Robert Craig Knievel, October 17, 1938 (Butte, Mont.) – November 30, 2007 (Clearwater, Fla.)
VP candidate for Magneto-hydrodynamics-Puritan Epic-Prohibition Party (aka Puritan Epic Party aka Puritan Epic, Prohibition and Magnetohydrodynamics Party) (1976)
Running mate with nominee: Merrill Keith Riddick (1895-1988)
Popular vote: 0 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538
The campaign:
Merrill Riddick, one of Montana's more colorful perennial candidates, grew up in a political household. His father Carl was a US Congressman (R-Mont.) 1919-1923 and in 1922 lost an open-seat election for the US Senate to none other than future third party Vice-presidential candidate Burton Kendall Wheeler.
The son Merrill became an early aviator and flight instructor as well as a prospector. He grew interested in politics following World War II and ran for Governor of Montana a couple times as a Democrat, then switched to the Republican Party and ran for the US Senate. By 1976 he aimed higher and began his first of three attempts for the US Presidency under a third party of his own creation called the Magneto-hydrodynamics-Puritan Epic-Prohibition Party (in a later election he squeezed the word "Ethic" into the name somewhere). Not a believer in accepting special interest monetary contributions, he campaigned across the nation as a passenger in a Greyhound bus and was financed by his Social Security checks.
Riddick had a focus on managed use of natural resources and changing the election laws by eliminating public funding for the two major parties and making it easier for third parties to gain ballot access: "They're just trying to keep things as they are instead of allowing a new party to come in. The whole thing is geared so a new party can't break through. The Constitution said if you don't like something, change it."
Riddick mentioned he would like to tie his new party somehow into the Prohibition Party, but the idea didn't seem to be followed by action.
Since Jimmy Carter's campaign gained a lot of attention from his Playboy interview, Riddick offered to be interviewed as well by the magazine but was turned down.
Riddick originally announced Lim Bow, an artist in Coos Bay, Oregon, as his running mate. But a week or two later he changed his mind apparently due to what one newspaper called "a disagreement on how to conduct the campaign arose." Riddick then told newspapers he now wanted famed motorcycle daredevil Richard C. "Evel" Knievel as his VP. Knievel's response, if any, has not been recorded. Riddick said finding a Vice-Presidential candidate for his party was difficult, "The minute I name a Vice-President, boy you should see them duck."
He later qualified his announcement about Knievel saying he didn't actually contact the stunt artist directly. It appeared he was hoping the news coverage itself would serve as a formal offer. By default Evel Knievel became the VP nominee for the remainder of the election season.
Like Knievel, Riddick himself had been a daredevil in his youth. He flew alongside Charles Lindbergh as part of a flying circus and perhaps admired Evel with the eye of a colleague.
In an event not related to the campaign, Knievel emerged from a short-lived retirement and motorcycle-jumped over seven Greyhound buses at the Seattle Kingdome in late October, 1976. Between Riddick's reliance on the bus to campaign, and Knievel's highly publicized Seattle stunt, you would think the Greyhound Company would have enjoyed all the free advertising from this obscure Presidential ticket.
Merrick ran for President again in 1980 (with a different running mate) and 1984 (apparently without a running mate). The day after the 1976 election he announced he was running in 1980. He was 89 years old during his final run for the presidency in 1984.
Election history: none
Other occupations: mining employee, entertainer, stunt daredevil, soldier (US Army), insurance salesman, motorcycle dealer, actor
Buried: Mountain View Cemetery (Butte, Mont.)
Notes:
Evel had a lot of Washington State connections including:
--Lived in Moses Lake and Sunnyside, Wash. in the 1960s.
--Among his long list of serious stunt-related injuries were two at Graham, Wash. in July and Aug. 1967.
--In the 1970s one of my neighbors (Jace Knievel, 1952-2017) in Olympia, Wash. claimed to be a close relative of Evel and said the family surname was pronounced "Nye-ville" as his was.
