Santa Ana : Schmitz to Tell How He Lost Out for President

When then-California Rep. John Schmitz of Orange County was nominated for president in 1972, he acknowledged he had an uphill battle. “But the national situation is like dried tinder, and we are the spark,” Schmitz told cheering supporters at the American Party’s 1972 national nominating convention in Louisville.

Schmitz will recall the presidential election of 1972 in a speech at Rancho Santiago College at noon on April 23 in Room C-104. The speech, which is free to the public, is titled “How I Almost Became President of the United States but Was Edged Out in the End by 44 Million Votes.”

Schmitz was nominated as the American Party candidate for president after Alabama Gov. George Wallace, who was the party’s nominee in 1968, was wounded in an assassination attempt. Wallace and Democrat Hubert Humphrey lost in 1968 to Republican Richard M. Nixon, and Nixon swept to a massive presidential reelection victory in 1972 over Democrat George McGovern and American Party nominee Schmitz.

Schmitz is currently a political science instructor at Rancho Santiago College. Besides serving as a Republican representative, Schmitz has also been a member of the California Senate.

The event is part of the periodic forums offered by the college’s speech communications department.