William Frederick Varney (October 1, 1884 – December 13, 1960) was an American politician who served as the Prohibition Party's presidential candidate in 1928 and in other New York campaigns.

Life

On October 1, 1884, William Frederick Varney was born to Frederick William Varney, who served as president of the Eastern conference of the Methodist Protestant church, in Paterson, New Jersey. He became a prohibitionist in 1906 after meeting a patient who swore to never drink alcohol again if he recovered his health. From 1912 to 1918 he served as field secretary of the New Jersey Prohibition Party and was elected to the national committee in 1924. He ran for the Prohibition Party's presidential nomination in

1928 Events January * January – British bacteriologist Frederick Griffith reports the results of Griffith's experiment, indirectly proving the existence of DNA. * January 1 – Eastern Bloc emigration and defection: Boris Bazhan ...

and narrowly defeated

Herbert Hoover Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was an American politician who served as the 31st president of the United States from 1929 to 1933 and a member of the Republican Party, holding office during the onset of the Gr ...

, who was nominated by members who did not want their nominee to be a spoiler candidate, with 66 delegates on the second ballot against Hoover's 45 delegates. In the general election he conducted a

front porch campaign A front porch campaign is a low-key electoral campaign used in American politics in which the candidate remains close to or at home to make speeches to supporters who come to visit. The candidate largely does not travel around or otherwise acti ...

and only received 20,101 votes (0.09 percent), slightly more than the 14,394 votes Hoover received from the Prohibition ballot line in

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

, which was the worst performance for a Prohibition presidential nominee since

Neal Dow Neal Dow (March 20, 1804 – October 2, 1897) was an American Prohibition advocate and politician. Nicknamed the "Napoleon of Temperance movement, Temperance" and the "Father of Prohibition", Dow was born to a Quaker family in Portland, Maine. ...

's 10,364 votes in

1880 Events January–March * January 22 – Toowong State School is founded in Queensland, Australia. * January – The international White slave trade affair scandal in Brussels is exposed and attracts international infamy. * February � ...

. In 1929 he was elected as president of the Prohibition Party to replace D. Leigh Colvin following his forced resignation. He later ran for mayor of Rockville Centre, during which he was accused of being a member of the Ku Klux Klan but he rejected the accusation as false, and in

1934 Events January–February * January 1 – The International Telecommunication Union, a specialist agency of the League of Nations, is established. * January 15 – The 8.0 Nepal–Bihar earthquake strikes Nepal and Bihar with a maxi ...

he ran with the Law Preservation nomination for governor of New York, but only received 20,449 votes causing the party to lose its automatic ballot access. In 1919, he created an insurance agency and operated it until his retirement in 1957. On December 13, 1960, Varney died from cerebral thrombosis in a nursing home in East Rockaway.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Varney, William Frederick 1884 births 1960 deaths Prohibition Party (United States) presidential nominees American temperance activists Candidates in the 1928 United States presidential election People from Rockville Centre, New York New Jersey Prohibitionists New York (state) Prohibitionists 20th-century American politicians