Tuesday, June 1, 2021

John Forbes Kerry


 






John Forbes Kerry, December 11, 1943 (Aurora, Colo.) -

VP candidate for Independent (2016)

Running mate with nominee: Roger Koplitz
Popular vote: ? (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538

The campaign:

I will go out on a limb here and guess that the stealth campaign of Roger Koplitz for President in 2016 had the former senator and 2004 Democratic Presidential nominee in mind when he listed John Kerry as his running-mate. At the time of the election Kerry was serving as US Secretary of State. Assigning the VP spot to well known politicians and other celebrities without their permission by Independent candidates is common enough to make this a reasonable assumption.

The Koplitz/Kerry ticket were registered as write-ins only in the State of Minnesota.

Election history:
1972 - US House of Representatives (Mass.) (Democratic) - defeated
1983-1985 - Lt. Governor of Massachusetts (Democratic)
1985-2013 - US Senator (Mass.) (Democratic)
2004 - US President (Democratic) - defeated

Other occupations: US Navy (Vietnam era), attorney, US Sec. of State, US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate

Notes:
Kerry was the last Democrat running for President to lose the popular vote.
Full disclosure: I voted for Kerry in 2004. Quite frankly I was more opposed to the policies of Bush than I was in favor of those held by Kerry.
Other gentlemen who have served as US Senators from Mass. who were third party VPs: Edward Everett, Edward Kennedy, and Scott Brown. Kennedy and Brown, like Kerry, were involuntarily named by an individual, not by a convention.