The Green Party vice presidential candidate, Philadelphia-based activist Cheri Honkala, was in Tampa on Friday to discuss her fledgling campaign.
The founder of the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign, she was also here to talk up the group's protest that will take place on the first day of the Republican National Convention on Monday, August 27.
Although she says that she never imagined she would be on a presidential ticket, Honkala has campaigned for office before, running for sheriff in Philadelphia last year.
"I made the decision that I would run as a formerly homeless mother…for vice president of this country," Honkala said, speaking from "Romneyville." The encampment, which is located behind the Army Navy Surplus Store on Tampa Street, currently has 17 tents set up and expects possibly hundreds more by the time the convention comes to town.
The long-time street activist, who says she has been arrested over 200 times for civil disobedience, asked the public to get behind the candidacy of Dr. Jill Stein, who was elected to be the Green Party's nominee for president earlier this summer.
This article appears in Aug 23-29, 2012.