Prohibitionist Party

BEHIND ONLYTHE Democratic and Republican parties, the Prohibitionist Party is the oldest political party still in existence in the United States. Since 1872, the party has fielded a presidential ticket in every election. Though, like other minor parties, it never had great electoral success, the party did contribute to the passage of various notable reforms, including the prohibition of alcohol, women's suffrage, and the direct election of U.S. senators.

Many of the party founders were originally enthusiastic supporters of the Republican Party. They were fervent abolitionists, and saw the Civil War as a great Christian crusade against the south's peculiar institution. After the war, they hoped the Republicans would take up the next great social evil—alcohol. When this did not happen, their disillusionment grew, and they were frustrated that the party was more interested in the economic than the moral transformation of the country. To have “a land redeemed from drink,” it was decided, in 1869, that the best course of action was to abandon two-party politics and form their own party to advance Christian values, with the prohibition of alcohol chief among them. Not surprisingly, given its faith in being dry, the camel, over time, became the party's symbol.

At the presidential level, the party's best years were 1884–1924, when it typically received one to two percent of the popular vote. During this time, its nominees were quite experienced by minor party standards. Among its nominees were three Union Army generals, two former state governors, and a former congressman. Its 1924 ticket made history, with Marie Brehm as its vice presidential nominee, the first woman to be legally chosen by an American party to be a presidential running mate. Two prohibitionists were also elected to the U.S. House, and, in 1916, Sidney Catts was elected governor of Florida. In 1932, in the shadow of Prohibition's repeal, Reverend Robert Shuler ran for the U.S. Senate in California and earned the largest vote total (more than [Page 677]500,000 votes) ever for any Prohibitionist candidate. After the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, the party was among the first to run women for the U.S. Senate. In 1920 and 1922, in multiparty contests, Prohibitionist women (Ella Boole, Leah Cobb Marion, and Rachel Robinson) won over five percent of the statewide vote in New York and Pennsylvania.

The Prohibition Party backed women's suffrage. Above, Elsie Hill, representing the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage Woman's Party, addresses a crowd in St. Paul, Minnesota during a July 1916 party convention.

After the 1920s, the party rapidly declined. In recent years, the Prohibition Party has been more a one-person hobby than a viable party. Since 1976, Earl Dodge of Colorado, a political button vendor, has been on the party's national ticket eight consecutive times, twice as the vicepresidential nominee (1976–80) and six times as the presidential nominee (1984–2004). In 2000 and 2004, Dodge received a mere 208 and 140 votes, respectively.