John Parker (California)
John Parker (Peace and Freedom Party) ran for election to the U.S. House to represent California's 37th Congressional District. He lost in the primary on March 5, 2024.
Parker completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
John Thompson Parker was born in Jersey City, New Jersey. His career experience includes working as a coordinator for the Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice.[1][2]
Parker has been affiliated with the following organizations:[2]
- Socialist Unity Party
- Struggle-la Lucha Newspaper
- Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice
- Peace & Freedom Party
Elections
2024
See also: California's 37th Congressional District election, 2024
California's 37th Congressional District election, 2024 (March 5 top-two primary)
General election
General election for U.S. House California District 37
Incumbent Sydney Kamlager-Dove defeated Juan Rey in the general election for U.S. House California District 37 on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D) | 78.3 | 160,364 | |
| Juan Rey (No party preference) | 21.7 | 44,450 | ||
| Total votes: 204,814 | ||||
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Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for U.S. House California District 37
Incumbent Sydney Kamlager-Dove and Juan Rey defeated Adam Carmichael, John Parker, and Baltazar Fedalizo in the primary for U.S. House California District 37 on March 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D) | 71.8 | 62,413 | |
| ✔ | Juan Rey (No party preference) | 10.3 | 8,917 | |
| Adam Carmichael (D) | 8.7 | 7,520 | ||
| John Parker (Peace and Freedom Party) | 8.4 | 7,316 | ||
| Baltazar Fedalizo (R) (Write-in) | 0.9 | 752 | ||
| Total votes: 86,918 | ||||
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Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Parker in this election.
2022
U.S. Senate (full-term)
See also: United States Senate election in California, 2022
General election
General election for U.S. Senate California
Incumbent Alex Padilla defeated Mark Meuser in the general election for U.S. Senate California on November 8, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Alex Padilla (D) | 61.1 | 6,621,621 | |
| Mark Meuser (R) | 38.9 | 4,222,029 | ||
| Total votes: 10,843,650 | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for U.S. Senate California
The following candidates ran in the primary for U.S. Senate California on June 7, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Alex Padilla (D) | 54.1 | 3,725,544 | |
| ✔ | Mark Meuser (R) | 14.9 | 1,028,374 | |
| Cordie Williams (R) | 6.9 | 474,321 | ||
| Jonathan Elist (R) | 4.2 | 289,716 | ||
| Chuck Smith (R) | 3.9 | 266,766 | ||
| James P. Bradley (R) | 3.4 | 235,788 | ||
| Douglas Howard Pierce (D) | 1.7 | 116,771 | ||
| John Parker (Peace and Freedom Party) | 1.5 | 105,477 | ||
| Sarah Sun Liew (R) | 1.1 | 76,994 | ||
| Dan O'Dowd (D) | 1.1 | 74,916 | ||
| Akinyemi Agbede (D) | 1.0 | 70,971 | ||
| Myron Hall (R) | 1.0 | 66,161 | ||
| Timothy Ursich Jr. (D) | 0.8 | 58,348 | ||
| Robert Lucero (R) | 0.8 | 53,398 | ||
| James Henry Conn (G) | 0.5 | 35,983 | ||
| Eleanor Garcia (Independent) | 0.5 | 34,625 | ||
| Carlos Guillermo Tapia (R) | 0.5 | 33,870 | ||
| Pamela Elizondo (G) | 0.5 | 31,981 | ||
| Enrique Petris (R) | 0.5 | 31,883 | ||
| Obaidul Huq Pirjada (D) | 0.4 | 27,889 | ||
| Daphne Bradford (Independent) | 0.4 | 26,900 | ||
| Don Grundmann (Independent) | 0.1 | 10,181 | ||
| Deon Jenkins (Independent) | 0.1 | 6,936 | ||
| Mark Ruzon (No party preference) (Write-in) | 0.0 | 206 | ||
| Lily Zhou (R) (Write-in) | 0.0 | 58 | ||
| Irene Ratliff (No party preference) (Write-in) | 0.0 | 7 | ||
| Marc Roth (No party preference) (Write-in) | 0.0 | 1 | ||
| Total votes: 6,884,065 | ||||
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Chloe Hollett-Billingsley (D)
- Dhruva Herle (D)
- Chris Theodore (D)
- Ernest Taylor (D)
