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

Helen Betty Halyard

Helen Betty Halyard, November 24, 1950 -

VP candidate for Workers League (aka Workers League Party) (1984)

Running mate with nominee: Edward Winn (1937-1995)
Popular vote: 4341 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538

The campaign:

The Workers League (aka Workers League Party) was formed in 1966. Many members had come from the Socialist Workers Party but did not share the pro-Castro views of the SWP. 1984 was the first time the League entered the arena of Presidential politics although they had run candidates for other offices in the 1970s. Most of their activity was centered in the region of the industrial Rust Belt which in 1984 was in the midst of experiencing the industrial age being transformed into the information age, displacing thousands of workers.

The Workers League Party could be characterized as Trotskyite, international in outlook, and hard line in not working with mainstream parties. In some ways they filled the void left by the Socialist Labor Party in presenting an uncompromising Marxist (and anti-Stalinist) alternative for voters in 1984.

Presidential candidate Edward Winn was a bus mechanic for the NYC Transit Authority. VP nominee Helen Halyard of Hamtramck, Mich. had been a member of the Workers League since 1971. At age 33 during the 1984 campaign she was under the Constitutionally mandated age of 35 to hold the office she was seeking. As the candidates themselves would admit, the 1984 run was more about building the party than winning.

They called for nationalization of the banking system and redistribution of the assets in order to fight unemployment and restore cuts to social programs, 30 hour work week with 40 hour pay, $100 billion public works program, socialized medicine, elimination of the CIA and FBI, and US withdrawal from NATO.

The team was one of the few in US history where both nominees were African American and as such they were frequently asked to comment on the parallel Democratic Party primary Presidential run of Jesse Jackson. "We will never capitulate to any capitalistic candidates," Winn declared, "including Jesse Jackson." Al Sharpton was also included in their roster of capitalistic politicians. This was also in reaction to some other parties on the Left (e.g. Workers World Party) willing to endorse Jackson in the event he gained the nomination. Actually quite a bit of disdain was cast in the direction of the Workers World Party and the Socialist Workers Party.

The Workers League Party attained ballot status in six states, but Halyard was only listed as the VP in half of them, perhaps due to her age or the other two names were considered early filing stand-ins. The Party earned a total of 10,801 votes in the US (0.01%). The Winn/Halyard combination accounted for 4341 of those votes with the percentages being: New Jersey 0.05%, Pennsylvania 0.04%, and Michigan 0.01%.

Halyard remains active to this day in the Socialist Equality Party (the Workers League Party changed their name in the mid 1990s).

Election history:
1974 - US House of Representatives (NY) (Workers League Party) - defeated
1976 - US House of Representatives (NY) (Workers League Party) - defeated
1982 - US Senate (Mich.) (Workers League Party) - defeated
1985 - Mayor of Detroit, Mich. (Nonpartisan) - primary - defeated
1989 - Mayor of Detroit, Mich. (Nonpartisan) - primary - defeated
1992 - US President (Workers League Party) - defeated
1994 - US House of Representatives (Mich.) (Independent) - defeated
1996 - US House of Representatives (Mich.) (Socialist Equality Party) - defeated

Other occupations: Assistant National Secretary for Socialist Equality Party, Workers League Party Presidential Elector 1988

Notes:
Winner of the 1976 race was Charles Rangel.
Winner of the 1985 and 1989 races was Coleman Young.
A competitor and fellow runner up in the 1989 race was John Conyers.
Competitors in the 1996 race included John Conyers (winner) and Willie Mae Reid.
Wikipedia and some other secondary sources state Halyard was the 1988 Workers League VP
 nominee but primary sources all show Barry Porster as the 1988 VP.

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.