The Socialist Workers Party nominated Dennis Richter as its vice presidential candidate April 29. Due to health considerations that need attention over the next several months, Margaret Trowe, who had been the party’s candidate, will no longer be able to run.
Dennis Richter grew up in a rural agricultural town in west-central Minnesota. While in high school in the 1960s he was drawn to the massive Black-led proletarian movement that tore down Jim Crow segregation and strengthened the U.S. working class.
He joined the Socialist Workers Party in 1972 in Minneapolis and worked with party leaders and cadres who came out of the labor struggles of the 1930s, with continuity going back to the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia led by V.I. Lenin, and the fight against the counterrevolution led by Joseph Stalin.
Richter — an opponent of Washington’s imperialist exploitation of workers and farmers worldwide — has organized and participated in demonstrations against the U.S. rulers’ wars, from Vietnam to Iraq and Afghanistan.
An industrial worker for over 50 years, he has been active in the unions working on the railroad, in meatpacking, and in the steel and garment industries. Richter has participated in union fights for higher wages and for workers control over production and working conditions.
He traveled to Cuba in 1971 and 2018, learning firsthand about the socialist revolution carried out by workers and peasants there, and its example for working people everywhere. He is part of activities opposing Washington’s economic war on Cuba.
He ran for mayor of Los Angeles in 2017 and for governor of California in 2021.
Today Richter lives in Fort Worth, Texas, and works as an airline food service worker and is a member of the UNITE HERE Local 23. He walked the picket line with co-workers and built solidarity with the United Auto Workers union strike in 2023. He participated in the UPS Teamsters practice pickets leading up to their 2023 contract ratification.
He has been active in walking the picket line and building support for Teamsters Local 997 on strike at Molson Coors brewery in Fort Worth.
Responding to the murderous Oct. 7 Tehran-backed Hamas pogrom against Israel, Richter joined protests against Jew-hatred and antisemitic attacks, and in support of Israel’s right to exist as a refuge for Jewish people.