Colwell: Trump could match a unique run for president

Eugene Debs, a native Hoosier nominated for president, has had a unique claim in presidential election history. It now could be matched by Donald Trump.

Debs, born and raised in Terre Haute, where he began his political career as city clerk, also served in the Indiana General Assembly. He became a union organizer and official.

Five times Debs was the nominee for president of the Socialist Party.

His best vote total was in 1920, when Debs got nearly a million votes.

What is unique for Debs in presidential history is that he got all those votes in 1920 while in prison. He had been sentenced for violating the Espionage and Sedition Acts after a speech denouncing U.S. involvement in World War I.

Even though Trump now faces all those indictments, all those charges, is there much chance that he could match Debs for the distinction of running for president while in prison?

Trump would have to win the 2024 Republican nomination. He is likely to do so. But with all the possible trial delays and appeals — and uncertainty about what a jury would decide and what sentence a judge might impose — it seems far less likely that he would run as an inmate.

But maybe. He could run even if in prison. He undoubtedly would run. And he would get a lot more votes than Debs. He could even win the presidency while in prison.

While some states bar felons from running for some offices, the U.S. Constitution, not state law, sets qualifications for president — requirements only on age (at least 35) and citizenship. Nothing about imprisonment, present or past.

(A couple of law professors argue that the 14th Amendment insurrection clause already could bar a Trump candidacy. Don’t bet on the Supreme Court agreeing.)

Debs, Inmate No. 9653 in the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary, was able to run, not in the traditional sense of being out on the campaign trail, but from his cell. Debs was permitted to release one campaign statement every week. Trump, with social media, would send thousands of messages.

Debs still got nearly a million votes because he, like Trump, built up a following with long rally speeches denouncing conditions in the country. He also was accused of inciting violence. Debs had become president of the American Railway Union, and accusations involved the violent 1894 strike against Pullman, railcar builder with a company town for Chicago workers. The workers were angry over sharp wage cuts and went on a strike that disrupted rail service and mail service.

President Grover Cleveland’s administration obtained an injunction to halt the strike. There was violence. Strikers destroyed railcars. Illinois National Guard troops fired into a crowd, with deaths and injuries.

Although Debs was reported to have favored nonviolence, he was restrained by court order from direct contact with the workers. He was sentenced to six months in county jail for contempt of court. The case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

It was while in jail that Debs became a socialist.

He was the Socialist Party presidential nominee in 1900, 1904, 1908 and 1912, building support as a third-party candidate but never coming close to winning. He skipped running in 2016. But he continued to speak at rallies across the nation, opposing involvement in World War I. After the United States declared war against Germany in 1917, Congress passed the Espionage and Sedition Acts, criminalizing efforts to interfere with conducting the war or using “disloyal” language.

Debs continued to speak out against the war, the draft and the Sedition Act.

A fiery speech in Canton, Ohio, on June 16, 1918, brought charges and conviction. On Sept. 18, 1918, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison. And that’s where he was when he ran for president in 2020. He has been unique in that. Thus far.

Jack Colwell is a columnist for The Tribune. Write to him in care of The Tribune or by email at jcolwell@comcast.net.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Donald Trump could match Eugene Deb's behind-bars run for president