Howie Hawkins presidential campaign, 2020
Date: November 3, 2020 |
 Donald Trump Joe Biden Howie Hawkins Jo Jorgensen
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| “ | We can't wait on Trump, the racist incompetent, or Biden, the neoliberal hawk, to fight for the needs of the working-class. We need our own political voice! We need our own independent power! We need an #EcosocialistGreenNewDeal![1] | ” |
| —Howie Hawkins (June 2020)[2] | ||
Howie Hawkins was the 2020 Green Party presidential nominee. He clinched the nomination on June 21, 2020, after winning more than 176 delegates across Green Party primaries and caucuses. He was formally nominated at the Green Party National Convention on July 11, 2020.[3][4] He lost the general election on November 3, 2020.
His running mate was veteran and labor activist Angela Nicole Walker.
The centerpiece of Hawkins' campaign was his proposal for an ecosocialist Green New Deal, which included an economic and environmental program.
His campaign website described the two programs: "The Economic Bill of Rights will finally fulfill President Roosevelt’s 1944 call upon Congress to develop programs to secure basic economic human rights for all. The Green Economy Reconstruction Program will not only build a 100% clean energy system by 2030, but will reconstruct all economic sectors for ecological sustainability, from agriculture and manufacturing to housing and transportation."[5]
Hawkins was the Green Party nominee for governor of New York in 2010, 2014, and 2018.[6]
Hawkins in the news
- See also: Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential News Briefing and Editorial approach to story selection for the Daily Presidential News Briefing
This section featured five news stories about Hawkins and his presidential campaign. For a complete timeline of Hawkins' campaign activity, click here.
- October 31, 2020: Hawkins appeared on The Proud Socialist with his running mate, Angela Nicole Walker.
- October 26, 2020: Hawkins held a Green New Deal rally at the Illinois State Capitol.
- October 22, 2020:
- October 19, 2020: Syracuse.com profiled Hawkins’ upbringing, career, and presidential campaign.
- October 7, 2020: Hawkins’ running mate, Angela Walker, responded to the vice presidential debate.
Biography
Hawkins was born in San Francisco, California, in 1952. He attended Dartmouth College but did not earn a degree.[7] After being drafted, Hawkins enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1972, but he was not ordered to active duty. He organized against the Vietnam War.[8][9]
For the next two decades, Hawkins worked in construction in New England. In the 1990s, he developed cooperatives for CommonWorks. He later loaded trucks for UPS.[8][9]
Hawkins became active in the Green Party from its first national meeting in 1984. He also co-founded the anti-nuclear organization Clamshell Alliance in 1976 and joined the Vietnam Veterans Against the War and American Legion Dunbar Post 1642.[8]
Cumulatively, Hawkins ran for local office in Syracuse and governor of New York as a Green candidate more than 20 times.[9]
Campaign staff
- See also: Howie Hawkins presidential campaign staff, 2020 and Presidential election key staffers, 2020
The table below shows a sampling of the candidate's 2020 national campaign staff members, including the campaign manager and some senior advisors, political directors, communication directors, and field directors. It also includes each staff member's position in the campaign, previous work experience, and Twitter handle, where available.[10] For a larger list of national campaign staff, visit Democracy in Action.
| Howie Hawkins presidential national campaign staff, 2020 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Staff | Position | Prior experience | Twitter handle |
| Andrea Mérida Cuéllar | Campaign manager | Former chairman, Green Party of the United States | @andreamerida |
PredictIt markets
Green Party presidential primary debates
The following videos provide a sampling of the Green Party presidential primary debates held in the 2020 presidential election cycle.
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Policy positions
The following policy positions were compiled from the candidate's official campaign website, editorials, speeches, and interviews.
Immigration
Howie Hawkins' campaign website says, "The inhumanity of US immigration policy came to broad public attention in 2018 with the news coverage of forced separations of young children from their families on the southern US border. These crimes against humanity only underscored the long-standing brutality of US immigration policy, which has treated people from Mexico and Central America in particular as cheap labor to be imported or deported based on US labor demand, like apartheid South Africa once used Bantustans."
