From collection Candidates
Kate Richards O'Hare was a Socialist party activist who ran for Commissioner of Charities and Corrections in Oklahoma in 1907. She faced two other women, Democrate Kate Barnard (who won), and Republican Hazel Tomlinson. O'Hare next ran unsuccessfully for U.S. Congress from Kansas in 1910. She campaigned vigorously, with her strongest support coming from workers in Kansas City and miners in the southeastern part of the district. O'Hare spoke out forcefully against World War I and was sentenced to five years in federal prison for violations of the Espionage Act. A nation-wide campaign helped secure her release by Woodrow Wilson in early 1920. O'Hare parted ways with the Socialist Party over issues of race. She supported segregation and voiced those opinions in a pamphlet (published in 1912), aimed at Southern white voters.
