The Free & Equal Elections Foundation (Free & Equal) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, non-partisan organization in the United States, the mission of which is to empower American voters through education and advocacy of electoral reforms. [1] Free & Equal leads national, state, and local efforts to open the electoral process in the United States by hosting all-inclusive gubernatorial, Presidential, and senatorial debates; organizing Electoral Reform Symposiums; producing United We Stand tours; and supporting individuals running for office. Free & Equal was first organized in 1982 as the Foundation for Free Campaigns and Elections, before being formally reorganized in 2008 by Christina Tobin, an American activist and leader in the election reform and voters' rights movement.
During the 2008 presidential election, Free & Equal hosted a presidential debate at the Mayflower Renaissance Hotel in Washington, D.C., on October 23, 2008. Constitution Party candidate Chuck Baldwin and independent candidate Ralph Nader participated in a debate moderated by journalist Chris Hedges. The Free & Equal debate was the only presidential debate featuring independent and third-party candidates held during the 2008 election to be broadcast to a national audience. The debate was broadcast live on C-SPAN2 in prime time.
Free & Equal debates, 2008 | ||||||||||
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N° | Date | Host | Location | Moderators | Participants | |||||
P Participant N Non-invitee A Absent invitee | Democratic | Republican | Libertarian | Green | Constitution | Independent | ||||
Senator Barack Obama of Illinois | Senator John McCain of Arizona | Congressman Bob Barr of Georgia | Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney of Georgia | Pastor Chuck Baldwin of Florida | Advocate Ralph Nader of Connecticut | |||||
1 | October 23, 2008 | A | A | A | A | P | P |
In 2012, Free & Equal sponsored the October 23, 2012 debate among four third party candidates for President of the United States. It featured Gary Johnson (Libertarian Party), Jill Stein (Green Party), Virgil Goode (Constitution Party), and Rocky Anderson (Justice Party). The debate was moderated by former Larry King Live host Larry King and Christina Tobin. It was televised by RT TV, Al Jazeera English, and C-SPAN. [2] [3]
Free & Equal debates, 2012 | ||||||||||
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N° | Date | Host | Location | Moderator | Participants | |||||
P Participant. N Non-invitee. A Absent invitee. | Democratic | Republican | Libertarian | Green | Constitution | Justice | ||||
President Barack Obama of Illinois | Governor Mitt Romney of Massachusetts | Governor Gary Johnson of New Mexico | Doctor Jill Stein of Massachusetts | Congressman Virgil Goode of Virginia | Mayor Rocky Anderson of Utah | |||||
1 | October 23, 2012 | Larry King of Ora.TV | A | A | P | P | P | P | ||
2 | November 5, 2012 | Thom Hartmann of RT | N | N | P | P | N | N | ||
Free & Equal hosted an open debate along with Student Voices Count at the University of Colorado Boulder's Macky Auditorium on October 25, 2016. [4] Originally, all presidential candidates with ballot access sufficient to represent a majority of electoral votes were invited. [5] in October 2016, Free and Equal extended the invitation to all candidates with ballot lines representing at least fifteen percent of potential voters: the Democratic, Republican, Libertarian, Green, Constitution, Reform, and Socialism and Liberation parties, as well as independent candidate Evan McMullin. [6] Gary Johnson, who participated in the 2012 debate, had already publicly declined in July 2016 to debate Jill Stein on The Young Turks because of a matter of "just time". [7]
Free & Equal debates, 2016 | ||||||||||||
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N° | Date | Host | Location | Moderators | Invited participants | |||||||
P Participant. A Absent invitee. | Republican | Democratic | Libertarian | Green | Constitution | Reform | PSL | Independent | ||||
Businessman Donald Trump of New York | Secretary Hillary Clinton of New York | Governor Gary Johnson of New Mexico | Doctor Jill Stein of Massachusetts | Lieutenant Darrell Castle of Tennessee | Businessman Rocky De La Fuente of California | Activist Gloria La Riva of California | Director Evan McMullin of Utah | |||||
1 | October 25, 2016 | University of Colorado Boulder | Boulder, Colorado | Ed Asner [8] | A | A | A | A | P [9] [8] | P [9] [8] | P [9] [8] | A |
Early on March 4, 2020, the Free & Equal Elections Foundation held a debate at the Hilton Chicago Hotel. Various third-party candidates, as well as minor candidates affiliated with the Democratic and Republican parties attended. [10] Some, but not all, of the participants would go on to be their parties nominees.
