David Cobb (activist)

It has been suggested that this article be merged into David Cobb 2004 presidential campaign. (Discuss) Proposed since July 2024.

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these messages) A major contributor to this article appears to have a close connection with its subject. It may require cleanup to comply with Wikipedia's content policies, particularly neutral point of view. Please discuss further on the talk page. (April 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this message) This biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentially libelous. Find sources: "David Cobb" activist – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (April 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this message) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

David Cobb
Born	David Keith Cobb San Leon, Texas, U.S.
Alma mater	University of Houston
Occupations	Activist attorney campaign director
Organization	Move to Amend
Political party	Democratic (former) Green

David Keith Cobb is an American political activist who was the Green Party presidential candidate for the 2004 election. Cobb later became the campaign manager for fellow Green Jill Stein for her presidential run in 2016.

With the announcement in late December 2003 that Nader would not seek the Green Party nomination for president in 2004, Cobb became a front-runner for the nomination. On January 13, 2004, David Cobb won the first Green primary in the nation, that of the District of Columbia, beating local activist Sheila Bilyeu and several write-in candidates and gaining an early lead in the nomination scramble.

Nader eventually announced an independent campaign for president and sought the endorsement of the Green Party and other minor parties; his supporters continued to push for a Nader victory in the various Green Party primary elections in states across the country. Shortly before,^[1] the Green Party presidential nominating convention, held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in June 2004, Nader selected Green Party member Peter Camejo as his running mate. On June 26, on the second ballot, the convention selected Cobb as the Green presidential candidate – a process rocked by controversy as Nader had won the vast majority of actual Green Party votes in nearly all state primary elections (Cobb received only 12.2 percent support). The party also nominated Pat LaMarche as its candidate for vice-president.

Cobb stated his intention to run a campaign focused on building the Green Party and pursuing a "strategic states" or "smart states" strategy which would take into account the wishes of Greens in each state, and which otherwise would focus on states that traditionally are "safely" won by the Democratic candidate, or "safely" won by the Republican candidate, with a large margin of victory. Such so-called "safe states" are also referred to in campaign literature as "neglected states" because the Democratic and Republican candidates traditionally put most of their campaign energy into more competitive "swing states." Cobb's campaign said that each state's campaign would aim to follow the wishes expressed by local Greens. While some of Cobb's supporters urged swing state residents to vote for Democrat John Kerry in order to stop the re-election of President George W. Bush, other Cobb supporters encouraged votes for Cobb and LaMarche everywhere. The candidates themselves used the phrase "vote your conscience," campaigning both in swing states such as Wisconsin and safe states such as California.

On October 8, 2004, Cobb was arrested in an act of civil disobedience, breaking a police line while protesting the Commission on Presidential Debates for excluding third-party candidates from the nationally televised debates in St. Louis, Missouri.^[2] Also arrested was Libertarian candidate Michael Badnarik.^[2]

In the November 2004 presidential election, Cobb placed sixth in the popular vote total nationwide, earning over 119,859 votes (0.10 percent), but received no electoral votes. This represented a decline of over 90 percent support compared to the votes garnered by Nader.

Since running for president, Cobb has become a member of the Board of Directors for the Green Institute,^[3] and of the Sierra Club's national Corporate Accountability Committee,^[4] a Fellow with the Liberty Tree Foundation for the Democratic Revolution,^[5] on the Steering Committee of Democracy Unlimited of Humboldt County,^[6] along with being the group's campaigns director,^[7] and is a Principal with Program on Corporations, Law, and Democracy (POCLAD).^[8]

Cobb facilitated the founding convention of the Green Party of Louisiana during a two-day convention which took place on August 31 and September 1, 2002, in New Orleans.^[9]

Cobb co-founded Cooperation Humboldt.^[10]

Cobb was the campaign manager for Green candidate Jill Stein in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.^[11]

• 2004 United States election voting controversies
• 2004 United States presidential election

Wikimedia Commons has media related to David Cobb.

• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Democracy Unlimited of Humboldt County website Archived 2005-08-30 at the Wayback Machine
• 2004 nomination acceptance speech 2004 Green Party Convention
• 2008 Green Party convention speech
• David Cobb discussing third parties Protests outside of 2004 DNC