Otis Lee Spurgeon, April 10, 1880 (Boone, Iowa) - April 5, 1942 (Dallas, Tex.)
VP candidate for Liberty Party (Webb Faction) (aka New Liberty Party aka Liberal Party aka Liberty and Unity Party) (1932)
Running mate with nominee: Frank Elbridge Webb (1863-1949)
Popular vote: 0 (0.0%)
Electoral vote: 0/531
The campaign:
Andrae B. Nordskog (1885-1962) of Los Angeles who was initially the running mate of "Coin" Harvey of the original Liberty Party decided to jump ship, joining Frank Webb to become his Vice-Presidential ticket partner when they formed a splinter Liberty Party on July 4, 1932. Harvey had earlier tried to dump Nordskog from his ticket, charging him with ethical lapses, but Nordskog stayed put. Nordskog, by the way, was an admirer of German fascists and apparently involved in murky circumstances with Nazi representatives in America at one point before WWII.
Webb had been the 1928 Farmer-Labor presidential nominee and in 1932 threatened Harvey with a lawsuit if he didn't withdraw from the race-- an example of how vicious things can get when so little is at stake.
As it turned out Nordskog had to step down anyway due to a Constitutional rule about not having a presidential ticket with both of the nominees from the same state, in this case California. Late in the game, September, Liberty Party National Secretary Otis Spurgeon of Iowa was selected as the new running mate.
Spurgeon, a Baptist minister and Protestant zealot, had made a career out of making virulent anti-Catholic speeches and writings. He was also quite open and proud about having been a "Kleagle" in the Ku Klux Klan.
The Webb/Spurgeon ticket apparently did not appear on any ballots nor were any votes recorded.
Election history:
1914 - US Senate (Iowa) (Independent) - defeated
Other occupations: Baptist preacher, author, anti-Catholic activist
Buried: Restland Memorial Park (Dallas, Tex.)
Notes:
In April 1914 while on an anti-Catholic lecture circuit in Denver he was allegedly kidnapped from his
hotel room, beaten, and left naked north of the city. The incident was well publicized and used in
Spurgeon's subsequent marketing for years.
Buried in the same cemetery as Tom C. Clark, Patrick Cranshaw, and Ray Price.
Banned from speaking in Minneapolis, March 1915.
Alleged to have been related to English Baptist Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892)
In 1919 listed as part of the "talent" with the Lyceum Lecture Service for Protestant America with
1924 American Party (aka KKK Party) nominee Gilbert Nations.
Arrested on a charge of grand larceny in Jan. 1925 accused of stealing furniture from the widow of a
fellow Klansman.
Member of the Knights of Luther 1913
1909 - Left the ministry of the Baptist Church in Huron, Kan. after a fistfight with the Mayor.
Played the harp.