- Brant John-Michael Williams (Independent)
- Marie Encar Arnold (D)
- Peter Liu (R)
- Brian Ainsworth (R)
- Yvonne Girard (R)
- Elizabeth Heng (R)
- Erik Urbina (R)
- Denard Ingram (D)
- Ellerton Whitney (L)
- Danny Fabricant (R)
- Fepbrina Keivaulqe Autiameineire (Independent)
- Paul Gutierrez (R)
- Mary Glory Thach (Independent)
U.S. Senate (special election)
See also: United States Senate special election in California, 2022
General election
Special general election for U.S. Senate California
Incumbent Alex Padilla defeated Mark Meuser in the special general election for U.S. Senate California on November 8, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Alex Padilla (D) | 60.9 | 6,559,308 | |
| Mark Meuser (R) | 39.1 | 4,212,450 | ||
| Total votes: 10,771,758 | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Nonpartisan primary election
Special nonpartisan primary for U.S. Senate California
The following candidates ran in the special primary for U.S. Senate California on June 7, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Alex Padilla (D) | 55.0 | 3,740,582 | |
| ✔ | Mark Meuser (R) | 22.1 | 1,503,480 | |
| James P. Bradley (R) | 6.9 | 472,052 | ||
| Jonathan Elist (R) | 5.9 | 403,722 | ||
| Timothy Ursich Jr. (D) | 3.3 | 226,447 | ||
| Dan O'Dowd (D) | 2.8 | 191,531 | ||
| Myron Hall (R) | 2.1 | 143,038 | ||
| Daphne Bradford (Independent) | 1.6 | 112,191 | ||
| John Parker (Peace and Freedom Party) (Write-in) | 0.1 | 9,951 | ||
| Irene Ratliff (No party preference) (Write-in) | 0.0 | 12 | ||
| Total votes: 6,803,006 | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Yvonne Girard (R)
2018
General election
General election for U.S. Senate California
Incumbent Dianne Feinstein defeated Kevin de León in the general election for U.S. Senate California on November 6, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Dianne Feinstein (D) | 54.2 | 6,019,422 | |
| Kevin de León (D) | 45.8 | 5,093,942 | ||
| Total votes: 11,113,364 | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for U.S. Senate California
The following candidates ran in the primary for U.S. Senate California on June 5, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Dianne Feinstein (D) | 44.2 | 2,947,035 | |
| ✔ | Kevin de León (D) | 12.1 | 805,446 | |
| James P. Bradley (R) | 8.3 | 556,252 | ||
| Arun Bhumitra (R) | 5.3 | 350,815 | ||
| Paul Taylor (R) | 4.9 | 323,533 | ||
| Erin Cruz (R) | 4.0 | 267,494 | ||
| Tom Palzer (R) | 3.1 | 205,183 | ||
| Alison Hartson (D) | 2.2 | 147,061 | ||
| Roque De La Fuente (R) | 2.0 | 135,278 | ||
| Pat Harris (D) | 1.9 | 126,947 | ||
| John Crew (R) | 1.4 | 93,806 | ||
| Patrick Little (R) | 1.3 | 89,867 | ||
| Kevin Mottus (R) | 1.3 | 87,646 | ||
| Jerry Laws (R) | 1.0 | 67,140 | ||
| Derrick Michael Reid (L) | 0.9 | 59,999 | ||
| Adrienne Nicole Edwards (D) | 0.8 | 56,172 | ||
| Douglas Howard Pierce (D) | 0.6 | 42,671 | ||
| Mario Nabliba (R) | 0.6 | 39,209 | ||
| David Hildebrand (D) | 0.5 | 30,305 | ||
| Donnie Turner (D) | 0.5 | 30,101 | ||
| Herbert Peters (D) | 0.4 | 27,468 | ||
| David Moore (Independent) | 0.4 | 24,614 | ||
| Ling Shi (Independent) | 0.4 | 23,506 | ||
| John Parker (Peace and Freedom Party) | 0.3 | 22,825 | ||
| Lee Olson (Independent) | 0.3 | 20,393 | ||
| Gerald Plummer (D) | 0.3 | 18,234 | ||
| Jason Hanania (Independent) | 0.3 | 18,171 | ||
| Don Grundmann (Independent) | 0.2 | 15,125 | ||
| Colleen Shea Fernald (Independent) | 0.2 | 13,536 | ||
| Rash Bihari Ghosh (Independent) | 0.2 | 12,557 | ||
| Tim Gildersleeve (Independent) | 0.1 | 8,482 | ||
| Michael Fahmy Girgis (Independent) | 0.0 | 2,986 | ||
| Total votes: 6,669,857 | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Leigh Scott (R)
- John Estrada (R)
- Steve Stokes (D)
- Michael Eisen (Independent)
- Topher Brennan (D)
- Timothy Charles Kalemkarian (R)
- Jerry Leon Carroll (Independent)
- Charles Junior Hodge (Independent)
- John Melendez (D)
- Caren Lancona (R)
- Stephen Schrader (R)
