Theodora Nathalia "Tonie" Nathan (February 9, 1923 – March 20, 2014) was an American radio producer, television producer, and political activist. She was the first woman to receive an electoral vote in a

United States presidential election The election of the president and the vice president of the United States is an indirect election in which citizens of the United States who are registered to vote in one of the fifty U.S. states or in Washington, D.C., cast ballots not dir ...

. She was the 1972 vice presidential nominee of the Libertarian Party and

running mate A running mate is a person running together with another person on a joint ticket during an election. The term is most often used in reference to the person in the subordinate position (such as the vice presidential candidate running with a p ...

John Hospers John Hospers (June 9, 1918 – June 12, 2011) was an American philosopher and political activist. Hospers was interested in Objectivism, and was once a friend of the philosopher Ayn Rand, though she later broke with him. In 1972, Hospers becam ...

, when

Roger MacBride Roger Lea MacBride (August 6, 1929 – March 5, 1995) was an American lawyer, political figure, writer, and television producer. He was the presidential nominee of the Libertarian Party in the 1976 election. MacBride became the first president ...

, a

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

elector from

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are ...

, cast the historic vote as a

faithless elector In the United States Electoral College, a faithless elector is an elector who does not vote for the candidates for U.S. President and U.S. Vice President for whom the elector had pledged to vote, and instead votes for another person for one or ...

Background

Nathan was born in 1923 to Jewish parents in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. Her last name at birth was Nathan, and she married a man, Charles Nathan, who had the same last name. She operated her own insurance agency, a music publishing firm and a decorating service in the

Los Angeles area Greater Los Angeles is the second-largest metropolitan region in the United States with a population of 18.5 million in 2021, encompassing five counties in Southern California extending from Ventura County in the west to San Bernardino Cou ...

before moving to Eugene,

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

. She earned a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree. The word, a noun, applies to the occupation (profes ...

from the

University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a public research university in Eugene, Oregon. Founded in 1876, the institution is well known for its strong ties to the sports apparel and marketing firm Nike, Inc, and its co-founder, billion ...

in 1971. Nathan then worked as a radio and television producer. She produced and occasionally hosted a daily talk show on

KVAL-TV KVAL-TV (channel 13) is a television station in Eugene, Oregon, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, which provides certain services to dual NBC/ CW+ affiliate KMTR (channel 16) under a shared services agr ...

(

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

affiliate) in Eugene.

Political campaigns

1972 vice-presidential nomination

At the first

presidential nominating convention A United States presidential nominating convention is a political convention held every four years in the United States by most of the political parties who will be fielding nominees in the upcoming U.S. presidential election. The formal purpo ...

of the Libertarian Party in

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, me ...

, Nathan was nominated by the convention delegates to run for vice president with presidential candidate

, chairman of the philosophy department at the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...

. While the ticket received only 3,674 official votes out of more than 75 million votes cast, Republican elector Roger MacBride of

chose to vote for Hospers and Nathan instead of

Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...

and Agnew. As a result, Nathan became the first woman and the first Jew in American history to have received an electoral vote in a presidential election. (Although Barry Goldwater was half-Jewish by ethnicity, he was not Jewish by religion, as he was raised in the Episcopalian faith of his mother; Goldwater received his electoral votes 8 years before Nathan received hers.) Nathan and Hospers campaigned on a platform of minimal government intervention.

1976 vice-presidential candidacy

Nathan consented to have her name put forward for the Libertarian vice-presidential nomination in the 1976 presidential election, though she did not actively campaign for the position."Convention To Receive West Eugene Woman's Name"
''

Eugene Register-Guard ''The Register-Guard'' is a daily newspaper in the northwestern United States, published in Eugene, Oregon. It was formed in a 1930 merger of two Eugene papers, the ''Eugene Daily Guard'' and the ''Morning Register''. The paper serves the Eugene- ...

''. August 22, 1975. Retrieved July 31, 2012. She lost that nomination to Jim Lewis.

1992 Oregon State Senate campaign

Nathan ran against Democrat Bill Dwyer in the 1992

Oregon State Senate The Oregon State Senate is the upper house of the statewide legislature for the US state of Oregon. Along with the lower chamber Oregon House of Representatives it makes up the Oregon Legislative Assembly. There are 30 members of the state Sena ...

election to represent

Oregon's 21st House district District 21 of the Oregon House of Representatives is one of 60 House legislative districts in the state of Oregon. As of 2013, the boundary for the district includes a portion of Marion County. The current representative for the district is De ...

. She lost, receiving 17.3% of the vote compared to Dwyers' 82.7%.

