Geraldine Ferraro, the first female American major party candidate for national office, has died at 75
Posted March 26, 2011 12:50 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
BOSTON – The first woman to run for U.S. vice-president on a major party ticket has died. Geraldine Ferraro was 75.
A family friend acting as a spokeswoman for the family says Ferraro, who was diagnosed with blood cancer in 1998, died Saturday at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Ferraro was an obscure New York City congresswoman when she was catapulted to national prominence at the 1984 Democratic convention. Former Vice-President Walter Mondale chose her to run with him against incumbents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush.
In the end, Reagan won 49 of the 50 states, the largest landslide in nearly half a century.
Some observers said legal troubles involving her husband and son were a drag on Ferraro’s later political ambitions, which included her unsuccessful bids for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate in New York in 1992 and 1998.