2020 Free & Equal debates | |||||||||||||
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No. | Date & Time | Location | Moderators | Invited participants | |||||||||
P Participant. | Democratic | Libertarian | Green | Constitution | American Solidarity | Life and Liberty | Transhumanist | ||||||
Businessman Mark Stewart of Connecticut | Activist Dan Berhman of Texas | Carpenter Erik Gerhardt of Pennsylvania | LNC Vice Chair Arvin Vohra of Maryland | Activist Sedinam Moyowasifza-Curry of California | Financial Advisor Charles Kraut of Virginia | Educator Brian Carroll of California | Activist J.R. Myers of Alaska | Activist Ben Zion of Arizona | |||||
1a | March 4, 2020 2:00 pm CST | Chicago, Illinois | Christina Tobin | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | |
P Participant. | Republican | Democratic | Libertarian | Green / Socialist | PSL | Independent | |||||||
Futurist Zoltan Istvan of California | Attorney Mosie Boyd of Arkansas | Lieutenant Ken Armstrong of Hawaii | Lecturer Jo Jorgensen of South Carolina | Corporal Adam Kokesh of Indiana | Activist Vermin Supreme of Massachusetts | Tradesman Howie Hawkins of New York | Activist Gloria La Riva of California | Activist Mark Charles of the District of Columbia | |||||
1b | March 4, 2020 6:30 pm CST | Chicago, Illinois | Christina Tobin | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | P |
Two debates were held prior to the general election. The first was on October 8, 2020, in Denver, Colorado, with participation limited to candidates on the ballot in at least eight states. [11] A second debate with the same candidates occurred on October 24, 2020, in Cheyenne, Wyoming. [12]
2020 Free & Equal debates | |||||||||||||
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No. | Date & Time | Location | Moderators | Invited participants | |||||||||
P Participant. A Absent Invitee. | Republican | Democratic | Libertarian | Green / Socialist | PSL | Alliance / Reform | Constitution | American Solidarity | Independent | ||||
President Donald Trump of Florida | Former Vice President Joe Biden of Delaware | Lecturer Jo Jorgensen of South Carolina | Tradesman Howie Hawkins of New York | Activist Gloria La Riva of California | Businessman Rocky De La Fuente of California | Businessman Don Blankenship of West Virginia | Educator Brian Carroll of California | Entrepreneur Brock Pierce of Puerto Rico | Producer Kanye West of Wyoming | ||||
2 | October 8, 2020 6:00 pm MDT | Denver, Colorado | Christina Tobin | A | A | A | P | P | A | P | P | P | A |
3 | October 24, 2020 6:00 pm MDT | Cheyenne, Wyoming | Christina Tobin | A | A | A | P | P | A | A | P | P | A |
On January 18, 2024, the Free & Equal Elections Foundation held its first ever Democratic Party Primary debate streamed on Rumble while four candidates took the stage at Chelsea Television Studios in New York City, New York. Candidates were invited if they had ballot access in at least four states. Although eight candidates were invited, [13] only four participated as they were Gabriel Cornejo, Frankie Lozada, Stephen Lyons, and Jason Palmer. [14]
On February 29, 2024 Free & Equal held its first Independent Presidential Debate also at Chelsea Television Studios featuring two Libertarian candidates being Chase Oliver and Lars Mapstead, two Green Party candidates being Jill Stein and Jasmine Sherman (also nominee of The Unicorn Party), plus Party for Socialism and Liberation nominee Claudia De la Cruz. Independent candidates Robert F. Kennedy Jr and Cornel West were invited but unable to attend. [15] [16]
These selections were made via multiple choice voting available on their website where members of the public could pick their top seven candidates across party lines and independents. [17]
Since 2009, Free & Equal has hosted electoral reform symposiums to unite intellectuals and experts to share and debate reforms to the U.S. electoral system. Past panelists and speakers include President of The League of Women Voters of Colorado Nancy Crow, Deputy Secretary of State of Colorado Suzanne Staiert, Founder of FairVote Rob Richie, Founder of Nexus Earth Colin Cantrell, Founder of Ballot Access News Richard Winger and more. [18] [19] [20] [21] [22]
In 2014, Free & Equal launched United We Stand, a festival and tour uniting the younger generations with musicians, artists, and thought leaders to promote political and cultural change. Since its inception, the tour has made stops at Belasco Theater in Los Angeles in 2014 [23] and 2015, [24] University of Colorado Boulder in 2016, [25] and Texas A&M University in 2018. [26] The 2019 tour includes Indiana, [27] Texas, [28] Colorado, [29] Oregon, [30] and Tennessee. [31]
