By Steve Brawner, © 2024 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.
Why would Michael Wood, 66, a former head of an e-commerce company and married father of two, run for president as the nominee of the anti-alcohol Prohibition Party?
It’s partly because when he was a young man, one cousin drank himself to death at a college fraternity party, while another family member was injured by a drunk driver.
The Prohibition Party has existed since 1869, making it the nation’s oldest third party. It has fielded a presidential candidate in every election since 1872. It is best known historically for supporting a national ban on alcohol sales, a stance it does not take today.
Wood will be one of five non-major party presidential candidates on the Arkansas ballot, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has dropped out of the race. The others are Chase Oliver with the Libertarian Party, Peter Sonski with the American Solidarity Party, and Jill Stein with the Green Party. Wood’s vice presidential running mate is John Pietrowski.
Wood, a Silicon Valley native, was president and CEO of Virtual Chip Exchange, an industrial semiconductor trading company.
“After I retired, (I) found myself with time on my hands to pursue some issues that are close to my heart – one of them being politics, and the other being the issue of drugs and alcohol,” he said in an interview.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says 178,000 Americans die from excessive drinking each year – two-thirds from chronic conditions and the rest from motor vehicle crashes, overdoses like Wood’s cousin, suicide, and other causes.
Wood explained what he would like to see happen. First, he would ban television advertising, as the United States did with tobacco. He also would ban social media advertising for both alcohol and cigarettes.
“If you take away the social media influencer aspect of saying, ‘Hey, look here. Alcohol is cool; start drinking,’ then perhaps that next generation will not be so inclined to drink themselves to death at a frat party,” he said.
Second, he would increase the excise tax on alcohol and use the proceeds for education and recovery programs.
Third, he would change drunk driving laws to make it illegal to drink, period, before getting behind the wheel. He says current laws defining “drunk” as a 0.08 blood alcohol content are too vague for the average person.
“So if we just said, look, let’s make drunk driving not a guessing game anymore, and say, ‘If you want a drink, that’s fine, but don’t put other people’s lives at risk by getting on the road,’” he said. “Zero-point-zero.”
Wood and the Prohibition Party take other stances on issues related to drugs and alcohol. He supports maintaining a strong southern border to prevent drugs from coming across. He opposes legalizing recreational marijuana and opposes the citizen-led proposed amendment that could appear on the Arkansas ballot this election cycle. However, he does see a place for medical marijuana as long as it’s prescribed by a doctor for a legitimate need, such as for a cancer patient. He would like to ban all pharmaceutical drug ads on TV and online, adding, “I’m not sick, and I don’t want to ask my doctor.”
The party and the candidate have stances on issues that aren’t related to drugs and alcohol. Wood favors preserving Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. He supports legalized abortion. He supports the Second Amendment but favors an assault weapons restriction, though not a complete ban. He supports requiring voters to present a photo identification.
The closest times the Prohibition Party has come to winning a presidential election were in 1888 and 1892. Both times its candidate won 2.2% of the popular vote, according to Britannica. Its presidential candidate in 2020, Phil Collins, received 2,812 votes in Arkansas in 2020, or 0.23% of the state’s total.
Wood acknowledges the party mathematically cannot win in 2024. He says third parties play a role by calling attention to important issues, like alcohol and drug abuse.
“You need sometimes the smaller independent parties just to shake the tree,” he said.
That’s Michael Wood, Prohibition Party presidential candidate and the third non-major party candidate I’ve interviewed. Here’s Libertarian Party candidate Chase Oliver, and here is American Solidarity Party candidate Peter Sonski, check out this news site’s online archives or go to independentarkansas.com.
Steve Brawner is a syndicated columnist published in 17 outlets in Arkansas. Email him at brawnersteve@mac.com.