The front-runner for the Green Party’s 2020 presidential nomination, Howie Hawkins, has selected Angela Walker as his running mate.
Walker, a truck driver from South Carolina, is a veteran labor and racial justice activist and has twice previously run for office as an independent socialist.
“I’ve known Angela since 2014. She knows the issues. She speaks with a clarity and conviction that people understand and believe,” Hawkins said. “She has the experience as a worker, a black woman, a union leader, and a movement organizer to connect with the working-class, minority, and young voters our campaign wants to mobilize. She was my first choice and I’m so glad she accepted.”
Hawkins and Walker first met in 2014 when Hawkins was running for governor of New York on the Green Party ticket and Angela was running as an independent socialist for Milwaukee County sheriff. The two spoke on a panel for Solidarity, a socialist, feminist and anti-racist organization.
Walker has a deep history of activism. When she was a teenager she organized students to get black history classes introduced into the curriculum of her Bay View High School in Milwaukee.
She is the legislative director of the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) in Milwaukee and was a leader in the 2011 Wisconsin uprising against Gov. Scott Walker. She played leading roles in Occupy Milwaukee and Occupy the Hood (the Milwaukee chapter), which both represented the interests of oppressed people and sought to bring people of color into the Occupy Movement.
“How could I not say yes to running? The Green Party is in a great position to amplify the people’s power, and we’ve got to encourage people to use their power,” Walker said. “If not now, when? I believe the Green Party can deliver this message to millions of Americans, and I am honored to be running with Howie to bring about necessary change.”
Hawkins believes that, considering President Trump’s response to COVID-19, as well as Biden’s relative absence in the news and on the campaign trail, voters will look for an alternative candidate. With Hawkins and Walker running together he believes the Green Party will, “reach the working people, the people of color, and the young people who are the base of the Green Party.”
The Green Party is on the ballot in 25 states and continues to petition for access in remaining states.