His website continues, "We will demand open borders where movement between nations is free, like it is in the European Union. International borders should be authentic fair-trade zones where people are free to travel across borders for work, shopping, or recreation. The status of undocumented immigrants should be legalized and provide a timely path to citizenship. People crossing international borders would be required to present their identification at a border crossing. Only people wanted for criminal charges or terrorist organization affiliation would be detained. People who cross without checking in at a border crossing would also be detained and checked at an official border crossing. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (BPE) should be abolished and replaced with a new immigration agency with personnel committed to the open borders policy." [source, as of 2020-07-09]
Healthcare
Howie Hawkins' campaign website says, "A community-controlled national health service, delivering services largely through publicly owned clinics and hospitals employing salaried staff, and governed by a federation of locally-elected boards, will provide better accountability and cost control than a top-down Medicare-like national health insurance system paying mostly private providers to deliver health services." [source, as of 2020-07-09]
Energy and environmental issues
Howie Hawkins' campaign website says, "We will never reverse pending planetary environmental collapse as long as we have a capitalist economy where competition for profits drives the blind, relentless growth that is consuming the environment, heating up the planet, and destroying ecological foundations of human civilization." [source, as of 2020-07-09]
Trade
Howie Hawkins' campaign website says, "International borders should be authentic fair-trade zones where people are free to travel across borders for work, shopping, recreation, and residence." [source, as of 2020-07-09]
Economy
Howie Hawkins' campaign website says, "We will never reverse extreme and growing economic inequality as long as capitalists exploit workers for profit and extract more unearned income from the economy as rent and interest. Capitalists pay workers a fixed wage and take the rest of the value workers’ labor creates as profit. Capitalists take more unearned income as rent and interest in excess of the costs of production due to their exclusive ownership of access to resources, such as land sites, natural resources, intellectual property, and monopolies." [source, as of 2020-07-09]
Education
Howie Hawkins' campaign website says, "First, educational policy should be made primarily by teachers and parents through locally elected school boards. Mayoral and state control of schools have become a way of closing public schools and imposing educational policies, especially charter school privatization, from the top down. Local parents and teachers have more interest in good local schools than top-down administrators."
His website continues, "Second, we must end high-stakes testing, which has reduced education to teaching to the test. It punishes students, teachers, and schools in high-poverty school districts simply for being poor. The punishment is often school closures or privatization into charters. High-stakes testing is the front edge of the charter school privatization agenda. High-stakes testing takes away from the many other qualities that should be developed by an education, including intellectual self-confidence, creativity, critical thinking, problem solving, teamwork, and tolerance." [source, as of 2020-07-09]
Gun regulation
Howie Hawkins' campaign website lists some of the following gun regulation policies: "Ban and buy back military assault weapons, high-capacity magazines, and bump stocks. Universal background checks for gun and ammunition buyers, including closing the loophole for private sales and sales at gun shows, with sales and background check records maintained indefinitely in a central registry. Require all gun owners to pass a gun safety test, a visual test, and be licensed by a government agency, similar to the requirements for obtaining a driver’s license. Institute a 28-day waiting period after license application before firearms can be possessed. Expand the prohibition on the purchase and possession of guns by people convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence crimes to include people convicted of menacing, assault, or unlawful imprisonment." [source, as of 2020-08-11]
Criminal justice
Howie Hawkins' campaign website lists the following positions on criminal and civil justice: "Monitor and Prosecute White Racist Terrorists. Federal Investigations of Local Police Misconduct. Community Control of the Police. End Mass Incarceration—Treat Drug Abuse as a Health Problem, Not a Criminal Problem. Legalize Marijuana. Decriminalize Personal Possession of Hard Drugs. Drug Treatment on Demand. Decriminalize Sex Work. Fight Corporate Crime. End Warrantless Mass Surveillance. Pardon Whistle Blowers and Political Prisoners." [source, as of 2020-07-09]
Foreign policy