- Donald Adams (Independent)
- Richard Mead (Independent)
- Clifton Roberts (Independent)
- Michael Ziesing (G)
- Jazmina Saavedra (R)
2016
Heading into the election, Ballotpedia rated California's U.S. Senate race as safely Democratic. California's U.S. Senate seat was open following the retirement of incumbent Barbara Boxer (D). Thirty-four candidates filed to run to replace Boxer, including seven Democrats, 12 Republicans, and 15 third-party candidates. Two Democrats, Kamala Harris and Loretta Sanchez, defeated the other 32 candidates to advance to the general election. Harris won the general election.[3][4]
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic |  Kamala Harris |
61.6% | 7,542,753 | |
| Democratic | Loretta Sanchez | 38.4% | 4,710,417 | |
| Total Votes | 12,253,170 | |||
| Source: California Secretary of State | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic |
Kamala Harris |
40.2% | 3,000,689 | |
| Democratic | Loretta Sanchez |
19% | 1,416,203 | |
| Republican | Duf Sundheim | 7.8% | 584,251 | |
| Republican | Phil Wyman | 4.7% | 352,821 | |
| Republican | Tom Del Beccaro | 4.3% | 323,614 | |
| Republican | Greg Conlon | 3.1% | 230,944 | |
| Democratic | Steve Stokes | 2.3% | 168,805 | |
| Republican | George Yang | 1.5% | 112,055 | |
| Republican | Karen Roseberry | 1.5% | 110,557 | |
| Republican | Tom Palzer | 1.2% | 93,263 | |
| Libertarian | Gail Lightfoot | 1.3% | 99,761 | |
| Republican | Ron Unz | 1.2% | 92,325 | |
| Democratic | Massie Munroe | 0.8% | 61,271 | |
| Green | Pamela Elizondo | 1.3% | 95,677 | |
| Republican | Don Krampe | 0.9% | 69,635 | |
| Republican | Jarrell Williamson | 0.9% | 64,120 | |
| Independent | Elanor Garcia | 0.9% | 65,084 | |
| Republican | Von Hougo | 0.9% | 63,609 | |
| Democratic | President Cristina Grappo | 0.8% | 63,330 | |
| Republican | Jerry Laws | 0.7% | 53,023 | |
| Libertarian | Mark Matthew Herd | 0.6% | 41,344 | |
| Independent | Ling Ling Shi | 0.5% | 35,196 | |
| Peace and Freedom | John Parker | 0.3% | 22,374 | |
| Democratic | Herbert Peters | 0.4% | 32,638 | |
| Democratic | Emory Rodgers | 0.4% | 31,485 | |
| Independent | Mike Beitiks | 0.4% | 31,450 | |
| Independent | Clive Grey | 0.4% | 29,418 | |
| Independent | Jason Hanania | 0.4% | 27,715 | |
| Independent | Paul Merritt | 0.3% | 24,031 | |
| Independent | Jason Kraus | 0.3% | 19,318 | |
| Independent | Don Grundmann | 0.2% | 15,317 | |
| Independent | Scott Vineberg | 0.2% | 11,843 | |
| Independent | Tim Gildersleeve | 0.1% | 9,798 | |
| Independent | Gar Myers | 0.1% | 8,726 | |
| Total Votes | 7,461,690 | |||
| Source: California Secretary of State |
||||
Campaign themes
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
John Parker completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Parker's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
| Collapse all
John Parker is a long-time socialist, activist, anti-war and anti-racist organizer. He is the founder of the Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice, and a leader in the Socialist Unity Party. He is running for U.S. Congress in the 37th District that incorporates much of South Los Angeles, and will be on the ballot as a Peace and Freedom Party candidate. Parker isn't asking for reforms.
"What we need is a whole new system. Racism, war, poverty and the destruction of the planet are built in to capitalism.
We need a powerful, united people's movement to overcome the tiny handful of billionaires that are exploiting us all, funding and enabling genocide in Gaza, and driving down the living standards of the global working class."
- End the genocide in Palestine. Permanent ceasefire NOW!
- People and planet over profit!
- Abolish racist police terror!
Anti-imperialism, anti-capitalism, anti-racism, anti-gender oppression.
Marx, Lenin, Lucy Parsons, Clara Zetkin, Harriet Tubman, Geronimo, Ho Chi Minh, John Brown, Amilcar Cabral, Rosa Luxembourg, Assata Shakur, Mao Zedong.... the list goes on.
