by the growing number of ex-members who charged the Party with using cultish methods of manipulation over their dedicated followers.

DeLuca, who moved to Lincoln, Neb. in early 2012, left her temporary job at Kawasaki Motors in order to campaign. A co-worker there had supplied her with an electioneering quote that does indeed capture the essence of the SWP: "Every four years the bus driver changes, but we need to change the whole road we're on." She went on a national tour, including visiting a labor strike in Longview, Wash., probably one of the few candidates on a Presidential ticket to ever show up in that city. On the same trip she visited a strike in Kent, Wash.

Washington has been a solid blue state in every Presidential election since 1988 and has voted for Democrats for Governor since 1984. As a result, broadly speaking, this means the Democrats take this state for granted in the general Presidential election and the Republicans write us off as a waste of energy. So when any member of a national ticket visits us at all that becomes big news.

"I'm a factory worker. I have worked in union and nonunion plants and have seen that our strength comes when we organize and come together, women and men fighting shoulder to shoulder, against speedup, cuts in wages, longer hours, whatever," DeLuca was quoted in The Militant. Although Washington is considered blue, labor unions have been watching their political clout diminish in rural counties and the political division here is now urban/rural = blue/red. This is a microcosm of what we have seen happen across the country and by 2012 that shift was well underway. So the SWP had their work cut out for them. But instead of turning to the SWP, working class blue collar rural counties like mine (logging, Pacific Ocean fishing, cranberries, oysters) who voted for McGovern in 1972, Carter in 1980 and didn't have a single Republican in county public office for the second half of the 20th century, are now deep Red, and I don't mean May Day Red but Republican Red.

The Harris/DeLuca ticket won 1,796 popular votes out of the 4,120 cast for the Party as whole (the lowest in their Electoral history). They were on the ballot in Minnesota (0.04%) and New Jersey (0.02%), and were write-ins for Connecticut. Shortly after the election DeLuca relocated to Omaha, Neb. and within a few months was running for Mayor.

Election history:
2006 - Governor of New York (Socialist Workers Party) - defeated
2009 - New York City Public Advocate (Socialist Workers Party) - defeated
2013 - Mayor of Omaha, Neb. (Nonpartisan) - primary - defeated

Other occupations: sewing machine operator, welder, union activist, Kawasaki Motors worker, writer, wind turbine factory, electrical power assembly worker

Notes:
Speaks Italian and Spanish.
Opponents in 2006 included Eliot Spitzer (winner) and Jimmy McMillan.
Winner of the 2009 election was Bill de Blasio.
Joined the SWP in 2005.

Alyson Kennedy

 

                                                                      Above, 2008 ; Below, 2012

Alyson Kennedy, June 11, 1950 (Indianapolis, Ind.) -

VP candidate for Party for Socialist Workers Party (2008, 2012)

Running mate with nominee (2008): Róger Calero (b. 1969), James Edward Harris Jr. (b. 1948)
Running mate with nominee (2012): James Edward Harris Jr. (b. 1948)
Popular vote (2008): 7,577 (0.01%)
Popular vote (2012): 2,324 (0.00%)
Electoral vote (2008, 2012): 0/538

The campaign (2008):

The Socialist Workers Party launched their national ticket of Róger Calero and Alyson Kennedy in Jan. 2008. There was one slight problem-- Calero, who was born in Nicaragua, was ineligible to hold the office he sought. Many states would not allow him to be listed on their ballots, so the stalwart perennial James E. Harris returned as a stand-in. Kennedy remained the running-mate in all states.

Calero was not only not born a US citizen, but he had nearly been deported stemming from an arrest back in 1988 concerning a felony-level sale of marijuana. This case came up in 2002 when Calero attempted to re-enter the US after a journalistic trip to Cuba.

The Calero/Kennedy ticket made the ballot in Delaware, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, and Vermont. They were write-ins in Connecticut. The Harris/Kennedy ticket made the ballot in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Louisiana, and Washington. They were write-ins in California and Georgia.

In a decline from the previous election, the SWP tickets had their best showings in New York and Vermont (0.05%), Louisiana (0.04%), Minnesota (0.03%), Iowa and Washington (0.02%). Official popular vote tallies vary somewhat depending on the source.