The Green Party of the United States (GPUS) is a federation of Green state political parties in the United States. The party promotes green politics, specifically environmentalism; nonviolence; social justice; participatory democracy; grassroots democracy; anti-war; anti-racism; eco-socialism. On the political spectrum, the party is generally seen as left-wing. As of 2023, it is the fourth-largest political party in the United States by voter registration, behind the Libertarian Party.
The Libertarian Party (LP) is a political party in the United States that promotes civil liberties, non-interventionism, laissez-faire capitalism, and limiting the size and scope of government. The party was conceived in August 1971 at meetings in the home of David F. Nolan in Westminster, Colorado, and was officially formed on December 11, 1971, in Colorado Springs. The organizers of the party drew inspiration from the works and ideas of the prominent Austrian school economist, Murray Rothbard. The founding of the party was prompted in part due to concerns about the Nixon administration, the Vietnam War, conscription, and the introduction of fiat money.
The Reform Party of the United States of America (RPUSA), generally known as the Reform Party USA or the Reform Party, is a centrist political party in the United States, founded in 1995 by Ross Perot.
Third party, or minor party, is a term used in the United States' two-party system for political parties other than the Republican and Democratic parties.
The 2008 United States presidential election was the 56th quadrennial presidential election, held on November 4, 2008. The Democratic ticket of Barack Obama, the junior senator from Illinois, and Joe Biden, the senior senator from Delaware, defeated the Republican ticket of John McCain, the senior senator from Arizona, and Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska. Obama became the first African American to be elected to the presidency, as well as being only the third sitting United States senator elected president, joining Warren G. Harding and John F. Kennedy. Meanwhile, this was only the second successful all-senator ticket since the 1960 election and is the only election where both major party nominees were sitting senators. This was the first election since 1952 in which neither the incumbent president nor vice president was on the ballot, as well as the first election since 1928 in which neither ran for the nomination.
Jill Ellen Stein is an American physician, activist, and politician. She was the Green Party's nominee for president of the United States in the 2012 and 2016 elections and the Green-Rainbow Party's candidate for governor of Massachusetts in 2002 and 2010. She is currently running for president in the 2024 U.S. presidental election.
Gloria Estela La Riva is an American perennial political candidate and communist activist with the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) and the Peace and Freedom Party. She was the PSL's nominee and the Peace and Freedom's nominee in the 2020 presidential election, her tenth consecutive run as either a presidential or vice presidential candidate. She was previously a member of the Workers World Party. She ran as the PSL's and the Peace and Freedom Party's presidential candidate in the 2016 presidential election, with Eugene Puryear and Dennis J. Banks as her running mates respectively. She was the PSL's presidential nominee in the 2008 presidential election. For the 2020 election, Sunil Freeman was her running mate.
The 2008 presidential campaign of Cynthia McKinney, member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Georgia's 11th district (1993–97) and 4th district, began on December 16, 2007, as a candidate for the Green Party presidential nomination via YouTube. She and her running mate Rosa Clemente accepted the Green Party's presidential nomination July 12, 2008 at the 2008 Green National Convention. Her campaign focused on issues such as racial profiling, September 11, 2001 attacks, and the Green Party's 10 key values. She also supported statehood for the District of Columbia, slavery reparations, electoral reforms including instant runoff voting, and calls for abolishing the death penalty and the War on Drugs.