Howie Hawkins' campaign website says, "I will also center our ecosocialist Green New Deal on the third existential threat: nuclear war. Capitalism’s competitive economic structure yields a conflict-ridden international system that generates endless wars. Sooner or later, wars will lead to nuclear annihilation if we don’t change the system and abolish nuclear weapons. An enduring peace requires replacing capitalism with ecosocialism—capitalism’s nationalistic competitive militarism with ecosocialism’s international cooperative security. We will call for deep US military spending cuts and converting to a defensive military posture from today’s global military empire of over 800 foreign military bases. The savings will be a peace dividend to reinvest in a Global Green New Deal for economic human rights, clean energy, and regenerative agriculture around the world. The United States can make friends instead of enemies by using its wealth to be the world’s humanitarian superpower instead of its imperialist superpower. We will call for a recommitment to the recently abandoned arms treaties and to vigorous new negotiations for further reductions toward complete nuclear disarmament and for scaling back the world’s militaries to strictly defensive forces. We will oppose US military intervention for regime change and speak up for human rights wherever they are violated." [source, as of 2020-07-09]
Impeachment
Howie Hawkins' campaign website says, "From the moment Trump took office, he has been receiving payments from foreign and domestic governments and lobbyists at his properties in violation of the foreign and domestic emoluments clauses of the Constitution. He is the unindicted co-conspirator in the felony hush-money campaign finance case where his underling, Michael Cohen, was convicted and is now serving time. Trump unlawfully told border agents and Homeland Security officials to break immigration laws and defy judicial orders concerning border crossings, asylum seekers, and child separations. He told a group of police officers to be more violent with suspects and the cops cheered him. He told American Indian leaders to break laws to frack and drill for oil and gas on their lands in violation of federal laws. We could go describing many other high crimes and misdemeanors or the 29 current investigations that prosecutors and Congress are finally doing on Trump’s 40-year rap sheet of alleged crimes that encompass everything from multiple sexual assaults to a multitude of corporate crimes, including tax evasion, bank fraud, insurance fraud, money laundering, and wage theft. The grounds for impeaching Trump are a target-rich environment." [source, as of 2019-09-15]
Abortion
Howie Hawkins' campaign website says, "I support the legal framework established in the Roe v. Wade decision. During the first trimester, it is up to the pregnant woman to decide whether to get an abortion. During the second trimester laws can only regulate abortion to protect the health of the mother. During the third trimester, or after fetal viability pursuant to Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992), laws can restrict or prohibit abortions except in cases where it was necessary to protect the mother’s health. This framework should be codified into federal law by an act of Congress. I oppose targeted regulation of abortion clinics and providers through laws or policies that go beyond what is necessary to ensure patients’ safety. I support laws that allow physicians as well as non-physician health professionals, including physicians’ assistants, nurse practitioners, and certified nurse midwives, to perform abortion procedures. [source, as of 2020-08-12]
Supreme Court vacancy
Other policy positions
Click on any of the following links to read more policy positions from the 2020 presidential candidates.
Criminal justice
Economy
- 2020 presidential candidates on coronavirus recovery
- 2020 presidential candidates on the economy
- 2020 presidential candidates on Social Security
- 2020 presidential candidates on the minimum wage
- 2020 presidential candidates on paid leave
- 2020 presidential candidates on taxes
Education
- 2020 presidential candidates on education
- 2020 presidential candidates on student loan debt
- 2020 presidential candidates on charter schools and voucher programs
Energy and environmental issues
- 2020 presidential candidates on energy and environmental issues
- 2020 presidential candidates on climate change
- 2020 presidential candidates on the Green New Deal
Foreign policy
- 2020 presidential candidates on foreign policy
- 2020 presidential candidates on China
- 2020 presidential candidates on Russia
- 2020 presidential candidates on North Korea
- 2020 presidential candidates on the Middle East and North Africa
- 2020 presidential candidates on South and Central America
Gun regulation
Healthcare
- 2020 presidential candidates on healthcare
- 2020 presidential candidates on the Affordable Care Act
- 2020 presidential candidates on Medicare for All
- 2020 presidential candidates on prescription drugs costs
Immigration
- 2020 presidential candidates on immigration
- 2020 presidential candidates on border security
- 2020 presidential candidates on DACA and Dreamers
- 2020 presidential candidates on immigration enforcement
Impeachment
Labor
- 2020 presidential candidates on labor policy
- 2020 presidential candidates on Janus v. AFSCME
- 2020 presidential candidates on public-sector unions
- 2020 presidential candidates on unionization and organization
- 2020 presidential candidates on the right to strike
Trade
Campaign themes
Howie Hawkins completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Hawkins' responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
| Collapse all
I'm Howie Hawkins, the original Green New Dealer. I was the first US candidate to campaign for a Green New Deal in 2010.
