# 2008 Green National Convention

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The 2008 Green National Convention took place on July 10–14, 2008 in Chicago, Illinois at the Palmer House Hilton and Symphony Center. This served as both the venue for the National Convention and the Annual Meeting of the Green Party of the United States.

## Venues

The convention was headquartered at the historic Palmer House Hilton, while the nomination event itself took place at the nearby Symphony Center on July 12.

## Theme

The theme of the convention was, "Live Green, Vote Green".

## Events
### July 10
#### Main Events

* Introductory news conference and a reception for international Greens.
* Welcome Reception with International Greens

#### Additional Events

* Credentialing Committee meeting
* Accreditation Committee meeting
* Diversity Caucus meeting
* Platform Committee meeting
* Lavender Caucus meeting
* International Committee Meeting
* Ballot Access Committee Meeting
* National Women's Caucus
* New York State Caucus
* Bylaws, Rules, Policies & Procedures (BRPP) Committee Meeting
* California State Caucus
* Workshops:
** GPUS Budget & Finances in General: Input, Q&A, and more (presented by Jody Grage and Jim Coplen)
** Selling Yourself Without Selling Out (hosted by Scott McLarty)
** A Clear Path Towards Dismantling and Ending All "ism" (Racism, sexism, classism and white privilege) within the Green Party by 2012 (facilitated by Sedinam Kinamo Christin Moyowasifza-Curry)
** Viral Campaign Marketing (presented by Jim Carr)
** What Every Candidate Should Know (presented Brent McMillan)
** What is Local Democracy? Building from the Bottom Up for Political Power (led by Juscha E. M. Robinson, Brenda Konkel, Pete Karas)

### July 11
#### Main events

* National Committee Meeting
* News conferences for elected Greens, Green presidential candidates, and candidates for other offices
* Presidential Candidates Forum. moderated by Rich Whitney
* Evening reception with John Nichols

#### Other Events

* Morning Yoga
* Eco-Action Committee meeting
* Presidential Candidate Support Committee meeting
* Outreach Committee meeting
* Black Caucus meeting
* Dispute Resolution Committee meeting
* Disability Caucus meeting
* Youth Caucus meeting
* Maine State Caucus meeting
* Latino Caucus meeting
* Workshops
** Fundraising 101 (featuring panelists LaVerne Butler, Angel Torres, George Martin, David Cobb, Jody Grange, Emily Citkowski, Tamar Yager)
** The Role of Peace Movement in an Election Year (presented by Bruce Gagnon, Steve Shafarman and moderated by Ann Wilcox)
** What is Central to the Green Message: Ecology? Democracy? Social Justice? (presented Gloria Mattera, Ben Manski and John Rensenbrink, moderated by Mary Beth Sullivan)
** Sustainable Activism (presented by Alison Duncan)
** The 60th Anniversaries of the Palestinian Catastrophe (Nakba) and the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Green Party's Response
** The Constitutional MAP for Voter Disenfranchisement
** Update on NAFTA and the North American Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP)
** The Law of Diminishing Returns as a Principle for Deciding How to Deal with the Need to Reduce Consumption to Restore the Environment
** Organizing Online for Everyone
** Campaign Fundraising
** Candidate Messaging
** Making Green Food Choices – How our diet affects animals and the environment
** Democratizing the Electoral College
** Endless War and the Military-Industrial- Governmental Complex
** Red, Black, Brown and 'Green': Positive Solutions to the Issues of Poverty, Immigration and Environment Destruction
** A Democracy Movement for the U.S.A.
** The Basic Income Guarantee - and the Power of Green Economics

### July 12
#### Main events

* Platform vote
* Keynote speeches by Cliff Thornton, Kathy Kelly, Malik Rahim, Jill Stein, Omar López
* Speeches by Green Party presidential candidates
* Presidential nomination vote
* Vice presidential nomination and speech
* Presidential speech
* Press conference
* Post-convention reception at Palmer House

### July 13
#### Main events

* National Committee meeting with the new presidential nominee

#### Other events

* Morning meditation led by Lewie Pell of the Network for Spiritual Progressives
* Green Alliance Meeting
* Workshops:
** Agrarian Revival at the End of Cheap Oil
** What to say when you're called a spoiler: instant runoff voting & proportional representation
** LGBT Activism: Recent Victories and Future Goals
** History of US-Iranian Relations and Its Impact on Current Tensions Regarding Iranian Nuclear Power
** Strategic Thinking for Campaigns
** Elections for Radicals

