Richard Alan Mende, November 5, 1934 (Albany, N.Y.) -
VP candidate for Independent (aka Non Affiliated) (2016, 2020)
Running mate with nominee (2016, 2020): Ajay Sood (b. 1964)
Popular vote (2016): 11 (0.00%)
Popular vote (2020): 4 (0.00%)
Electoral vote (2016, 2020): 0/538
The campaign (2016):
Ajay Sood of Shawnee, Kan. appears to be a perennial candidate who runs for offices from City Council to the Presidency on a continuous basis. On Mar. 31, 2016 he filed with the FEC as an Independent for President.
Sood had been at it for some time before his FEC filing, having organized a GoFundMe page for his campaign on Apr. 3, 2015.
His autobiography is available on his current campaign webpage--
Ajay Sood was born to a middle-class family in New Delhi with Dad working for the American embassy, the United Nations has a diplomatic driver for the US dignitaries. Ajay Sood went to Convent Christian School and grew up with Americans, listening to the word the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, UNITED NATIONS but with Indian values which start to practice ONE RELIGION but RESPECT ALL RELIGIONS and believe in helping mankind.
My dad sits in a nursing home for the past 9 years and mom stays home. Ajay make sure he has food on the table every night he’s into various businesses but still lives at the brim of survival he has many talents although he went to school for advertising besides being an interpreter in four languages he also is a Relationship Expert being a LOVE GURU , Real estate Guru Teacher at UMKC teaching various classes like EXPERIENCE INDIA – a cultural Class, WHEN THE HONEYMOON IS OVER, COOKING CLASS, HENNA TATTOOS (temporary Indian tattoos) and so forth. Avid Gardner, farmer Counselor Business Consultant mediator works with Herbs, a yoga instructor at a studio on the Plaza in the past. I’m a Mentor to many teens in the area and teach Henna to school kids every summer. Ajay was an artist with Lyric Opera House for nine years. I was an Actor in one of the plays an Egyptian Love story (AIDA) at the Kaufman Center 6 years ago. I am not a Legal advisor nor a lawyer, but whenever I have been involved in a case as an interpreter or a coordinator or as a side consultant with any of my clients up to the federal Level my clients have never lost a case in the Justice System. Consulting to a few businesses Marketing Groups and a consultant to a few Indian restaurants doing training the staff for food handling, licensing requirements and planning the marketing strategies for the development of multiple locations. I have 10 years’ experience with the construction business on smaller residential duplex’s and four plex’s. I am familiar with the cleaning industry as well. worked in the fashion Garment industry for several years and boutiques of brand names for the European markets retailing on a larger scale.
A New Life Journey
One LENT DAY of March 2015, the most sacred month of Christians, Ajay Sood gets a call from Jesus saying my Son Ajay Sood are you ready for a new assignment in your life. I said yes your highness, I could not decide the right words to say, I was mumbling. I thought some kind of a Metroid had fallen over my head like a light of the Universe, asking me to take command. Echo, command, and LOVE were in the voice. Ajay Sood being a LOVE GURU turned out to be a politician with LOVE, COMPASSION, The WARRIOR, and LEADER with the armor of Jesus in the name of love. Next morning I had filed my nomination to run for the US President as an Independent candidate 2016.
My Life journey began ………
Ajay Sood had to struggle throughout the campaign, financially, emotionally, spiritually. I did lose my house to foreclosure.
My own Indians accused me of being fraud, not knowing the law, at the Gurdwara eating langar,(FEAST) Ajay Sood became the TALK OF THE TOWN.
My haters always inspired me. Eighteen months of rigorous and treacherous activity standing in winter cold I poured my own Dollars and blood into this campaign. I am not there to win or lose no matter what. “I will be there for you”. It is my life journey……. I will live it.
His Vice-Presidential running-mate Richard Mende lived in Kansas City, Mo. He was a vaishnava who was also known as His Grace Radha Madhava Prabhu. Mende's book The Torch was published during the campaign and was written in screenplay form. It included a biography of the author--
Richard Mende was born on November 5, 1934, in Albany, the capital of New York State. He finished high school locally. Then he went off to college and, after four years, earned a BA from Stanford University in California. He majored in political science. Like many wannabees, after college he left home and moved to Manhattan, New York, to pursue a career in the entertainment industry. Richard was guided by the culture of his early days, which really hasn’t changed dramatically through the years. Richard finally became attracted to one of the traditions originating in India, which he incorporated in his own company, Rampart Productions. During his visit to India, he had the good fortune to personally meet HH the Dalai Lama, head of the Tibetan religion. The Chinese communists wanted to take over Tibet. They believed if they capture the Dalai Lama, the head of the Tibetan religion, the rest of Tibet would cease resistance. Finally, a major juncture came into Richard’s life. After studying a variety of religious traditions, Richard concluded that at the far end of almost all of them was the practice of the constant chanting of a divine name of the lord and writing.
Writer Premanjana Das provides additional biographical information from a faith-based source--
His Grace Radha Madhav prabhu once prayed to God when he was enjoying his material life in New York— “Oh Lord, please help me stop destroying myself.” He received strength to discontinue smoking, drinking and meat-eating, he became vegetarian; then he realized that he was becoming ‘happy’. He read the Quran, Bible, Zen and then the Bhagavad Gita (cover to cover) and was deeply influenced, he went to the lower 22nd avenue ‘Hare Krishna temple’ and then to Brooklyn to stay for weekends. Thereafter, he attended classes on the Bhagavad Gita and Srimad Bhagavatam. He came to India and read Dalai Lama, Mother Teresa, Muktananda, Cidananda, Saibaba and studied various traditions; a common thing which he noticed was that all those sources ‘glorified’ the holy name of the Lord. Later, Radha Madhav prabhu was initiated by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (ISKCON Founder Acharya) in about 1970.
Sood earned 10 write-in votes in Kansas and 1 in Delaware. In the event of a Sood/Mende victory it is a valid question to ask if the Presidential candidate fulfilled the antiquated Constitutional requirement of having been born a U.S. citizen.
The campaign (2020):
Sood filed with the FEC as an Independent for President on Mar. 22, 2018. In between the 2016 and 2020 elections he had run for the Shawnee City Council, Shawnee Mayor, and US Congress.
Also in between the elections he also had some negative legal experiences regarding a traffic stop, his elderly father's care, and perhaps some dealing with a neighbor. On his Twitter for Mar. 18, 2018 he wrote--
I WILL STAND BY FOR ALL THE PEOPLE WRONGFULLY CHARGED IN THE AMERICAN COURT SYSTEM AND SPENDING TIME IN THE JAIL OR PRISON SYSTEM . I will fight for You. THE MOST MOTIVATING FACTOR TO RUN FOR THE US PRESIDENT FOR ME AJAY SOOD AS A INDEPENDENT CANDIDATE WAS THE WICKED COURT SYSTEM.
This time the ticket were registered write-ins in Alaska, Delaware, and Kansas with the candidate's home state reporting 4 votes. There are indications Sood will run for President in 2024.
Election history: ?
Other occupations: Krishna Institute of Kansas City, Temple of the Heart, author
Notes:
Mende's mother was born in Russia.
