Fifty years ago | ‘Nobody for President’ campaign in U.S.
This archival piece revisits the 1976 'Nobody for President' protest campaign in the United States, led by activist Wavy Gravy. The movement used satire to express disillusionment with the political establishment and the power held by the presidency.
Why it matters
It provides historical context on political protest movements and the use of satire in American electoral history.
San Francisco, October 14: The 1976 U.S. Presidential campaign is not all Jimmy Carter, Gerry Ford, television debates and fundraising dinners. There’s another candidate nobody has yet seen, not even his supporters.
Confetti and tickertape rain down on an open car as it arrives with nobody in the back seat. Nobody is the evening’s speaker. Nobody is introduced.
When the cheering dies away, a set of chattering clockwork teeth is placed on the speaker’s lectern and clatters on for three minutes.
This is the “Nobody for President” campaign now going into its final weeks with a coast-to-coast tour starting here and ending up in New York on election day, November 2.
Who is behind it? “Nobody” answers campaign organiser Huge Romney, a former poet who calls himself Wavy Gravy.
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