History Highlights

Pat LaMarche

Nov. 1998: Pat LaMarche became the first woman in the history of Maine to gain ballot access for a political party with 7 percent of the vote in the Governor’s race.

Photograph by Mark Vallen

October 2000: Ralph Nader is kept out of the October presidential debates despite significant protest. Nader/LaDuke 2000 campaign organizers started more than 450 new local Green Party groups, put the Green Party on the ballot in 43 states and DC, raised 7.7 million dollars, and ran in all 50 states, the only presidential candidate to do so in the 2000 election.

John Eder

Nov. 2002: John Eder of Maine becomes the first Green elected to a state legislature in a regular election, and is re-elected in 2004.

Jason West, Mayor of New Paltz, NY, officiates at the first same-sex marriages in the United States

Feb. 2004: Jason West, Mayor of New Paltz, N.Y. and part of a Green Town Council majority there, performs 24 same-sex marriages, for which he is charged with misdemeanors by the local District Attorney. A judge later dismisses the charges. In 2011 New York officially makes same-sex marriages legal.

David Cobb speaks at a news conference in 2004, in Columbus, Ohio announcing his request for a recount of the Ohio presidential vote. Photo: AP/Paul Vernon

July 2004: In a contentious nominating convention, Texas Green David Cobb is chosen as the GPUS presidential nominee, instead of endorsing Ralph Nader, who chose not to seek the party’s nomination, but did seek the party’s endorsement of his independent candidacy. Pat LaMarche of Maine is chosen as the Green vice presidential candidate. With Nader also on the ballot as an independent, Cobb/ Lamarche receive 119,859 votes. Jan. 2005: By the beginning of the year, an all-time high of over 300,000 people are officially registered as Greens.

Malik Rahim in Algiers, New Orleans in November 2006. Photo by Susan Poag, The Times-Picayune

Sept. 2005: Malik Rahim, who has run numerous campaigns on the Green Party ticket including a 2002 bid for Mayor of New Orleans, co-founds the Common Ground Collective bringing aid to victims of Hurricane Katrina. Rahim receives the Thomas Merton Award for his humanitarian work in 2008. Nov. 2006: Pat LaMarche runs for Governor on the Maine Green Independent Party ticket, receiving almost 10 percent of the vote and qualifying for public financing by raising over 2500 contributions of no more than $5.

Rich Whitney speaking at Everitt Hall, University of Illinois on October 16, 2006. Photo by Dan Hollander

Nov. 2006: Rich Whitney gains 10.3 percent of the vote in his race for Governor of Illinois. A civil liberties lawyer, Whitney also runs twice for State House of Representatives and again for Governor in 2010.

Gayle McLaughlin accepting the gavel as new Mayor of Richmond, CA 2006

Nov. 2006: Gayle McLaughlin is elected Mayor of Richmond, CA., the first city of over 100,000 people to which a Green has become Mayor. She was re-elected in 2010.

Cynthia McKinney addressing the 2007 National Meeting, Reading PA. Photo by David Doonan

July 2008: Former Democratic Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney is nominated for President, and community activist and journalist Rosa Clemente for Vice President. They receive 161,000 votes.

Jill Stein & Cheri Honkala accepting the nomination. Photo by David Doonan

July 2012: GPUS nominates Dr. Jill Stein, former candidate for governor of Massachusetts for President and Cheri Honkala, homeless advocate, for Vice President. The Stein/Honkala campaign received enough individual contributions to qualify for federal matching funds for the primary season, the first time since Nader 2000. Those funds allow the campaign to help individual state parties achieve ballot access. In November, the campaign receives over 468, 000 votes.

April 2013: Green Action, Inc., a 501(c)4 organization forms the Green Shadow Cabinet, an independent organization providing an ongoing opposition and alternative voice to the dysfunctional government in Washington D.C.

July 2014: Greens gather for the Annual Meeting of delegates at Macalester College in St. Paul, the 30th anniversary of the first Green meeting in 1984.

Do you have photos from the Green Party’s early days? Share them with other Greens by sending a copy to greenpages@greens.org—also please credit the photographer, and provide a full caption/story identifying everyone you can.