I was active in “The Movement” for civil rights and against the war in Vietnam in the 1960s as a teenager in the San Francisco Bay Area. When my draft number was called in 1972, I enlisted in the Marine Corps while continuing to organize against the Vietnam War. I am a member of Vietnam Veterans Against the War.
In 1984, I was one of the co-founders of the Green Party. As the Green Party’s candidate for governor of New York in 2010, 2014, and 2018, each time I received enough votes to qualify the Green Party for a ballot line for the next four years.
After studying at Dartmouth College, I worked in construction in the 1970s and 1980s. I helped organize a worker cooperative that specialized in energy efficiency and solar and wind installations.
I was a co-founder of the anti-nuclear Clamshell Alliance in 1976. I was also a leader in the anti-apartheid divestment movement to end US corporate investment in the racist system of oppression and labor exploitation in South Africa.
I moved to Syracuse in 1991 to develop cooperatives for CommonWorks.
From 2001 to 2018, I worked as a Teamster unloading trucks at UPS. Now retired, I remain a supporter of Teamsters for a Democratic Union, US Labor Against the War, the Labor Campaign for Single Payer Healthcare, the Labor Network for Sustainability, and the Labor Notes network.
Economic Bill of Rights with Medicare For All to Address Inequality, and an Ecosocialist Green New Deal to Avoid a Climate Catastrophe.
Community Control of the Police.
Nuclear Disarmament and Peace Initiatives to End the New Nuclear Arms Race
Our campaign's two major policies include the Economic Bill of Rights and the Ecosocialist Green New Deal.
Unbought: No campaign funding from for-profit special interests.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
Website
The following campaign themes were published on Hawkins' presidential campaign website:
| “ |
Our ecosocialist Green New Deal encompasses two major programs, an Economic Bill of Rights and a Green Economy Reconstruction Program. The Economic Bill of Rights will finally fulfill President Roosevelt’s 1944 call upon Congress to develop programs to secure basic economic human rights for all. The Green Economy Reconstruction Program will not only build a 100% clean energy system by 2030, but will reconstruct all economic sectors for ecological sustainability, from agriculture and manufacturing to housing and transportation. The Economic Bill of Rights will be realized through ongoing programs of public provision. The Green Economy Reconstruction Program will be realized through a plan of public capital investments of 10 to 20 years depending on the sector. Implementing the Green New Deal will require ecosocialism—social ownership in key sectors in order to democratically plan the coordinated reconstruction of all economic sectors for ecological sustainability. We have developed a budget for this expansive Green New Deal—the costs and the sources of funding to pay for it. Click here to see that budget and its explanation. Economic Bill of Rights Job Guarantee Basic Income Guarantee Homes for All in Walkable Communities
National Health Service Lifelong Free Public Education
A Secure Retirement Green Economy Reconstruction Program Interstate Renewable Electricity System
Interstate High-Speed Rail System Green Buildings
Interstate High-Speed Internet System Infrastructure Reconstruction Green Manufacturing Agriculture and Rural Reconstruction Civilian Conservation Corps Zero-Waste Recycling Peace Conversion Just Transition Fund Global Green New Deal How We Pay for It All Cuts to Military Spending Cuts to Tax Loopholes Progressive Taxes
Ecological Taxes
Public Banks
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” |
| —Howie Hawkins 2020[5] | ||
Presidential debate responses
- See also: Presidential debates, 2020
Hawkins did not qualify for 2020 presidential debates, which required candidates to meet certain constitutional, ballot access, and polling requirements. His campaign uploaded the following videos in response to the presidential and vice presidential debates:
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Green presidential and vice presidential nominees, 1996-2016
The following chart shows the Green presidential ticket from every presidential election between 1996 and 2016.[11]
| Green presidential and vice presidential nominees, 1996-2016 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Green presidential nominee | Green vice presidential nominee | Percentage of national popular vote | Raw votes | ||
| 1996 | Ralph Nader | Winona LaDuke | 0.7% | 685,435 | ||
| 2000 | Ralph Nader | Winona LaDuke | 2.7% | 2,883,443 | ||
| 2004 | David Cobb | Pat LaMarche | 0.1% | 119,910 | ||
| 2008 | Cynthia McKinney | Rosa Clemente | 0.1% | 161,870 | ||
| 2012 | Jill Stein | Cheri Honkala | 0.4% | 469,015 | ||
| 2016 | Jill Stein | Ajamu Baraka | 1.1% | 1,457,226 | ||
Green Party Platform
This section contains links to the different sections of the Green Party Platform as adopted at the party's national convention in July 2020:[12]
- A Call to Action
- Preamble
- The Four Pillars
- Ten Key Values
- Democracy
- Social Justice
- Ecological Sustainability
- Economic Justice and Sustainability
Social media
Accounts
Twitter feed
Ballot access
The following map shows the states where Hawkins qualified to be on the ballot as a presidential candidate:
In order to get on the ballot, a candidate for president of the United States must meet a variety of complex, state-specific filing requirements and deadlines. These regulations, known as ballot access laws, determine whether a candidate or party will appear on an election ballot. These laws are set at the state level. A presidential candidate must prepare to meet ballot access requirements well in advance of primaries, caucuses, and the general election.
There are three basic methods by which an individual may become a candidate for president of the United States.
- An individual can seek the nomination of a political party. Presidential nominees are selected by delegates at national nominating conventions. Individual states conduct caucuses or primary elections to determine which delegates will be sent to the national convention.[13]
- An individual can run as an independent. Independent presidential candidates typically must petition each state to have their names printed on the general election ballot.[13]
- An individual can run as a write-in candidate.[13]
Click here for more information about ballot access for minor parties.
Archive of Political Emails
The Archive of Political Emails was founded in July 2019 to compile political fundraising and advocacy emails sent by candidates, elected officials, PACs, nonprofits, NGOs, and other political actors.[14] The archive includes screenshots and searchable text from emails sent by 2020 presidential candidates. To review the Hawkins campaign's emails, click here.
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Twitter, "Howie Hawkins," June 20, 2020
- ↑ The Hill, "Howie Hawkins clinches Green Party's nomination after primary wins," June 21, 2020
- ↑ Syracuse.com, "Syracuse’s Howie Hawkins is the Green Party’s presidential candidate," July 11, 2020
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Howie Hawkins, "An Ecosocialist Green New Deal," accessed June 29, 2020
- ↑ Howie Hawkins, "About Howie," accessed June 29, 2020
- ↑ Politico, "Howie Hawkins saves Green Party, loads trucks," November 8, 2010
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Howie Hawkins, "About Howie Hawkins," accessed June 29, 2020
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 The New York Times, "0-for-23: An Undeterred Green Party Candidate on His Long Losing Streak," October 19, 2018
- ↑ Democracy in Action, "Organization," accessed November 4, 2019
- ↑ Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Election, "Election Results," accessed October 30, 2019
- ↑ Green Party, "Platform," accessed October 8, 2020
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 Vote Smart, "Government 101: United States Presidential Primary," accessed August 15, 2015
- ↑ Archive of Political Emails, "About," accessed September 16, 2019