The 2016 United States presidential election was the 58th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 8, 2016. The Republican ticket, businessman Donald Trump and Indiana governor Mike Pence defeated the Democratic ticket of former secretary of state and First Lady of the United States Hillary Clinton and the junior senator from Virginia, Tim Kaine, in what was considered one of the biggest political upsets in American history. It was also the sixth presidential election in which both major party candidates were registered in the same home state; the others have been in 1860, 1904, 1920, 1940, and 1944.
Christina Tobin is an American activist and leader in the election reform and voters' rights movements. She is the founder and chair of The Free & Equal Elections Foundation, and president and chief executive officer of Free and Equal, Inc.
The bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) held four debates for the 2012 U.S. presidential general election, slated for various locations around the United States in October 2012 – three of them involving the major party presidential nominees; those being Democratic President Barack Obama from Illinois and Republican Governor Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, and one involving the vice-presidential nominees, those being Vice President Joe Biden from Delaware and Congressman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin.
The 2012 presidential campaign of Jill Stein was announced on October 24, 2011. Jill Stein, a physician from Massachusetts, gave indication in August 2011 that she was considering running for President of the United States with the Green Party in the 2012 national election. She wrote in a published questionnaire that she had been asked to run by a number of Green activists and felt compelled to consider the possibility after the U.S. debt-ceiling crisis which she called "the President's astounding attack on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid – a betrayal of the public interest."
This article contains lists of official and potential third party and independent candidates associated with the 2016 United States presidential election.
The 2016 United States presidential debates were a series of debates held for the presidential election. The Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD), a bipartisan organization formed in 1987, organized three debates among the major presidential candidates. The first of these presidential debates took place on September 26, 2016, and set the record as the most-watched debate in American history, with 84 million viewers. The second debate took place on October 9, and the third took place on October 19. All CPD debates occurred from approximately 9 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. EDT. Only the Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and the Republican nominee Donald Trump met the criteria for inclusion in the debates, and thus were the only two to appear in the debates sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates. The CPD-sponsored vice presidential debate took place on October 4, 2016. Only Democratic nominee Tim Kaine and Republican nominee Mike Pence appeared in it.
Rocky De La Fuente ran a third-party campaign for the presidency of the United States in the 2016 election. De La Fuente had sought the Democratic Party's nomination during their presidential primaries. De La Fuente did not win any delegates to the 2016 Democratic National Convention, but he came in fourth by total votes received. De La Fuente founded the American Delta Party and ran as its presidential nominee with running mate Michael Steinberg. He was also the presidential nominee of the Reform Party, which had ballot access in Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi. He received 33,136 votes in the general election, placing him eighth in the popular vote.
The 2020 Libertarian Party presidential primaries and caucuses were a series of electoral contests to indicate non-binding preferences for the Libertarian Party's presidential candidate in the 2020 United States presidential election. These differ from the Republican or Democratic presidential primaries and caucuses in that they do not appoint delegates to represent a candidate at the party's convention to select the party's presidential nominee.
The 2020 Green Party presidential primaries were a series of primary elections, caucuses and state conventions in which voters elected delegates to represent a candidate for the Green Party's nominee for President of the United States at the 2020 Green National Convention. The primaries, were held in numerous U.S. states on various dates from early spring into early summer of 2020, and featured elections publicly funded, concurrent with the Democratic Party and Republican Party primaries, and elections privately funded by the Green Party, held non-concurrently with the major party primaries.
This article lists third-party and independent candidates, also jointly known as minor candidates, associated with the 2020 United States presidential election.
The Green presidential debates are a series of political debates between the Green candidates for president in the United States 2020 presidential election.
This article lists third party and independent candidates, also jointly known as minor candidates, associated with the 2024 United States presidential election.
Well, just time, you know.
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