Roger MacBride 1976 presidential campaign

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Roger MacBride 1976 presidential campaign
Roger MacBride.jpg
Campaign U.S. presidential election, 1976
Candidate
Affiliation Libertarian
StatusLost election: November 2, 1976
Key people Ed Crane (campaign manager)
SloganI'm for Roger!

The 1976 presidential campaign of Roger MacBride , a former member of the Vermont House of Representatives from New York began when Roger MacBride announced his campaign in 1975. He ran in the 1976 Libertarian Party presidential primaries, easily winning due to his celebrity status in the party as he was the faithless elector that gave them one electoral vote in 1972 and his scant opposition. MacBride campaigned against tariffs, antitrust laws, and the War on drugs and for the free market, civil liberties, an end to corporate welfare and an anti-interventionist foreign policy. [1] [2]

Roger MacBride American writer, TV producer, and politician; 1976 Libertarian Party candidate for President

Roger Lea MacBride was an American lawyer, political figure, writer, and television producer. He was the presidential nominee of the Libertarian Party in the 1976 election. MacBride became the first presidential elector in U.S. history to cast a vote for a woman when, in the presidential election of 1972, he voted for the Libertarian Party candidates John Hospers for president and Theodora "Tonie" Nathan for vice president.

Vermont House of Representatives

The Vermont House of Representatives is the lower house of the Vermont General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Vermont. The House comprises 150 members, with each member representing around 4,100 citizens. Representatives are elected to a two-year term without term limits.

New York (state) State of the United States of America

New York is a state in the Northeastern United States. New York was one of the original thirteen colonies that formed the United States. With an estimated 19.54 million residents in 2018, it is the fourth most populous state. In order to distinguish the state from the city with the same name, it is sometimes referred to as New York State.

Contents

General Election

After winning the Libertarian nomination MacBride tried to choose a vice president, but all of his choices could not get a majority until David Bergland came and according to him won the nomination since his "most important qualification was being over 35. Not many delegates attending were that old in 1975." [1] Roger believed that the damage done to the Republican party following its 1976 primaries, the collapse of the American Independent Party and Eugene McCarthy`s poorly ran campaign could allow him to do well and receive many votes from disillusioned voters. [2] MacBride primarily focused on the western United States stating that "Early Americans ... struggling for survival in a hard wilderness ... grasped somehow that they were free, that no authority controlled them ... That truth released a burst of creative human energy such as the planet had never known, and created the modern world." [1]

David Bergland American politician

David Peter Bergland was an American politician who was the United States Libertarian Party's nominee for President of the United States in the 1984 presidential election, and also served twice as the Chair of the Libertarian National Committee.

American Independent Party political party

The American Independent Party (AIP) is a far right political party in the United States that was established in 1967. The AIP is best known for its nomination of former Governor George Wallace of Alabama, who carried five states in the 1968 presidential election running on a segregationist “law and order” platform against Richard M. Nixon and Hubert H. Humphrey. The party split in 1976 into the modern American Independent Party and the American Party. From 1992 until 2008, the party was the California affiliate of the national Constitution Party. Its exit from the Constitution Party led to a leadership dispute during the 2016 election.

Eugene McCarthy American politician

Eugene Joseph McCarthy was an American politician and poet from Minnesota. He served in the United States House of Representatives from 1949 to 1959 and the United States Senate from 1959 to 1971. McCarthy sought the Democratic nomination in the 1968 presidential election, challenging incumbent Lyndon B. Johnson on an anti-Vietnam War platform. McCarthy sought the presidency five times, but never won.

Results

On November 2, 1976 MacBride lost the election, coming in fourth place behind Eugene McCarthy and only narrowly beat Lester Maddox by 2,000 votes, both of who he thought could siphon votes from and come ahead of. After the end of the campaign David Bergland said that ""Roger brought political savvy, but a somewhat limited understanding of the radical libertarian personality of the delegates." [1]

Lester Maddox Georgia politician

Lester Garfield Maddox Sr. was an American politician who served as the 75th Governor of the U.S. state of Georgia from 1967 to 1971. A populist Democrat, Maddox came to prominence as a staunch segregationist when he refused to serve black customers in his Atlanta restaurant, in violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. He later served as Lieutenant Governor during the period when Jimmy Carter was State Governor.

Presidential candidatePartyHome statePopular voteElectoral
vote
Running mate
CountPercentageVice-presidential candidateHome stateElectoral vote
James Earl Carter, Jr. Democratic Georgia 40,831,88150.08%297 Walter Frederick Mondale Minnesota 297
Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr. (Incumbent) Republican Michigan 39,148,63448.02%240 Bob Dole Kansas 241
Ronald Wilson Reagan Republican California(a)(a)1
Eugene McCarthy (none) Minnesota 740,4600.91%0 (b) (b)0
Roger MacBride Libertarian Vermont 172,5570.21%0 David Bergland California0
Lester Maddox American Independent Georgia 170,2740.21%0 William Dyke Wisconsin 0
Thomas J. Anderson American  (c)158,2710.19%0 Rufus Shackelford 0
Peter Camejo Socialist Workers California90,9860.11%0 Willie Mae Reid 0
Gus Hall Communist New York58,7090.07%0 Jarvis Tyner 0
Margaret Wright People's 49,0130.06%0 Benjamin Spock 0
Lyndon LaRouche U.S. Labor New York40,0430.05%0 R. Wayne Evans0
Other70,7850.08%Other
Total81,531,584100%538538
Needed to win270270

Endorsements

Despite being the nominee of the Libertarian party when it was a fledgling party, Roger MacBride did manage to receive endorsements from newspapers such as Reason. [2]

<i>Reason</i> (magazine) American libertarian monthly magazine

Reason is an American libertarian monthly magazine published by the Reason Foundation. The magazine has a circulation of around 50,000 and was named one of the 50 best magazines in 2003 and 2004 by the Chicago Tribune.

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "1976 Libertarian Presidential Campaign".
  2. 1 2 3 "MacBride for President!".