The campaign (2012):

In keeping with what was becoming a tradition of nominating ineligible candidates, the SWP selected James E. Harris with under-35 years of age Maura DeLuca as his running-mate. Kennedy was called in to act as the stand-in VP in a half dozen instances. Kennedy was simultaneously running for Cook County State's Attorney (Ill.).

The SWP appeared to be in sort of a cryogenic holding pattern, not helped by the growing number of ex-members who charged the Party with using cultish methods of manipulation over their dedicated followers.

The Harris/Kennedy ticket won 2,324 popular votes out of the 4,120 cast for the Party as whole. They were on the ballot in Washington (0.04%), Iowa (0.03%), Louisiana (0.02%), and Colorado (0.01%). They were also write-ins for California and Georgia.

Election history:
1977 - Mayor of Cleveland, Ohio (Nonpartisan) - primary - defeated
2000 - US Senate (Mo.) (Independent) - defeated
2012 - Cook County State's Attorney, Ill. (Socialist Workers Party) - defeated
2016 - US President (Socialist Workers Party) - defeated
2019 - Mayor of Dallas, Tex. (Nonpartisan) - defeated
2020 - US President (Socialist Workers Party) - pending

Other occupations: coal miner, teacher, Walmart worker, garment worker

Notes:
Winner of the 1977 election was Dennis Kucinich.
Was a write-in candidate in 2000.
A member of the SWP since 1975.

Arrin T. Hawkins

Arrin T. Hawkins, July 25, 1975 - 

VP candidate for Socialist Workers Party (2004)

Running mate with nominee: Róger Calero (b. 1969)
Popular vote: 3,689 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538

The campaign:

Martin Koppel, who had been the Socialist Workers Party provisional Presidential nominee in 2004, was suddenly shifted into running for the US Senate in New York. I say sudden because campaign buttons for Koppel and his running-mate Arrin Hawkins had already been manufactured. In 2002 Koppel and Hawkins had run as a team for Governor and Lt. Governor of New York.

A new Presidential nominee was substituted and made official at the convention but the SWP ticket faced a double whammy as far the Constitution was concerned. The Presidential nominee was Róger Calero, who was born in Nicaragua, and the VP was still Arrin Hawkins, who was 29-- little details that made both of them ineligible to hold the offices they sought. Many states would not allow the duo to be listed on their ballots, so the Harris/Trowe ticket of 2000 returned as stand-ins. As it turned out there were more states with the substitute team for this Castroist party on their ballots than there were with the official 2004 nominees.

Calero was not only not born a US citizen, but he had nearly been deported stemming from an arrest back in 1988 concerning a felony-level sale of marijuana. This case came up in 2002 when Calero attempted to re-enter the US after a journalistic trip to Cuba.

The SWP said Hawkins was 28 or 29 years old, but some sources claimed she was actually two or three years older-- still too young to serve as VP in either case. Records indicate she was born on July 25, 1975.

This double ticket situation takes some figuring, and it doesn't help that several trusted sources have conflicting information. From what I can sort out Harris/Trowe were on the ballot in Colorado, District of Columbia, Florida, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, Utah, Washington, and Wisconsin. They were write-ins in Delaware and Ohio. Calero/Hawkins were on the ballot in Minnesota, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, and Vermont. They were write-ins in Connecticut. Math is not my strongest subject but I count 7108 votes for Harris/Trowe, 3689 for Calero/Hawkins.

The Calero/Hawkins ticket finished with 0.08% in Vermont, 0.03% in New York, and 0.01% in Minnesota, Nebraska, and New Jersey.

Election history:
2002 - Lt. Governor of New York (Socialist Workers Party) - defeated
2005 - Manhattan Borough President (NY) (Socialist Workers Party) - defeated

Other occupations: airline baggage handler, meat packer, garment worker

Notes:
In the 2002 election she was apparently a write-in candidate.

Margaret Jane Trowe

Margaret Jane Trowe, February 19, 1948 -

VP candidate for Socialist Workers Party (aka Independent) (2000, 2004)

Running mate with nominee (2000, 2004): James Edward Harris Jr. (b. 1948)
Popular vote (2000): 7,039 (0.01%)
Popular vote (2004): 7,108 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538

The campaign (2000):

The ticket of James Harris for President and Margaret Trowe for Vice-President continued a practice the Socialist Workers Party had continuously employed since 1980 of nominating an African American male as the standard bearer with a Euro American female as the running-mate.

