2008 Green National Convention
The 2008 Green National Convention took place on July 10–14, 2008 in Chicago, Illinois at the Palmer House Hilton and Symphony Center. This served as both the venue for the National Convention and the Annual Meeting of the Green Party of the United States.
Venues
The convention was headquartered at the historic Palmer House Hilton, while the nomination event itself took place at the nearby Symphony Center on July 12.Theme
The theme of the convention was, "Live Green, Vote Green".Events
July 10
;Main Events- Introductory news conference and a reception for international Greens.
- Welcome Reception with International Greens
- Evening Reception hosted by Rich Whitney
- Credentialing Committee meeting
- Accreditation Committee meeting
- Diversity Caucus meeting
- Platform Committee meeting
- Lavender Caucus meeting
- International Committee Meeting
- Ballot Access Committee Meeting
- National Women's Caucus
- New York State Caucus
- Bylaws, Rules, Policies & Procedures Committee Meeting
- California State Caucus
- Workshops:
- *GPUS Budget & Finances in General: Input, Q&A, and more
- *Selling Yourself Without Selling Out
- *A Clear Path Towards Dismantling and Ending All "ism" within the Green Party by 2012
- *Viral Campaign Marketing
- *What Every Candidate Should Know
- *What is Local Democracy? Building from the Bottom Up for Political Power
July 11
- National Committee Meeting
- News conferences for elected Greens, Green presidential candidates, and candidates for other offices
- Presidential Candidates Forum. moderated by Rich Whitney
- Evening reception with John Nichols
- Morning Yoga
- Eco-Action Committee meeting
- Presidential Candidate Support Committee meeting
- Outreach Committee meeting
- Black Caucus meeting
- Dispute Resolution Committee meeting
- Disability Caucus meeting
- Youth Caucus meeting
- Maine State Caucus meeting
- Latino Caucus meeting
- Workshops
- *Fundraising 101
- *The Role of Peace Movement in an Election Year
- *What is Central to the Green Message: Ecology? Democracy? Social Justice?
- *Sustainable Activism
- *The 60th Anniversaries of the Palestinian Catastrophe and the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Green Party's Response
- *The Constitutional MAP for Voter Disenfranchisement
- *Update on NAFTA and the North American Security and Prosperity Partnership
- *The Law of Diminishing Returns as a Principle for Deciding How to Deal with the Need to Reduce Consumption to Restore the Environment
- *Organizing Online for Everyone
- *Campaign Fundraising
- *Candidate Messaging
- *Making Green Food Choices – How our diet affects animals and the environment
- *Democratizing the Electoral College
- *Endless War and the Military-Industrial- Governmental Complex
- *Red, Black, Brown and 'Green': Positive Solutions to the Issues of Poverty, Immigration and Environment Destruction
- *A Democracy Movement for the U.S.A.
- *The Basic Income Guarantee - and the Power of Green Economics
July 12
- Platform vote
- Keynote speeches by Cliff Thornton, Kathy Kelly, Malik Rahim, Jill Stein, Omar López
- Speeches by Green Party presidential candidates
- Presidential nomination vote
- Vice presidential nomination and speech
- Presidential speech
- Press conference
- Post-convention reception at Palmer House
July 13
- National Committee meeting with the new presidential nominee
- Morning meditation led by Lewie Pell of the Network for Spiritual Progressives
- Green Alliance Meeting
- Workshops:
- *Agrarian Revival at the End of Cheap Oil
- *What to say when you're called a spoiler: instant runoff voting & proportional representation
- *LGBT Activism: Recent Victories and Future Goals
- *History of US-Iranian Relations and Its Impact on Current Tensions Regarding Iranian Nuclear Power
- *Strategic Thinking for Campaigns
- *Elections for Radicals
Speakers
Notable speakers included:- David Cobb
- Rich Whitney, Green candidate for Governor of Illinois
- John Nichols, journalist
- Malik Rahim, activist, former Black Panther and Green Party candidate for Louisiana's 2nd congressional district
- Kathy Kelly, activist
- Cliff Thornton, Jr., activist and Green Party politician
- Omar López, Green candidate for Illinois's 4th congressional district
- Jill Stein, physician and Green candidate in the 2002 Massachusetts gubernatorial election
- Brent McMillan
- Sedinam Kinamo Christin Moyowasifza-Curry
- Jim Carr
- Ben Manski
- John Rensenbrink
Presidential nomination
Candidates
Balloting
| Candidates | Cynthia McKinney | Ralph Nader | Kat Swift | Kent Mesplay | Jesse Johnson | Elaine Brown | Jared Ball | Other |
| 6 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| Black Caucus | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 23 | 52 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 0 | |
| 3 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | |
| 10 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 13 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| 11 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Georgia | 7 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 5 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 25 | 8 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | |
| 6.5 | 0 | 0 | 1.5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| Lavender Caucus | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 15 | 0 | 1 | 0.5 | 1.5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 6 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 13 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 17 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 11 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| 4 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 6 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| 28.5 | 2.5 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 5 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 10 | 2 | 0.5 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2.5 | |
| 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 5 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 1 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 2 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| 10 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 19 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| Women's Caucus | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total delegates | 324 | 85.5 | 38.5 | 35 | 32.5 | 9 | 8 | 8.5 |