Jerome Segal | |
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| Born | (1943-11-25)November 25, 1943 (age 81) New York City, U.S. |
| Education | City College of New York (BA) University of Michigan (MA,PhD) University of Minnesota (MPA) |
| Political party | Democratic (before 2018, 2021–present) Bread and Roses (2018–2021) |
Jerome Michael Segal (born November 25, 1943) is an American philosopher, political activist, andperennial candidate[1][2] who resides inSilver Spring, Maryland. He was the founder of thesocialist,progressive, and somewhatlibertarian[3]Bread and Roses Party, which achieved ballot access inMaryland in January 2019,[4] and which Segal ran from 2018 to 2021.
Segal is a research scholar at theUniversity of Maryland, College Park, and the president of the Jewish Peace Lobby.[5] He was a candidate in theDemocratic Party primary in the2018 United States Senate election in Maryland.[6] He unsuccessfully ran in the2020 United States presidential election[7] and the2022 Maryland gubernatorial election.
Segal was born and raised inThe Bronx. His father, asocialist and member of theJewish Labor Bund, was born inPoland and immigrated to the United States, where he found employment as a factory worker in the garment industry.[8] After graduating from theBronx High School of Science, Segal went toCity College of New York, where he received honors in philosophy and economics, and was awarded the Brittain Prize in Moral Philosophy.[9] Segal went on to receive a PhD from theUniversity of Michigan, and taught in the philosophy department of theUniversity of Pennsylvania. He later received an MPA from theHubert Humphrey School of theUniversity of Minnesota.[10]
After receiving his MPA from the University of Minnesota, Segal moved to Washington, D.C. in 1974 to work as an aide toCongressman Donald M. Fraser and administrator of theHouse Budget Committee's task force on distributive impacts of economic policy. In 1979, he became Coordinator for the Near East in the policy bureau of theUS Agency for International Development and, later, Senior Advisor for Agency Planning. After leaving government, he joined the Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy at theUniversity of Maryland as Senior Research Scholar.[11]
Segal has been a leader of the American Jewish peace movement, starting in 1982 with Washington Area Jews for Israeli-Palestinian Peace (WAJIPP), a group that opposed the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. In 1987, he traveled toTunis to meetYasser Arafat and leaders of thePalestine Liberation Organization. No American Jewish delegation had ever met with thePLO, which the U.S. government officially considered a terrorist organization at the time.[12] In August 1988, Israel raided the offices ofFaisal al-Husseini, a Palestinian militant, and discovered a plan, based in part on earlier writings by Segal, for a ''declaration of Palestinian independence."[13] That plan, along with other writings by Segal in Palestinian papers such asAl-Quds, were a catalyst for thePalestinian Declaration of Independence later that year and the Palestinian peace initiative in which Israel's right to exist was recognized.[14][15]
In May 1989, Segal founded the Jewish Peace Lobby, which he envisioned as acting as a counterweight to theAmerican Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).[16][17] The Peace Lobby remains active today, with about 5,000 members (including 400 rabbis).[18]
Segal ran for a seat in theUS Senate against incumbent SenatorBen Cardin in the2018 midterm elections. After losing in the Democratic primary to Cardin, he attempted to be included in the general election under the Bread and Roses party, but was prohibited due to the "sore loser" statute of Maryland state law, which prohibits candidates from running in thegeneral election after losing aprimary.
Bread and Roses Party | |
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| Leader |
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| Founded | April 28, 2018 (2018-04-28) |
| Dissolved | 10 December 2021 (2021-12-10) |
| Ideology | Left-libertarianism Libertarian socialism |
| Political position | Left-wing |
After the 2018 election, Segal founded a newsocialist political party called "Bread and Roses", after submitted a petition with more than 15,000 signatures to the Maryland Board of Elections. The party is named after a slogan used by striking workers during the1912 Lawrence textile strike.[19]
The Board certified the Bread and Roses party in January 2019, allowing its candidates to run for office in Maryland in the 2020 election.[20]
In August 2019, Segal announced a run in the2020 United States presidential election under the Bread and Roses party banner. He said that he would not compete in swing states to avoid taking votes from a Democratic candidate running againstDonald Trump.[7]
The Bread and Roses party identified itself as "socialistic" in nature, distinguishing itself from "traditionalsocialism". The party advocated socialist ideals such as "From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs" while also advocating democratic principles of limited government, individual liberty and rule of law. Their website also advertised ideals like "plain living, high thinking and a Utopian future".[21][22]
In December 2021, Segal disbanded the Bread and Roses party to seek the Democratic nomination for the2022 Maryland gubernatorial election.[23] His running mate was Justin Dispenza, a member of the town council ofGalena, Maryland.[24] After conceding in the Democratic primary on July 20, 2022, Segal started a campaign for2024 United States presidential election as a Democrat.[25]
In July 2022, Segal, announced he would challengeJoe Biden in the2024 Democratic Party presidential primaries, Segal dropped out in May 2023 to run for thevacant senate seat in Maryland.[26][27]
On May 1, 2023, after U.S. SenatorBen Cardin announced that he would not run for re-election in2024, Segal ended his presidential campaign and instead started a campaign to succeed Cardin.[28] Segal never filed to run for the U.S. Senate with the Maryland State Board of Elections and did not appear on the ballot.[29]
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