By the dawn of the new millennium the SWP had already started to look like a living museum piece. The Castroist group had pretty much put their days of tumult behind them as various factions split away into their own political parties. Some critics and ex-members described the SWP as an encapsulated cult.

The SWP had a policy of moving their most ardent followers around like missionaries, assigning cities for them to reside in for short periods of time as they worked to organize the working class. This is a possible explanation for Trowe's frequent change of residence. In 2000 she was in Minnesota.

Trowe visited Australia and New Zealand as part of her campaign while Harris apparently visited Europe in an effort to gain international support. Other SWP candidates had done this in the past. In the former country in August 2000 she told an interviewer about some of the realities of third party electioneering: "All right, we have a modest budget, $US100,000 for two people to travel for six months. We travel by car and we stay on futons a lot, but we're meeting fighting workers and farmers and people struggling for important social issues who are encouraging us. And we also are finding that there's an increase in resistance."

On the ballot in 13 states + DC and recorded write-ins in 3 others, the Harris/Trowe ticket's highest popular votes percentage could be found in District of Columbia, Louisiana, and Mississippi-- each with 0.06%. They placed 8th nationally.

The campaign (2004):

The official SWP ticket faced a double whammy as far the Constitution was concerned. The Presidential nominee was Róger Calero, who was born in Nicaragua, and the VP was Arrin Hawkins, who was in her late 20s, little details that made both of them ineligible to hold the offices they sought. Many states would not allow the duo to be listed on their ballots, so the Harris/Trowe ticket returned as stand-ins. As it turned out there were more states with the substitute team than there were with the official 2004 nominees.

By 2004 Trowe was now in Massachusetts.

This double ticket situation takes some figuring, and it doesn't help that several trusted sources have conflicting information. From what I can sort out Harris/Trowe were on the ballot in Colorado, District of Columbia, Florida, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, Utah, Washington, and Wisconsin. They were write-ins in Delaware and Ohio. Calero/Hawkins were on the ballot in Minnesota, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, and Vermont. They were write-ins in Connecticut. Math is not my strongest subject but I count 7108 votes for Harris/Trowe, 3689 for Calero/Hawkins.

Harris/Trowe's strongest percentages were in Mississippi 0.11%, District of Columbia 0.06%, and Louisiana 0.05%.

Election history:
1977 - Mayor of Seattle (Wash.) (Nonpartisan) - defeated
1998 - US Senate (Iowa) (Socialist Workers Party) - defeated
2005 - Mayor of Boston (Socialist Workers Party) - failed to attain ballot status
2006 - US House of Representatives (Fla.) (No Party Affiliation) - defeated
2010 - Iowa Secretary of Agriculture (Socialist Workers Party) - defeated
2013 - Des Moines (Iowa) City Council (Nonpartisan) - defeated
2017 - Mayor of Albany (NY) (Socialist Workers Party) - defeated
2018 - US Senate (NY) (Socialist Workers Party) - defeated

Other occupations: bus driver, sheet metal grinder, welder, meatpacker, printing work, union activist

Notes:
1977 opponents (Washington State triva alert!!!) included Charlie Royer (winner), Paul Schell,
 Wayne Larkin, Phyllis Lamphere, Sam Smith, John Miller, and Richard Van Horn. I was also living
 in Seattle during part of 1977.
Winner in the 1998 election was Chuck Grassley.
Was a write-in in the 2006 and 2018 elections.
Speaks Spanish and French.

Laura Ellen Garza

Laura Ellen Garza, ca1958 (New York, NY) -

VP candidate for Socialist Workers Party (aka Socialist Workers Campaign aka Independent) (1996)

Running mate with nominee: James Edward Harris Jr. (b. 1948)
Popular vote: 8,477 (0.01%)
Electoral vote: 0/538

The campaign:

1996 was the first of several subsequent runs for the Presidency by James Harris, a meatpacker in Atlanta. His running-mate was Laura Garza, a writer in New York for the The Militant, official organ of the Socialist Workers Party.

