Isabell Masters

Categories

1913 births

20th-century African-American academics

2011 deaths

American people of German descent

Candidates in the 1992 United States presidential election

Candidates in the 1996 United States presidential election

Kansas Republicans

Candidates in the 1988 United States presidential election

20th-century American academics

21st-century American politicians

20th-century American women politicians

21st-century American women politicians

Candidates in the 2000 United States presidential election

Candidates in the 2004 United States presidential election

American women educators

Candidates in the 1984 United States presidential election

Female candidates for President of the United States

20th-century African-American politicians

20th-century African-American women politicians

Politicians from Topeka, Kansas

21st-century African-American politicians

University of Oklahoma alumni

21st-century African-American women politicians

African-American candidates for President of the United States

Langston University alumni

Politicians from Oklahoma City

Schoolteachers from Nevada

UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies alumni

Isabell Masters (January 9, 1913 – September 11, 2011) of Topeka, Kansas, was a five-time perennial third-party candidate (Looking Back Party) for President of the United States.

Masters' five presidential campaigns are the most for any woman in U.S. history. She was a candidate in the 1984, 1992 (339 votes), 1996, 2000 and 2004 presidential elections. In 1996, she was only on the ballot in Arkansas (but also received a few votes in California and Maryland) (752 votes total, 2000). Her 1992 running mate was her son, Walter Ray Masters, and her 1996 running mate was her daughter, Shirley Jean Masters.

Biography

Personal life

Isabell Masters was born Isabell Arch on January 9, 1913, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, the daughter of Cora McDaniels (Lewis) and Walter Arch. Her father, a businessman, was of African American and German descent. She later earned a doctorate from the University of Oklahoma.

In addition to her presidential campaigns, Masters ran for the city council in Topeka, Kansas, and was once a candidate for Mayor of West Palm Beach, Florida. She had lived with her son, Riviera Beach Mayor Thomas Masters, for the last four years of her life.