About 3,000 candidates ran for the Senate and the House of Representatives in the recent US midterms, with the Republican and Democratic Parties accounting for the vast majority.
Representatives of a few smaller parties, namely the Libertarian Party, the Green Party and the Constitution Party among others, were also in the reckoning.
But there was another party, with a popular name and a globally recognisable symbol, that had hoped to join the list but failed to show up on the ballots - the Communist Party.
Brandon Daley was the only member of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) to file a nomination in the midterms. He filed to run for the US House of Representatives in Georgia's 2nd Congressional District, which was eventually retained by Democrat Sanford Bishop, defeating Republican Matt Day to extend his 33-year House run dating to 1993.
Daley, however, did not feature on the ballot. The US Federal Election Commission records show that he filed for candidacy, but it doesn't say if he withdrew or if he was disqualified.
One particular reason for disqualification that is worth noting, as per the Office of the Secretary of State (Elections Division), is the requirement placed on signature petitions.
A candidate seeking to appear on the ballot must secure a valid number of signatures from the electorate, which varies by district and house. For District 2, where Daley had filed his nomination, the required number of signatures was 27,669.
That is a particularly striking number because, as per available records, CPUSA's membership numbers for the whole of America might be less than the individual signatures required for candidacy in the state of Georgia. However, it must be noted that the signatures need not belong to CPUSA members alone.
A June 2023 report published by the Independent places CPUSA's nationwide membership at about 15,000, as per the party's co-chair Joe Sims. In the report, Sims claims the membership figures were growing at about 2,000 to 3,000 members every year. By that projection, CPUSA should have no more than 24,000 members as of this year.
A University of Washington report shows the party had a better presence in the past. The Communist Party was formed in the US in 1919, two years after the Russian Revolution, led by Vladimir Lenin.
The report, part of the University's Mapping American Social Movements Project, says the CPUSA membership levels that had remained below 20,000 until 1933 surged to 66,000 by 1939.
"Support for the CP was much larger than that, but how large has been an enduring question.
"Election tallies provide a clue. The CP fielded candidates in presidential and many state and local elections, not expecting to win but expecting loyalists to vote the Party ticket. Communist candidates were able to win about 100,000 votes in several elections during the 1930s and in Senate races in 1940 topped 115,000," the report says.
Though the numbers had improved, it did not impress the party leadership. Former General Secretary of CPUSA, William Z Foster, wrote about this in a 1959 Political Affairs article. Foster wrote that while 45 million votes were polled by the Democrats and Republicans, "hardly one hundred thousand votes were cast, combined, all over the United States, which obviously is not the total Socialist strength in this country".
"This shows," Foster wrote, "at a glance that the enormous majority of the workers, insofar as they vote at all, are voting the two old tickets."
To a voter in India, familiar with Left parties, the symbol of the Communist Party USA would strike a lot different. The hammer and sickle seem familiar, though not in the conventional iconography, rather more stylised.
In a Q&A session, presumably with its members, which the CPUSA published a few years ago, the symbol was a subject of interest.
"What is your view on the usage of the original hammer and sickle symbol?" The responses from CPUSA's intellectuals suggested that while the older symbol hold greater emotional and historical significance, it might not resonate with the modern struggles that don't have much use of a sickle.
A general assessment of the CPUSA's discussions that feature on the party's website shows that there is a consensus on beating the MAGA control of Congress. MAGA, or Make America Great Again, is a right-wing political slogan popularised by President Donald Trump. The CPUSA has shown a general interest in aligning with the Democrats, but it also wants to indulge in independent politics.
Written by Arun George