Howie Hawkins 2020 presidential campaign
| Hawkins 2020 Exploratory Committee | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Campaign | 2020 United States presidential election (Green primaries) |
| Candidate | Howie Hawkins Co-Founder of the Green Party of the United States |
| Affiliation | Green Party |
| Status | Announced exploratory committee: April 3, 2019 |
| Headquarters | Syracuse, New York |
| Website | |
| [1] | |
The 2020 presidential campaign of Howie Hawkins, both the co-founder of the Green Party and its gubernatorial candidate thrice of New York, was informally launched on April 3, 2019 as Hawkins announced the formation of an exploratory committee to seek the Green Party nomination for the presidency of the United States in the 2020 presidential election.
Background
In the 1980s Hawkins joined the green movement and in the early 1990s a press conference was held in Washington, D.C. that featured Charles Betz, Joni Whitmore, Hilda Mason, and Howie Hawkins to announce the formation of the Greens/Green Party USA.[1] Later in December 1999, Mike Feinstein and Hawkins wrote the Plan for a Single National Green Party which was the plan to organize the ASGP and GPUSA into a single Green Party.[2] Over the next decade he would run in multiple New York Senate and House races. In 2010 he surpassed the 50,000 vote requirement to stay on the ballot in the gubernatorial election and four years later he received enough to move the Green Party line to Row D as he had taken one-third more than the Working Families Party and twice as much as the Independence Party. However, in 2018 he lost 80,000 votes, but retained ballot access and was only lowered one row down to Row E.[3]
In 2012 Hawkins was approached over the possiblity of running for the Green Party nomination, but declined due to his employment commitments at UPS forcing him to campaign for offices in New York at most and would interfere with a national campaign.[4] However, following Hawkins' retirement he was approached again to run by a draft movement with a public letter addressed to him that was signed by former Green vice presidential nominees Cheri Honkala and Ajamu Baraka, former Green mayoral candidate and Nader's 2008 running mate Matt Gonzalez, and other prominent Green Party members.[5]
Historical significance
If nominated Hawkins will be:
- The first Green Party presidential candidate since Ralph Nader to have military experience
- The first male Green Party presidential candidate since David Cobb in 2004
- The oldest person nominated by the Green Party for president
References
- ^ "Official Formation of the Green Party-USA". c-span.org.
- ^ "The Greens/Green Party USA". Greenparty.org. Retrieved 2015-03-16.
- ^ Breidenbach, Michelle (November 6, 2018). "Howie Hawkins wins enough votes to keep Green Party status in NY". Retrieved November 7, 2018.
- ^ "Why is Syracuse's Howie Hawkins running for president? 'It's hard to say no'".
{{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|1=(help) - ^ "Sign On: Greens And Allies Urge Howie Hawkins To Seek Presidential Nomination".
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