Amar Manil Patel, December 7, 1973 -
VP candidate for American Solidarity Party (aka Independent) (2020)
Running mate with nominee: Brian Thomas Carroll (b. 1949)
Popular vote: 40,652 (0.03%)
Electoral vote: 0/538
The campaign:
For their second Presidential campaign, the new American Solidarity Party nominated two teachers, Brian Carroll of California and Amar Patel of Illinois.
In my observations this appears to be one of the under-the-radar political parties that is rising fast. Based on Catholic Social Teaching and spinning off a bit from the Christian Democratic parties of Europe, the ASP embraces a "whole life" philosophy, or "consistent life ethic."
Patel's biography was supplied on the ASP webpage--
Amar Patel was born to Indian immigrants who came to this country in the late 1960s. His father worked as a civil engineer for the city of Chicago and his mother worked as a union laborer in cleaning supply factory. His parents sponsored the immigration of many family members during his childhood and he grew up with several aunts, uncles, and cousins in his family home at once. He received Bachelor’s Degrees in Math, Chemistry, and Psychology and a Master’s in Education from the University of Illinois. After meeting his wife at the Newman Center during college they moved to the Chicago suburbs where they have been teachers for the last 20 years. They have two children in high school.
Amar has spent years on many committees for school and curriculum development, given talks at state conferences, worked on several church councils, and organized major speech competitions. He has coached speech team, math team, tennis, golf, soccer and basketball. He serves his community through the Knights of Columbus and other local organizations. He is a published novelist, lead singer for a band, member of a competitive softball team, but his passion is in building community and bringing people together.
The VP nominee was the subject of an interview here in Oct. 2019, providing this blog with an excellent overview of the 2020 ASP platform--
https://thirdpartysecondbananas.blogspot.com/2019/10/amar-patel-2020-vp-american-solidarity.html
By Election Day, the interview with Patel had accounted for nearly a quarter of the hits on this blog. The ASP had been energetic in linking it to various social media platforms as part of their political marketing. It was the most striking case of networking and mobilizing I witnessed of the 11 candidates who graciously contributed their interview answers to this blog.
The Carroll/Patel ticket finished in 10th place nationally, at the end of what I would consider the second tier of third parties in the 2020 election. They were on the ballot in 8 states and registered write-ins in at least 26 others. Their ballot results in the popular vote: Illinois and Wisconsin 0.16% each, Rhode Island 0.15%, Arkansas 0.14%, Louisiana 0.12%, Mississippi 0.09%, Colorado 0.08%, and Vermont 0.06%. One could possibly pose the thesis they were spoilers in handing Wisconsin to Biden. Of course the same could be said for the Libertarian and Constitution parties. The ticket's write-in vote was impressive, revealing a growing base of support hovering in various states in the 0.01%-0.04% range.
Election history: none
Other occupations: high school math teacher, novelist, musician
Notes:
Patel is a former Republican.
