Theodora Nathalia "Tonie" Nathan (born 9 February 1923) is the first woman to have received an electoral vote in a United States presidential election. She was the 1972 Libertarian candidate (on the ticket with John Hospers) for vice president when Roger MacBride, a Republican elector from Virginia, cast the historic vote.[1]
Contents |
Born in New York City to Jewish parents,[2] Nathan operated her own insurance agency, a music publishing firm and a decorating service in the Los Angeles area of California before moving to Eugene, Oregon. She earned a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Oregon in 1971. Tonie Nathan also produced (and sometimes hosted) a daily talk show on KVAL-TV (CBS affiliate) in Eugene for 14 months prior to her vice-presidential campaign. She also hosted several radio talk shows during that period.
Nathan was still a radio and television producer in Eugene when she attended the first presidential nominating convention of the Libertarian Party in 1972. She was nominated by the delegates in attendance to run for vice president with presidential candidate John Hospers, chairman of the philosophy department at the University of Southern California. The ticket received only 3,671 official votes; however, Republican elector Roger L. MacBride of Virginia chose to vote for Hospers and Nathan instead of Nixon and Agnew.[1]
Following her vice-presidential run, which netted the Libertarian party its first electoral vote ever, she made a series of unsuccessful runs as a Libertarian candidate during the 1970s through the 1990s, for offices including the United States Senate and the House of Representatives.
In the 1980 Oregon Senate election, Nathan participated in three statewide television debates with then-U.S. Senator Bob Packwood and then-State Senator Ted Kulongoski. She received 43,686 votes for 3.83% of the vote.[3]
In 1990 Nathan ran as a Libertarian candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives for Oregon's 4th Congressional district. She was the lone challenger to incumbent Congressman Peter DeFazio and received 26,432 votes for 14% of the vote.[4]
She is married to Charles "Chuck" Nathan, an ASCAP composer who wrote top-ten hit songs in the 1950s, and together they have three sons. She is presently marketing her husband's musicals and writing an autobiography.
Nathan was also a co-founder of both the Association of Libertarian Feminists and the Libertarian Party.
| Party political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by No one (Party not yet commissioned) |
Libertarian Party Vice Presidential candidate 1972 (3rd) |
Succeeded by David Bergland |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||