By the time Garza was nominated as VP, she had already run for office numerous times in at least four different states. After 1996 a couple states were added to her resume as a candidate, which has to be something of a record for third party running-mates. How much of this moving around was her own personal circumstance vs. a well-known activist relocation policy of the SWP is not known. Houston, Tex. seemed to be a special SWP target. Garza ran for Mayor there in 1999, as did SWP 1976 and 1992 VP Willie Mae Reid in 1985 and 1991.

Their platform included free health care, support of Gay marriage, expansion of Affirmative Action, raising the minimum wage, a removal of US troops from the Mideast and former Yugoslavia, upholding Native American treaties, creating a massive public works program, and as always they strongly confirmed themselves as one of the most ardent Castroist political parties on the US ballot.

SWP political candidates are not exactly noted for being your typical gladhander politicians who attempt to persuade the voters by turning on the sugar-coated charm. In the era of the 1990s there was a definite unsmiling seriousness in delivering the message. Harris addressed this SWP style to a Chicago reporter, "What people want politicians to say is, 'Things are bad, but they're going to get better. Vote for me and I'll set you free.' We don't say that. We say, 'Things are bad, and they're only going to get worse.'"

The Harris/Garza ticket made the ballot in 10 states + DC and had recorded write-ins in five more. They were usually at or near the bottom where they appeared. Their best showings were: District of Columbia 0.14%, Vermont 0.08%, and New Jersey 0.06%. Although their 8,463 popular votes was their most dismal showing since 1956, the 1996 results would not be surpassed until 2016. Century 21 was not going to be kind to the SWP at least in the electoral scene.

Election history:
1980 - US House of Representatives (Tex.) (Socialist Workers Party) - defeated
1982 - Mayor of Newark, NJ (Socialist Workers Party) - defeated
1991 - St. Paul (Minn.) City Council (Socialist Workers Party) - withdrew
1993 - Mayor of Miami, Fla. (Nonpartisan) - primary - defeated
1994 - US House of Representatives (Fla.) (Independent) - defeated
1998 - Governor of Texas (Socialist Workers Party) - defeated
1999 - Mayor of Houston, Tex. (Nonpartsan) - defeated
2003 - Boston (Mass.) City Councillor (Nonpartisan) - primary - defeated
2004 - Massachusetts State House (Socialist Workers Party) - defeated
2005 - Boston (Mass.) City Councillor (Nonpartisan) - primary - defeated
2006 - US House of Representatives (Mass.) (Socialist Workers Party) - defeated
2008 - US House of Representatives (Mass.) (Socialist Workers Party) - defeated
2009 - Boston (Mass.) City Councillor (Nonpartisan) - primary - defeated
2018 - Governor of California (Socialist Workers Party) - defeated
2019 - Los Angeles (Calif.) Unified School District (Socialist Workers Party) - defeated

Other occupations: garment worker, writer, union activist

Notes:
Ran as a write-in in the 1999, 2008, 2019 elections and perhaps in 1982 as well.
Also known as Laura E. Garza Halstead.
Winner of the 1998 election was George W. Bush.

Estelle Christine DeBates

Estelle Christine DeBates, February 24, 1960 (Sioux Falls, SD) -

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

Running mate with nominee: James Warren (b ca1952)
Popular vote: 20,823 (0.02%)
Electoral vote: 0/538

The campaign:

It was the second Presidential run in a row for Socialist Workers Party nominee James Warren of Chicago. Warren's running mate in the now much more depleted SWP was Estelle DeBates, a Brooklyn-based 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 1976 VP Willie Mae Reid was brought back to act as a stand-in VP in those jurisdictions.

DeBates, who had grown up on a farm in South Dakota, had been an activist for the pro-choice movement, against the US involvement in Central America, and had already run twice for public office under the SWP banner.

She had no illusions about winning. Debates told a reporter, "The aims of the Communist Manifesto won't be realized overnight. But we want to reach out to the small layer of people who are receptive to our ideas and build the leadership of the working class."

Underlying her sense of internationalism, DeBates spent part of her campaign in other nations  including Canada, North Korea, South Africa, Japan, and Sweden.

In Utah, where Reid was actually listed as the VP on the ballot, DeBates spoke at a rally against the death penalty in connection with a contemporary case: "History has shown it is used against working people. We'll go back to a day when union organizers are executed, fighters for women's rights. These are the people who will be on the death row in the future." However, revealing the SWP bias in favor of Castro, she would not condemn Cuba's use of executions, which she claimed were "extremely rare and are only carried out for extreme acts which endanger the revolution."

