Dan La Botz

Daniel H. La Botz (born August 9, 1945) is an American labor union activist, academic, journalist, and author. He was a co-founder of Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU) and has written extensively on worker rights in the United States and Mexico. He is a member of the socialist organization Solidarity, which describes itself as "a democratic, revolutionary socialist, feminist, anti-racist organization," which comes out of the Trotskyist tradition. La Botz ran in 2010 for a seat in the United States Senate for the Socialist Party. He is also a member of the Brooklyn branch of the Democratic Socialists of America and a co-editor of the socialist journal New Politics.

Early life and career La Botz was born in Illinois but grew up outside San Diego, California. When he was in college, he opposed the American involvement in the Vietnam War and supported the United Farm Workers. He is a leader of the socialist organization Solidarity, which describes itself as "a democratic, revolutionary socialist, feminist, anti-racist organization" and which comes out of the Trotskyist tradition. In the 1970s, La Botz worked various jobs in Chicago before working as a truck driver. the University of Cincinnati and the Northern Kentucky University. In May 2010, La Botz was working as a Spanish teacher at Waldorf elementary school in Cincinnati. He subsequently gathered 1,200 signatures to gain ballot access. La Botz was the only Ohio candidate running on the ticket of the Socialist Party USA.

In the United States Senate election in Ohio, 2010, SPOH candidate La Botz received 25 thousand votes (0.68%); the Republican winner Rob Portman received 2.125 million votes (57.25%) and the Democratic candidate Lee Fisher received 1.448 million votes (39.00%).

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