David Keith Cobb, a longtime organizer within the Green Party of the United States who helped the party secure federal recognition as a national committee before going on to become its 2004 presidential nominee, died Monday at the age of 63.
The national Green Party announced Cobb’s passing this week, saying he died on Labor Day. In its statement, the party praised Cobb for his impact on both the Green Party as well as those “larger social and political movements,” adding that his influence on organizers and activists across the country would leave a “lasting legacy.”
According to a 2004 campaign biography from Cobb, he served as general counsel for the national Green Party from 1999 to 2004 and was active in establishing the Green Party of Texas, where he managed Ralph Nader’s 2000 Green campaign and later ran as the Green Party’s nominee for Texas attorney general in 2002. Cobb also helped prepare the national party’s successful application for national committee status from the Federal Election Commission in 2001.
The Green Party nominated Cobb for president at its 2004 national convention, with Maine activist Pat LaMarche selected as his running mate. His campaign pursued what became known as a “strategic states” approach, concentrating most of its resources in states where the race between Republican President George W. Bush and Democratic nominee John Kerry was not expected to be close enough for him to influence it one way or the other.
Cobb’s nomination also came as Nader, the party’s 2000 presidential nominee, mounted another campaign as an independent alongside Green activist Peter Camejo as his running mate. Nader had sought the Green Party’s endorsement rather than its presidential nomination, but delegates instead backed Cobb. The Cobb-LaMarche ticket went on to appear on the ballot in 27 states and the District of Columbia and received 119,859 votes nationwide.
Cobb remained active in Green politics after his presidential campaign, later serving as campaign manager for the 2016 Green presidential ticket of Jill Stein and Ajamu Baraka. He was also active with the Green Party of California, where he served multiple terms on its Coordinating Committee and co-founded the Green Ecosocialist Network, among other roles.
The national party also published a remembrance from Texas Green activist Jim Reed, who worked alongside Cobb during the party’s early national organization and referred to him as his “best friend, hero, and soul brother.” Reed wrote that Cobb died during a routine walk he made along the beach.
“Along this walk, taking in the sea air and mist and the view of the endless horizon, his heart finally gave way,” Reed wrote. “It had carried a heavy load and burning fire for so long, and being mortal as much like a Greek god he was to me, came to its natural limits. David fell to his knee, rolled over, and made his final exhale, in that moment realizing the sound of the ocean was also a sound of returning to the womb.”
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