In the 1980s the SWP counted US Rep. Bernie Sanders of Vermont as one of their own, but they basically condemned him in the 1992 election due to his endorsement of the Clinton/Gore ticket.

The 1992 election total popular vote results of 23,096 for the SWP would be the last time until 2016 (where they earned 12,467 votes) when the Party finished in the five-figure category. The Warren/DeBates portion of the campaign was on the ballot in seven states + DC and write-ins in six others. In New York they finished with an impressive 4th place out of 11 (0.23%). Other results: New Jersey and North Dakota 0.06% each, Alabama and District of Columbia 0.05% each, Minnesota 0.04%, Vermont 0.03%, Washington 0.02%.

Election history:
1986 - US House of Representatives (Ky.) (Socialist Workers Party) - defeated
1991 - Chicago (Ill.) City Clerk (Socialist Workers Party) - defeated

Other occupations: Staff writer for the Militant, worker in garment and machine tool industries

Notes:
Joined the Young Socialist Alliance in 1982

Kathleen A. Mickells

Kathleen A. Mickells, July 6, 1950 (Omaha, Neb.) -

VP candidate for Socialist Workers Party (aka Independent) (1988)

Running mate with nominee: James Warren (b ca1952)
Popular vote: 15,602 (0.02%)
Electoral vote: 0/538

The campaign:

The good news for the Socialist Workers Party in 1988 was the impression that their long period of turmoil, purges and splinter groups breaking away appeared to have come to an end for the time being. The bad news was that the Party was now a mere shadow of it's former self and a Phoenix-like rise was not going to be a reality in the near future. In the opinion of several observers, Castroism had solidly replaced Trotskyism in the SWP.

In March 1988 the SWP nominated James Warren for President and Kathy Mickells (pronounced "Michaels") for VP. It was a young ticket with both being under the age of 40 but in an unusual twist for third parties on the Left, both were also old enough to legally serve in office if elected.

Mickells had recently been laid off from her job with Steel Mining Corporation's Cumberland Mine in Kirby, Penn. Earlier in her political activity she had been involved with the American Indian Movement and their occupation of Wounded Knee. Later she was an anti-nuclear power protester.

The three man points of the SWP's 1988 campaign were: Shorten the work week to 30 hours with no cut in pay -- Increase Affirmative Action programs -- Cancel the Third World debt. Both candidates were energetic in their electioneering, criss-crossing the country and making their case, usually hammering on employment. The amount of national media coverage they received was not exactly copious but local newspapers seemed to be relatively more willing to cover the SWP candidates when they came to town.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson's impact on the presidential election as a contender in the Democratic primaries was addressed by nearly every third party on the Left, ranging from total support to utter disdain. Warren was sometimes called by the press "the other Black candidate." Mickells gave the SWP perspective on Jackson's effort: "As he put himself forward as the viable candidate, his policies have bent as opposed to really reflecting what working people are looking for ... [the Democrats and Republicans] are two sides of the same coin. They are parties of the ruling rich. Their program is to defend big business, big bankers and big landowners against working people. And that will be the position Jackson will find himself in."

Mickells had predicted that an economic collapse on par with the Great Depression would happen in the United States within the next couple years.

On the ballot in 15 states + DC, it was not a stellar year for the SWP in terms of popular votes. In 6 of those states they placed dead last. The best showings for Warren/Mickells: North Dakota and Wisconsin 0.12% each, Minnesota 0.10%, New Jersey-New Mexico-South Dakota-Washington 0.07% each. 

Election history:
1983 - Washington County Commission (Penn.) (Socialist Workers Party) - defeated
1985 - US House of Representatives (W. Va.) (Socialist Workers Party) - defeated
1990 - Governor of Pennsylvania (Socialist Workers Party) - defeated
1991 - Mayor of Philadelphia, Penn. (Socialist Workers Party) - defeated

Other occupations:  oil refinery worker, coal miner, garment worker, teacher, member of a political theater troupe, railroad switchperson

Notes:
She ran in the 1985 and 1990 races as a write-in.
Was married to Douglas Hord, but used her birth name.