Check out Struggle-la-Lucha.org.
The courage to stand with the people. Inability to be bought and sold by war profiteers and the rich.
The core responsibility of this office is to fight for those who do not have a voice—the majority of poor and working people in our districts.
The struggle against apartheid in South Africa and the arrest of Nelson Mandela drove me to become politically active.
I was a dishwasher in New Jersey until I left for junior college and New York University.
The United States is a waning empire. As the ruling class scrambles to ensure their continued viability and profits, living conditions for the majority will continue to crumble. Poverty, homelessness, even illiteracy will skyrocket as more public dollars are diverted to the war economy and away from essential public services and needs.
All reforms should raise consciousness of our constituents that this system must change. We cannot reform our way out of poverty and exploitation if those reforms maintain the status quo.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
Campaign website
Parker’s campaign website stated the following:
| “ |
End the occupation & genocide in Palestine
People & Planet over Profit
|
” |
| —John Parker's campaign website (2024)[6] | ||
2022
John Parker completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Parker's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
| Collapse all
John Parker is the coordinator of the Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice and leading member of the Socialist Unity Party. He accompanied former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark on many anti-war delegations abroad. Parker was only 18 when he organized his first union election--at a small steel plant in New Jersey. An African American, he has worked at a variety of other jobs, including teaching at a public school in Newark.
After moving to Los Angeles with his family in 1998, he became a leader in the anti-war movement. Parker sparked the minimum wage increase proposals in Los Angeles by being the first to author and initiate the Los Angeles $15 minimum wage ballot initiative in 2013 that would have taken effect immediately upon voter approval.
Parker recently attended the inauguration of socialist President Xiomara Castro at the invitation of her Libre Party, due to his solidarity work with Honduras after the 2009 U.S. supported coup.
Legislative/Legal Struggles:
• Initiator and author of $15 Minimum Wage Ballot Initiative of 2014 • Leading current lawsuit against Kroger’s for closing Ralphs grocery store in South Central Los Angeles, on behalf of the plaintiff: Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Los Angeles
- Call for an immediate cessation of U.S. wars and proxy wars and the funding of wars and occupations; divert the funding to vital social programs and for use in programs to reverse environmental damage, prioritizing global warming.
- Immediately call for a state of emergency in Black and Brown neighborhoods to address police murder with the initial step of ceasing the use of deadly force by police in communities where a majority of residents are Black or Latinx.
- Institute a referendum calling for the conversion of privately owned vital industry into public ownership
It has become crystal clear during this pandemic and the current push by the U.S. -led NATO for World War III, that the institutions in this country, and those who support them and enable them, can no longer be trusted to provide even the most basic protections of life, and increasingly threaten the existence of others beyond its borders. It is therefore time to take a sober look at our world and the rapidly deteriorating effects this systemic incompetence is having on our communities, our workplaces and our families.
The two-party system in the U.S. of Democrats and Republicans are two sides of the same coin, funded by and serving the same corporate masters. Their politicians, in general, will continue to make decisions of war, climate change, growing economic impoverishment and racist and sexist state repression based on the sole motivation of maximizing profits for their masters - who have ultimate control over the use of those profits. It’s our work, day in and day out that make those profits possible, yet this system does not allow us any real say in the consistent decision to spend trillions on war and relative pennies on social necessities. This will only change when corporate and financial monopoly ownership of the industries of production and finance are transferred to the majority – to those who it oppresses and exploits. This campaign is about building a movement to make that systemic change possible.
I look up to those who struggled to make this world a more just and equitable world. People who believed in using science and applying that science to the understanding of society for the betterment of working and poor peoples, especially those most oppressed by capitalist society. Therefore my heroes are Harriet Tubman, George Jackson, Karl Marx, Lucy Parsons, Martin Luther King Jr., Lenin, Macolm X, Mao, Claudia Jones, Ho Chi Min, Rosa Luxembourg, Amilcar Cabral, Che, Fidel, Leila Khalid, Patrice Lumumba and many many more who have said over and over emphatically in word and deed – that this system of exploitation, oppression, war and poverty must come to an end.
The first historical even I remember occurred while watching the civil rights marches with my parents at the age of 6.
My first job was as a dishwasher at the age of 14, which lasted for 1 year.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
See also
2024 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on April 20, 2022
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on January 29, 2024
- ↑ California Secretary of State, "Certified List of Candidates for Voter-Nominated Offices June 7, 2016, Presidential Primary Election," accessed April 4, 2016
- ↑ The New York Times, "California Primary Results," June 7, 2016
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ John Parker for Congress, “A People's Platform,” accessed February 8, 2024
