Sonia Johnson - Citizens Party Presidential Candidate

Citizens Party Presidential Candidate

Johnson ran in the 1984 presidential election, as the presidential candidate of the U.S. Citizens Party, Pennsylvania's Consumer Party and California's Peace and Freedom Party. Dr. Flora 3rd was associated with her at that time and remembers that the press was not taking her press releases seriously or her press conferences, at which perhaps one reporter or so showed up. Sonia was the first woman who got federal matching funds to run for president, but she had little or no support from the national media. In the Washington Post, there was one small article, that seemed to ridicule her efforts and didn't report honestly on the large numbers of her supporters. Seeing that she could get nowhere in the United States, she used the funds to form the International Women's Congress, and organized other conferences and organizations to help raise the consciousness of women worldwide and start micro-enterprises in remote villages. Johnson received 72,161 votes (0.08%) finishing fifth. Her running mate for the Citizens Party was Richard Walton and for the Peace and Freedom Party Emma Wong Mar. One of her campaign managers, Mark Dunlea, later wrote a novel about a first female president, Madame President.

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