Who is really the first woman nominee for the President of the United States?
Many news outlets recently buzzed with announcements that Hillary Clinton’s win in the primaries made her the first woman nominee for the President of the United States…but is she really the first?
Looking at Clinton’s own tweet, it looks like there may be more to this story. Clinton’s tweet reads “For the first time in our history, a woman will be a major party’s nominee for President of the United States.”
For the first time in our history, a woman will be a major party’s nominee for President of the United States. pic.twitter.com/4iLojpuPj8
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) June 8, 2016
The key here is “major party”. Many women have run for nomination and a few have run for the office of the President long before Hillary Clinton.
The first woman to run for President was Victoria Woodhull in 1872, nearly 50 years before women even earned the right to vote. She was nominated by the newly formed Equal Rights Party on May 10, 1872. They also nominated Fredrick Douglass for Vice President. Douglass was an abolitionist leader who was a slave himself, before becoming a leader.
Even if some disagree with classifying Woodhull’s run as a true candidacy, shortly after, in 1884 and 1888 Belva Lockwood ran for the President of the United States as the candidate of the National Equal Rights Party.
She famously said “I cannot vote but I can be voted for”, as most women in the United States did not yet have the right to vote.
Throughout the past 100 plus years of history many women have ran for party nomination and for President. A recent one is Jill Stein of the Green Party, who in 2012 ran for President and won about 500,000 votes. It still ranks as the record for most earned by a female presidential candidate. She will be running in the 2016 presidential election as well.
So, while Hillary is big, she’s certainly not the first.
