(CNN) - The liberal environmentalist Green Party nominated former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney as its presidential candidate Saturday.
McKinney, 53, held off three rivals to win the party's nomination during its convention in Chicago, Illinois. She picked journalist and activist Rosa Clemente as her running mate.
Green Party spokeswoman Scott McLarty acknowledged McKinney was a "long shot" for the White House, but said, "Every vote that she gets helps the Green Party."
"The United States needs an alternative party," McLarty said. "The narrow two-party system we have right now has not served us very well."
McKinney represented a suburban district of Atlanta, Georgia, as a Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives for six terms - five consecutively.
First elected in 1992, she lost a primary challenge in 2002 after suggesting in a radio interview that members of the Bush administration stood to profit from the war that followed the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.
In 2004 she ran again and won with a low-key campaign in which she largely avoided controversy. But voters ousted her again in 2006 after she was accused of a physical altercation with a U.S. Capitol Police officer who questioned her after failing to recognize her at a security checkpoint.
From CNN Politics
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CNN is this not a first?
You go girl. Told the truth about Bush administration.
Hillary, and hillary supporters eat your heart out.
Ha,ha,ha. Now this is a funny.........Help, I can't stop laughing.......Oh,oh, look out BHO, a sister is out to get you....
no one for vote in state onlly for bule and red that too bad just nohting
Could McKinney be the spoiler?
This very well may be a balance against Bob Barr come November
Good for them! Anything is possible!..........................................."Only in American, could this had happen"....................Actually, two women nominated for President and Vice-President ;of these "united states" of America. Who would have thought that?
Whiners!!! That's what McSame says we all are!!!
Grren Party screwd up on her. As a fellow Georgian, this woman is a fruitcake!