As reported at Ballot Access News, the 2016 presidential nominee of Socialist Party USA Emidio “Mimi” Soltysik died earlier today at the age of 45. He reportedly suffered from liver cancer.
Soltysik was the co-chairman of Socialist Party USA from 2013 to 2015. He was vice chair from 2011 to 2013. Additionally, he was chairman of the California chapter of the party from 2011 to 2017. In 2014 he ran for California state assembly.
Socialist Party USA acknowledged the death on its official Twitter:
We are sad to report the passing this morning of former National Co-Chair & 2016 Socialist Party presidential nominee, Mimi Soltysik.
Rest in power, comrade. pic.twitter.com/IG8q5MOZbK
— The Socialist Party (@SPofUSA) June 28, 2020
His 2016 running mate, Angela Walker, who is now the running mate of 2020 Socialist Party USA nominee and Green Party presumptive nominee Howie Hawkins, tweeted:
Emidio "Mimi" Soltysik was a comrade and my dear friend. His compassion and intelligence made him a joy to know. I find it hard to accept that my friend is gone. Rest in love and power, Mimi.
— Angela Walker (@AngelaNWalker) June 28, 2020
Earlier this month Soltysik helped me get in touch with Walker for our recent Wikinews interview.
In 2016, the Soltysik/Walker ticket received 2,705 votes.
RIP Mimi. Reading between the lines on a piece about him at Common Dreams a few years ago, and knowing he had liver cancer, I’ll take a stab that his “issues” when much younger may well have included IV drugs and/or alcohol? If so, I am glad he got clean and sober and hope that message spreads.
It’s sharing the needles, not the drugs themselves, that causes things like Hepatitis C . And its statist prohibition that makes things like having your own stock of disposable clean needles harder than it should be.
dL .. yes, I was shorthanding. IV drugs don’t get into veins by themselves.
Yeah, well, you cook your food, not your drugs, so I would never–despite being a proud libertine– recommend IV narcotic use. However, I might recommend IV for vitamin use to dramatically increase its bioavailability. But, you know, if you shared your needles injecting vitamin C, your risking a similar threat of Hepatitis C. Sobriety has nothing to do with it.
Exactly.