Lyndon LaRouche's United States presidential campaigns were a controversial staple of American politics between 1976 and 2004. LaRouche ran for president on eight consecutive occasions, a record for any candidate, and tied Harold Stassen's record as a perennial candidate. LaRouche ran for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States seven times, beginning in 1980.
Campaigns
1976 In 1971 LaRouche founded the U.S. Labor Party as a vehicle for electoral politics. In 1976 he ran for President of the United States as the U.S. Labor Party candidate, polling 40,043 votes (0.05%). According to LaRouche supporters, the major accomplishment of the campaign was the broadcast of a paid half-hour television address, which gave LaRouche the opportunity to air his views before a national audience. This was to become a regular feature of later campaigns during the 1980s and 1990s.
His platform included a reference to Vice President Nelson Rockefeller: "Impeach Rocky to prevent imminent nuclear war".
1980
Since the autumn of 1979, LaRouche resigned from the U.S. Labor Party and founded the National Democratic Policy Committee (NDPC), a political action committee whose name drew complaints from the Democratic National Committee, who saw these efforts as infiltration.
LaRouche budgeted $150,000 for the first primary state, New Hampshire. That included air time on TV stations in overlapping markets such as Maine and Vermont, along with 1,928 radio advertisements on New Hampshire radio. LaRouche reportedly spent $4,000 on a half-hour broadcast on WBZ, and a total of $24,200 on all TV spots in the state.
The Democratic National Committee asserted that LaRouche is not a Democrat, but the U.S. electoral system made it impossible for the party to prevent LaRouche followers entering Democratic primaries. LaRouche himself polled negligible vote totals, but continued to promote himself as a serious political candidate, a claim which was sometimes accepted by elements of the media and some political figures.
In the end, LaRouche got 177,784 (0.91%) votes in the primaries.
1984 LaRouche's 1984 campaign was his most successful, garnering over 76,000 votes. Independent Democrats for LaRouche, a committee formed for the 1984 election, was found guilty in 1988 of soliciting loans in violation of Minnesota securities law, and was ordered to stop selling unregistered Securities."U.S. Supreme Court;All-white jury acceptable in murder suit, court says" USA Today [McLean, Va.] 10 Jan. 1989, 06a.
1988 In 1988 LaRouche and running mate Debra Hanania Freeman received 25,082 votes, or 0.03% of the vote."1988 Vote: the Final Word" December 29, 1988, New York Times
1992
In 1992, LaRouche became the third person in U.S. history (after Joseph Smith and Eugene Debs) to run for president from a prison cell. Classical violinist Norbert Brainin performed a benefit concert on his behalf in Washington, D.C.; the Washington Post reviewer praised his musicianship while condemning his political message. LaRouche's running mate, who did the active campaigning, was the American Civil Rights Movement leader, Reverend James Bevel.
1996 Prior to the primaries the Chair of the Democratic National Committee, Don Fowler, ruled that LaRouche "is not to be considered a qualified candidate for nomination of the Democratic Party for President" on account of LaRouche's "expressed political beliefs, including beliefs which are explicitly racist and anti-Semitic, and otherwise utterly contrary to the fundamental beliefs ... of the Democratic Party and ... on his past activities including exploitation of and defrauding contributors and voters."LaRouche v. Fowler, 152 F. 3d 974, 975–76 (D.C. Cir. 1998), quoted in In subsequent primaries LaRouche received enough votes in Louisiana and Virginia to get one delegate from each state. When the state parties refused to award the delegates LaRouche sued in federal court, claiming a violation of the Voting Rights Act. After losing in the district court the case was appealed to the First District Court of Appeals, which sustained the lower court.
In 1999, however, a court ruled that the Democratic National Committee had the right to keep LaRouche from electing delegates to the Democratic National Convention, based on a party requirement that a Democratic nominee must be a registered voter. LaRouche, as a convicted felon, was not eligible to be a registered voter in the state of Virginia, where he lived. (see United States v. LaRouche)
2000 A routine FEC audit of the 2000 "LaRouche's Committee for a New Bretton Woods" campaign found that vendors whose sole client was Lyndon LaRouche had added unqualified "mark-up charges" to the bill submitted for matching funds. The vendors were American System Publications, Inc., Eastern States Distributors, Inc., EIR News Services, Inc., Hamilton Systems Distributors, Inc., Mid-West Circulation Corp., Southeast Literature Sales, Inc., and Southwest Literature Distributors, Inc. They had overbilled by $241,519 and the campaign was ordered to repay $222,034. The FEC decision was affirmed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
LaRouche qualified to win six delegates in the Arkansas Democratic primary. A minimum of 15% vote was required and LaRouche took 22%. However, the Democratic Party refused to grant him delegates because he was ineligible to vote.
2004 He waged a campaign, begun in October 2002, to have Dick Cheney dumped from the Republican ticket.
Again, LaRouche gained negligible electoral support. However, according to Federal Election Commission statistics, LaRouche had more individual contributors to his 2004 presidential campaign than any other candidate, until the final quarter of the primary season, when John Kerry surpassed him. As of the April 15 filing, LaRouche had 7834 individual contributions, of those who have given cumulatively, $200 or more, as compared to 6257 for John Kerry, 5582 for John Edwards, 4090 for Howard Dean, and 2744 for Dick Gephardt.