Senate and House of Representatives campaigns

Following her vice-presidential run, she made a series of unsuccessful runs as a Libertarian candidate during the 1970s through the 1990s, for offices including the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

and the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

. In the 1980 U.S. Senate election, Nathan participated in three statewide television debates with incumbent

Bob Packwood Robert William Packwood (born September 11, 1932) is an American retired lawyer and politician from Oregon and a member of the Republican Party. He resigned from the United States Senate, under threat of expulsion, in 1995 after allegations of s ...

and then-State Senator

Ted Kulongoski Theodore Ralph Kulongoski ( ; born November 5, 1940) is an American politician, judge, and lawyer who served as the 36th Governor of Oregon from 2003 to 2011. A member of the Democratic Party, he served in both houses of the Oregon Legislative As ...

. She received 43,686 votes for 3.83% of the vote. In 1990 Nathan ran as a Libertarian candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives for

Oregon's 4th congressional district Oregon's 4th congressional district represents the southern half of Oregon's coastal counties, including Coos, Curry, Douglas, Lane, and Benton counties and most of Linn and Josephine counties. It is centered around the state's two colleg ...

. She was the lone challenger to incumbent Congressman

Peter DeFazio Peter Anthony DeFazio (; born May 27, 1947) is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for , serving since 1987. He is a member of the Democratic Party. The district includes Eugene, Springfield, Corvallis, Roseburg, Coos B ...

and received 26,432 votes for 14% of the vote. Nathan ran unsuccessfully for the

in 1992 and 1998.

Other political activities

Nathan was a founding member and former vice chair of the Libertarian Party, as well as a founding member and former president of the Association of Libertarian Feminists. She was a speaker at the 2012 Libertarian National Convention, where she also announced

Gary Johnson Gary Earl Johnson (born January 1, 1953) is an American businessman, author, and politician. He served as the 29th governor of New Mexico from 1995 to 2003 as a member of the Republican Party. He was the Libertarian Party nominee for Presid ...

as the 2012 Libertarian Party presidential nominee.

Views

Nathan was originally a Democrat until one of her sons, Paul, gave her some writings by

Ayn Rand Alice O'Connor (born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum;, . Most sources transliterate her given name as either ''Alisa'' or ''Alissa''. , 1905 – March 6, 1982), better known by her pen name Ayn Rand (), was a Russian-born American writer and p ...

. That helped spur his mother’s political views of freedom, free markets and individuality, and prompted her to switch her political allegiance from the Democratic to Libertarian Party, Paul said. She attended the party's first national convention in 1972 in Colorado as an interested observer and freelance writer, but was ultimately asked to join the party's national ticket as a running mate. Throughout the years, Nathan championed a number of social and fiscal issues such as ending the military draft and the war on drugs, advocating historic preservation, abortion rights and a flat tax. During the 2004 presidential election, Nathan wrote a column for ''

LewRockwell.com Llewellyn Harrison Rockwell Jr. (born July 1, 1944) is an American author, editor, and political consultant. A libertarian and a self-professed anarcho-capitalist, he founded and is the chairman of the Mises Institute, a non-profit dedicated to ...

'' saying that Americans "should vote their consciences and pick the candidate who best represents their values." She also stated, "It makes you wonder, doesn't it. What is the major news media afraid of? Could it be that most Americans share the Libertarian ideals of Republican fiscal conservatism (reducing the size and cost of government) and Democratic social liberalism (allowing citizens control over their personal lives)? Perhaps such Libertarian views represent a genuine threat to both major parties…" and "It is possible that during the coming debates President Bush or Senator Kerry will discuss the many issues that created reasons for new political parties to form – issues on environmentalism, a possible draft, the Drug War, abortion and gay rights, the falling dollar, immigration laws, foreign policy principles, the unwieldy IRS code and the Supreme Court's adherence to the Constitution."

Personal life

Nathan was married to Charles "Chuck" Nathan, an

ASCAP The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) () is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization (PRO) that collectively licenses the public performance rights of its members' musical works to venues, broadca ...

composer who wrote top-ten hit songs in the 1950s. They were married from 1942 until his death in 2012. The couple had three sons.

Death

Nathan died on March 20, 2014 at the age of 91 from

Alzheimer's disease Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegeneration, neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in short-term me ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nathan, Theodora 1923 births 2014 deaths 1972 United States vice-presidential candidates 1976 United States vice-presidential candidates 20th-century American businesswomen 20th-century American businesspeople 20th-century American politicians American feminists American radio producers American women television producers Businesspeople from Eugene, Oregon Deaths from Alzheimer's disease Neurological disease deaths in Oregon American drug policy reform activists Female candidates for Vice President of the United States Individualist feminists Jewish American candidates for Vice President of the United States Jewish feminists Libertarian Party (United States) vice presidential nominees Oregon Libertarians Politicians from Eugene, Oregon Politicians from New York City Television producers from New York City University of Oregon alumni Women in Oregon politics Television producers from Oregon Women radio producers