Jesse Benjamin Stoner Jr., April 13, 1924 (LaFayette, Ga.) – April 23, 2005 (LaFayette, Ga.)
VP candidate for National States' Rights Party (1964)
Running mate with nominee: John Kasper (1929-1998)
Popular vote: 6,953 (0.01%)
Electoral vote: 0/538
The campaign:
US Sen. Barry Goldwater running for President as a Republican in 1964 was a dream come true for many ultra Right-wing voters. The Republicans preempted the issues and policies for several conservative third parties leaving only the most extreme of the extremes as compared to other election years.
The Constitution Party was pretty far Right on the political spectrum, sure. You would think George Lincoln Rockwell running for President (without a VP candidate from what I can gather) under the American Nazi Party might have the distinction of being the most openly fascistic of the political parties in the 1964 campaign. But then there is the National States' Rights Party.
John Kasper, the Presidential nominee of the National States' Rights Party, was already well-known for hate speech and had served prison time for conspiracy in 1957. Kasper had been active in the 1956 "Ez for Prez" Ezra Pound campaign. According to the Constitution Kasper would have been too young to have taken office if he had been elected.
The VP nominee was Jesse Benjamin "J.B." Stoner Jr.-- KKK member, anti-Semite, racist, white supremacist, church bomber, terrorist, and early member of the NSRP.
An admirer of segregationist Theodore Bilbo, Stoner started his own local chapter of the KKK in Tennessee and created the Stoner Christian Anti-Jewish Party in the 1940s declaring that "being a Jew [should] be a crime punishable by death."
A suspect in many acts of Right-wing terrorism, Stoner was eventually convicted in 1980 for a 1958 church bombing attempt.
Authorities blamed Stoner for inciting a race riot in St. Augustine, Fla. during the campaign.
The NSRP ticket made the ballot in two states finishing with 0.33% of the vote in Kentucky and 0.53% in Arkansas.
Election history:
1948 - US House of Representatives (Independent) - defeated
1970 - Democratic nomination for Governor of Georgia - defeated
1972 - Democratic nomination for US Senate (Ga.) - defeated
1974 - Democratic nomination for Lt. Governor of Georgia - defeated
1978 - Democratic nomination for Governor of Georgia - defeated
1980 - Democratic nomination for US Senate (Ga.) - defeated
1990 - Democratic nomination for Lt. Governor of Georgia - defeated
Other occupations: attorney (disbarred), insurance claims adjuster
Buried: Forest Hills Cemetery (Chattanooga, Tenn.)
Notes:
Contracted polio as a small child.
Winner of the 1970 primary was Jimmy Carter.
One of his opponents in the 1972 primary was Sam Nunn.
Winner of the 1974 primary was Zell Miller.
Winners of the 1980 primary were Herman Talmadge and Zell Miller.
Served three and half years in prison in the 1980s for the 1958 church bombing.
Considered a suspect by the FBI in the assassination of Martin Luther King.
Was on James Earl Ray's appeals legal team.
"Stoner ran for governor of Georgia in 1970. During the campaign, where he called himself the
'candidate of love,' he described Adolf Hitler as 'too moderate,' black people as an extension of the
ape family, and Jews as 'vipers of hell.'"--Wikipedia.
"He never married and once told an interviewer that any woman 'would be too dumb for him.'"--Los
Angeles Times obituary.
"Only through intolerance do nations become great."--J.B. Stoner.
"We had lost the fight for the preservation of the white race until God himself intervened in earthly
affairs with AIDS to rescue and preserve the white race that he had created ... I praise God all the
time for AIDS.--J.B. Stoner.
Lester Maddox, yes, THAT Lester Maddox, even he refused to share the same stage with Stoner.
"He was, perhaps, the most malevolent racist in America."--Larry Keller.