He ran even though his home state of Virginia is one of a handful of states which still has lifetime denial of the vote to felons, which can be overturned only on appeal to the governor. (Neither the Constitution nor federal statute law requires presidents to be registered voters.) The Democratic Party did not consider his candidacy to be legitimate and ruled him ineligible to win delegates. He gained negligible electoral support. He was endorsed by two Democratic state representatives, Erik Fleming of Mississippi and Harold James of Pennsylvania, though Fleming later called the endorsement "the worst mistake of all."Friday roundup at The Kentucky Democrat; published April 15, 2005; retrieved January 14, 2023; via archive.org LaRouche was not one of the major candidates invited to the primary-season debates, although he did participate in some alternative forums for minor candidates.
LaRouche was present in Boston during the 2004 Democratic National Convention but did not attend the convention itself. His followers sang songs insulting Democratic nominee John Kerry. Later in the campaign his followers heckled Kerry and disrupted his rallies.
He held a media conference in which he declared his support for John Kerry and pledged to mobilize his organization to help defeat George W. Bush in the November presidential election.
2016 On October 17, 2016, LaRouchePAC advised readers to write in Lyndon LaRouche and Alexander Hamilton in the 2016 Presidential elections. In the article "What We Need in 2016: — Alexander Hamilton's Principles, LaRouche's Four Laws", the PAC wrote "American citizens should write in LaRouche's name at the presidential ballot box to stand for the re-adoption of Alexander Hamilton's economic principles, as LaRouche has reclarified them. "I'm writing in LaRouche and Alexander Hamilton, let's get the nation to elect the right principles" will cut through the dread with which Americans are questioning each other about the approach of Election Day."
This exhortation was disseminated by PAC members through social media. No verifiable statistics have been assembled concerning vote totals.
Campaign statistics
+Lyndon LaRouche political statistics (amounts in USD)(* off year campaign activity)YearPartyRunning mateTotal funds raisedMatching fundsCampaign debtPrimary votesSources1976LaborRonald Wayne Evans1980Dem $526,253 177,7841984Billy Davis $494,146 1988Debra Freeman $825,577 1992James Bevel $2,709,531 ineligible$2,223,985 1994* $1,154,623 $2,124,099 1996Dem $4,304,184 $624,692 $2,079,927 496,423 1998* $138,424 $2,051,489 2000Dem $4,898,362 $1,448,389 $2,471,918 327,928 2002* $3,080,601 $2,360,261 2004Dem $10,255,464 $1,456,019 $3,217,890 Total since 1990 $23,814,604 $2,899,889 $18,881,195
Campaign committees 1976 – Committee to Elect Lyndon LaRouche (1976 Committee) 1980 – Citizens For LaRouche 1984 – Independent Democrats for LaRouche 1988 – Democrats For National Economic Recovery – LaRouche in 88 1992 – Democrats For Economic Recovery-LaRouche in 92 1996 – The Committee to Reverse the Accelerating Global Economic and Strategic Crisis: A LaRouche Exploratory Committee 2000 – LaRouche's Committee for a New Bretton Woods 2004 – LaRouche in 2004 Unknown years LaRouche Democratic Campaign Texas Democrats to Draft LaRouche LaRouche Campaign
FEC cases Committee to Elect Lyndon LaRouche v. FEC; FEC v. Committee to Elect Lyndon LaRouche; Jones v. FEC Gelman v. FEC (80 1646) Gelman v. FEC (80 2471) Dolbeare v. FEC (No. 81 Civ. 4468-CLB) FEC v. Citizens for LaRouche; FEC v. LaRouche LaRouche v. State Board of Elections Spannaus v. FEC (85-0404) Spannaus v. FEC (91-0681) LaRouche v. FEC (92-1100) LaRouche v. FEC (92-1555) FEC v. LaRouche(94-0658) LaRouche's Committee for a New Bretton Woods v. FEC
FEC chronology 1979–1992 (Adapted from material at the FEC website.) August 23, 1979 – U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upholds the commission's action in denying primary matching fund payments to Lyndon LaRouche, a candidate of the U.S. Labor Party, during the 1976 presidential primary campaign. (613 F.2d 834 (D.C. Cir. 1979), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 1074 (1980).) December 18, 1979 – Lyndon LaRouche establishes eligibility to receive primary matching funds. February 19, 1980 – U.S. Supreme Court denies a petition for certiorari in three cases brought by Lyndon LaRouche and Leroy Jones against the commission. (444 U.S. 1074 (1980).) April 17, 1980 – Commission terminates the primary matching fund eligibility of Lyndon LaRouche. May 28, 1980 – Commission denies a request to re-establish matching fund eligibility for Lyndon LaRouche. July 22, 1980 – U.S. District Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia affirms the commission's determination that Lyndon LaRouche failed to re-establish matching fund eligibility. (Gelman v. FEC, 631 F.2d 939 (D.C. Cir.), cert. denied, 449 U.S. 876 (1980).) October 27, 1980 – U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia rules that FEC must notify Citizens for LaRouche Committee of investigations involving contributors to 1980 LaRouche campaign. (Gelman v. FEC, Civil Action No. 80-2471.) April 15, 1981 – Commission releases final audit report on Citizens for LaRouche (1980).