Boston – Geraldine Ferraro was a relatively obscure congresswoman from the New York City borough of Queens in 1984 when she was tapped by Democratic presidential nominee Walter Mondale to join his ticket.
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Her vice presidential bid, the first for a woman on a major party ticket, emboldened women across the country to seek public office and helped lay the groundwork for Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential candidacy in 2008 and John McCain’s choice of his running mate, Sarah Palin, that year.
Ferraro died Saturday in Boston, where the 75-year-old was being treated for complications of blood cancer. She died just before 10 a.m., said Amanda Fuchs Miller, a family friend who worked for Ferraro in her 1998 Senate bid and was acting as a spokeswoman for the family.
Mondale’s campaign had struggled to gain traction and his selection of Ferraro, at least momentarily, revived his momentum and energized millions of women who were thrilled to see one of their own on a national ticket.
The blunt, feisty Ferraro charmed audiences initially, and for a time polls showed the Democratic ticket gaining ground on President Ronald Reagan and Vice President George H. W. Bush. But her candidacy ultimately proved rocky as she fought ethics charges and traded barbs with Bush over accusations of sexism and class warfare.
Ferraro later told an interviewer, “I don’t think I’d run again for vice president,” then added “Next time I’d run for president.”
Reagan won 49 of 50 states in 1984, the largest landslide since Franklin D. Roosevelt’s first re-election over Alf Landon in 1936. But Ferraro had forever sealed her place as trailblazer for women in politics.
“At the time it happened it was such a phenomenal breakthrough,” said Ruth Mandel of the Center for American Women in Politics at Rutgers University. “She stepped on the path to higher office before anyone else, and her footprint is still on that path.”
Palin, who was Alaska’s governor when she ran for vice president, often spoke of Ferraro on the campaign trail.
“She broke one huge barrier and then went on to break many more,” Palin wrote on her Facebook page Saturday. “May her example of hard work and dedication to America continue to inspire all women.”
For his part, Mondale remembered his former running mate as “a remarkable woman and a dear human being.”
“She was a pioneer in our country for justice for women and a more open society. She broke a lot of molds and it’s a better country for what she did,” Mondale told The Associated Press.
Ferraro stepped into the national spotlight at the Democratic convention in 1984, giving the world its first look at a co-ed presidential ticket. It seemed, at times, an awkward arrangement — she and Mondale stood together and waved at the crowd but did not hug and barely touched.
Delegates erupted in cheers at the first line of her speech accepting the vice-presidential nomination.
“My name is Geraldine Ferraro,” she declared. “I stand before you to proclaim tonight: America is the land where dreams can come true for all of us.”
Her acceptance speech launched eight minutes of cheers, foot-stamping and tears.
“One of America’s leading advocates for human rights and freedom, Geraldine Ferraro also was a steadfast friend of the State of Israel and Jewish people,” said AJC Executive Director David Harris. “Her efforts to fight global anti-Semitism within the United Nations were especially noteworthy and laudable.”
Bd”e
She was a liberal with class. Not to many like that anymore
She was a Mentsch. She will long be remembered.
She would have made a far better “statesman” than Walter Mondale could have ever been, even in his wildest imagination.
G-dspeed!
Politics aside the biggest shame is that the damn disease has won again and a woman of only 75 with lots to live for has been taken way too soon.