The United Citizens Party was first organized in 1969 in the U.S. state of South Carolina in response to the state Democratic Party's opposition to nominating black candidates. The party's objective was to elect blacks to the legislature and local offices in counties with black majority populations. The party ran candidates in 1970 and 1972; as a result in 1970 the first three black candidates were elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives since Reconstruction. In South Carolina, as in New York and unlike most other states, a single candidate may be nominated by two or more legally separate political parties. This practice is called electoral fusion. In the past, several South Carolina state legislators, who concurrently served as Democrats, were cross-endorsed by the United Citizens Party. Other political parties that have practiced fusion include the New York Conservative Party, the Working Families Party of New York and the Liberal Party of New York. The American Labor Party was a historically important party in New York State which both practiced fusion and elected candidates independently. Since the opening up of the state Democratic Party to black candidates, the party has mainly served as a means for various third party candidates to appear on the South Carolina Presidential ballot. For a period of time in the 1990s the party used the name Patriot Party before returning to its original and current name.
History
In 1996, Ross Perot was the nominee of both the Reform Party and the United Citizens Party then known as the Patriot Party. In 1974, the political scientists Hanes Walton Jr. and William H. Boone cited the UCP up to that point as an example of a successful sub-national African American political party. In the 2000 election, the UCP nominated Ralph Nader for President in South Carolina. He received 20,279 votes or about 1.46% of the total 1,384,253. In the 2002 election for the Second Congressional District in South Carolina, Mark Whittington received 17,189 votes or 10.03% of the total, after picketing the national headquarters of the Bank of America in Charlotte, N.C. In 2004, the UCP chose to nominate the Socialist Party candidate Walt Brown for President. Brown received 2,124 votes or about 0.13% of the total 1,617,730. Ralph Nader appeared on the South Carolina ballot as an independent, receiving 5520 votes or 0.34%. David Cobb appeared on the new South Carolina Green Party ballot line and received 1488 votes or 0.09% of the statewide total. In 2006, the Party endorsed John "JC" Nellums for State House District 79, and did not cross-endorse candidates of any other party. On March 29, 2008, the party endorsed Barack Obama via convention for the 2008 presidential election, but the nomination was not accepted. Obama appeared on the ballot as solely as the candidate of the Democratic Party. In 2010, the party cross-endorsed former football player Morgan Bruce Reeves for governor, alongside the South Carolina Green Party. Reeves received 0.9% of the vote. On the November 2014 ballot, the party nominated Morgan Bruce Reeves for Governor and David Edmond for Commissioner of Agriculture. Reeves received 0.45% of the vote.
