David Cobb

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David Cobb bigraphy, stories - Activists

David Cobb : biography

December 24, 1962 –

David Keith Cobb (born December 24, 1962) is an American activist. In 2004 he was the standard bearer for the Green Party of the United States (GPUS) as its 2004 presidential candidate.

2004 presidential campaign

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.

Cobb stated his intention to run a campaign focused on building the Green Party and pursing 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. Also arrested was Libertarian candidate Michael Badnarik.

In the November 2004 presidential election, Cobb placed sixth in the popular vote total nationwide, earning over 118,000 votes (0.096 percent), but received no electoral votes. This represented a decline of over 90% support compared to the votes garnered by Nader.

Current activities

Cobb’s current activities include being a member of the Board of Directors for the Green Institute,, accessed 1 April 2013 and of the Sierra Club’s national Corporate Accountability Committee,, accessed 1 April 2013 a Fellow with the Liberty Tree Foundation for the Democratic Revolution, Deadlink 1 April 2013 on the Steering Committee of Democracy Unlimited of Humboldt County, Deadlink 1 April 2013 along with being the group’s campaigns director, Deadlink 1 April 2013 and is a Principal with Program on Corporations, Law, and Democracy (POCLAD)., accessed 1 April 2013

After moving to Eureka, California in 2003, Cobb also won a seat on the County Council of the Green Party of Humboldt County in a hotly contested election on June 6, 2006, a position he maintains. The membership of the Humboldt County Greens declined by over 25% during his time in office, and they currently hold no seats on any local City Council (which they continuously held from 1990 to 2008).

David Cobb is currently a spokesperson for Move to Amend., accessed 1 April 2013

2004 Ohio recount

After the 2004 election, Cobb and Libertarian nominee Michael Badnarik sought a recount of the Ohio vote and announced that they would challenge the 2004 presidential voting results in Ohio, even though neither challenger was claiming to have won the election, and even though Cobb had not even been on the ballot in Ohio. The challengers explained that it was an important matter of principle to make sure all the votes were counted accurately. They pointed to alleged voting irregularities.

Early life, career and political activities

Cobb was born in San Leon, Texas. After working as a crewman on a Gulf Coast shrimp boat, a construction worker and a waiter, Cobb graduated from the University of Houston Law School in 1993. After several years in private practice as a Houston, Texas attorney, he became engaged in politics. During the 1980s, he campaigned for the Democratic presidential candidacies of Jesse Jackson and Jerry Brown. Those experiences left him disenchanted with and disaffected from the Democratic Party. Consequently, he turned his activism to broad issues of democracy and corporations, joining with citizens’ groups in lectures, seminars, and workshops throughout the U.S. He sought to promote his view that corporations became unelected governing institutions, which should be overthrown by means of a nonviolent democratic revolution.

In 2000, Cobb answered the call of Green Presidential candidate Ralph Nader to organize Nader’s Texas campaign. He coordinated a successful ballot access drive in the state. Concurrently, Cobb became Green Party of the United States General Counsel.

In 2002, Cobb ran for Texas Attorney General on the Green ticket and used his candidacy to "barnstorm" Texas localities with little Green representation. His election bid was unsuccessful, winning just 0.92% of the vote. The Green Party of Texas lost its ballot access, which remained out of reach until 2010. The next year, a Green committee tagged him as a possible presidential candidate, which challenge he accepted.

Election history