The Prohibition Party will hold its 2012 presidential nominating convention on June 21-23 in Cullman, Alabama. Cullman is in northern Alabama, about midway between Birmingham and Huntsville. UPDATE: the dates have been shifted to June 20-22.
The Prohibition Party has been holding its presidential conventions in the odd year before the presidential election year ever since 1943/1944. The habit came about because in 1937, the Pennsylvania legislature moved the petition deadline from September to April. The 1940 Prohibition Party convention was May 9-10, 1940, after the petition deadline. The party had submitted a Pennsylvania petition by that early deadline. The petition listed candidates for presidential elector but omitted the name of the presidential candidate from the petition form, because he hadn’t been nominated during the time the petition was circulating. The party expected Pennsylvania election officials to print the name of Roger Babson, the presidential nominee, on the ballot, because the presidential elector candidates said they were pledged to him. But the state refused, so the party ever after held its presidential convention the year before the election. Nowadays Pennsylvania permits stand-in presidential candidates, and also the petition deadline is now August 1.
The only announced candidate for the 2012 convention is James Hedges, who lives in Pennsylvania.
Hedges is a very good guy. He is one of the most
instrumental of those who have kept the nation’s oldest living minor party alive and going 141 years after its
founding.
Very cool! Their longevity gives the LP something to strive for.
The Prohibition Party lost its chance to become a strong and influential 3rd party, when after 1912, it did not adopt the “Progressive” label (after the Bull Moosers abandoned it) and continue with its somewhat “populist” platform – the Prohibition issue not withstanding.
What alot of people don’t know, and history books omit it, is many Prohibitionists were progressives, and alot of Progressives were prohibitionists.
It’s sad the party’s leaders of that era were not savvy enough to realize the milage and appeal of the “Prohibition” name was limited, but the label “Progressive” had an indefinite life.
How sad, partisan history in the United States might have been changed.
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For more information, please check our website at http://www.ProhibitionParty.org. I hope to see you there.