The annals of American political history have seen many unusual presidential candidates, like comedian Gracie Hull in the 1940s or Chicago rapper Kanye West’s ill-fated runs. But perhaps none are quite as unusual as Pigasus — a literal pig who briefly ran for high office in 1968.

Pigasus became a Democratic candidate during the tumult of the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. She was nominated by the Youth International Party, better known as the Yippies, who were major players in the anti-war protests that descended on Chicago in August 1968. Led by provocateurs Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin, the Yippies specialized in what Abe Peck, a former Yippie and writer for The Chicago Seed magazine, calls “the politics of spectacle.”

“It was…the politics of theater, and the idea was

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