## Speakers

Notable speakers included:
| Name | Position/Notability |
| David Cobb | Activist 2004 Green Party presidential nominee |
| Pat LaMarche | Activist 2004 Green Party vice presidential nominee |
| Rich Whitney | Green party nominee for the 2006 Illinois gubernatorial election |
| John Nichols | Journalism |
| Malik Rahim | Activist Former Black Panther Green party nominee for LA-02 in 2008 |
| Kathy Kelly | |
| Cliff Thornton Jr | Activist Green party nominee for the 2006 Connecticut gubernatorial election |
| Omar López | Green party nominee for IL-04 in 2008 |
| Jill Stein | Physician Green party nominee in the 2002 Massachusetts gubernatorial election |
| Brent McMillan | GPUS Political Director (2004-2009) |
| Sedinam Kinamo Christin Moyowasifza-Curry | [?] |
| Jim Carr | [?] |
| Ben Manski | |
| John Rensenbrink | Political sciencist Conservationist Co-founder of the Green Party |

## Presidential nomination

The presidential nomination took place July 12 at Chicago's Symphony Center.

### Candidates

* Withdrew Jared Ball of Maryland, college professor and journalist
* Withdrew Elaine Brown, former Black Panther Party chairwoman
* Howie Hawkins of New York, activist
* Jesse Johnson of West Virginia, former Mountain Party candidate for US Senate and Governor of West Virginia
* Cynthia McKinney of Georgia, former Congresswoman from Georgia's 4th district (Campaign • Website)
* Kent Mesplay of California, California Delegate to the Green National Committee
* Kat Swift of Texas, co-chair of Texas Green Party

### Balloting

| Candidate | Green National Convention Presidential roll call vote | Percentage |
| Cynthia McKinney | 324 | 59.89% |
| Ralph Nader$^3$ | 85½ | 15.80% |
| Kat Swift | 38½ | 7.12% |
| Kent Mesplay | 35 | 6.47% |
| Jesse Johnson | 32½ | 6.01% |
| Elaine Brown | 9 | 1.66% |
| Jared Ball$^4$ | 8 | 1.48% |
| No candidate | 6½ | 1.20% |
| Uncommitted | 2 | 0.37% |
| Total | 541 | 100% |
| Notes: $^1$ "2008 Green Party Presidential Nomination Delegate Count". GPUS. July 3, 2008. $^2$ "2008 Presidential Convention Ballot Results". GPUS. July 2008. $^3$ Nader did not seek the Green Party nomination. His total includes 8 delegates from Illinois where Howie Hawkins stood on the ballot in his place. $^4$ Endorsed Cynthia McKinney. |||
Green presidential nomination ballot :
| Delegation | Cynthia McKinney | Ralph Nader | Kat Swift | Kent Mesplay | Jesse Johnson | Elaine Brown | Jared Ball | Other |
| Arizona | 6 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Arkansas | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Black Caucus | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| California | 23 | 52 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 0 |
| Colorado | 3 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| Connecticut | 10 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Delaware | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Washington, D.C. | 13 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Florida | 11 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Georgia | 7 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Hawaii | 5 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Illinois | 25 | 8 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 |
| Indiana | 6.5 | 0 | 0 | 1.5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Iowa | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Lavender Caucus | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Louisiana | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Maine | 15 | 0 | 1 | 0.5 | 1.5 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Maryland | 6 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Massachusetts | 13 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Michigan | 17 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Minnesota | 11 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Mississippi | 4 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Missouri | 5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Montana | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Nebraska | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| New Jersey | 6 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| New York | 28.5 | 2.5 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| North Carolina | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Ohio | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Oregon | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Pennsylvania | 10 | 2 | 0.5 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2.5 |
| Rhode Island | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| South Carolina | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Tennessee | 5 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Texas | 1 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Utah | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Virginia | 2 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Washington | 10 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| West Virginia | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Wisconsin | 19 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Women's Caucus | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total delegates | 324 | 85.5 | 38.5 | 35 | 32.5 | 9 | 8 | 8.5 |

### Running mate

After McKinney's nomination, the convention delegates selected her stated choice of running mate, Rosa Clemente, for the vice-presidential nomination through a voice vote of delegates.