Toby Davis

 

Toby Davis, 1966 (Huntsville, Ala.) -

VP candidate for Prohibition Party (2012)

Running mate with nominee: Lowell Jackson Fellure (b. 1931)
Popular vote: 518 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538

The campaign:

Jack Fellure is a perennial candidate who has run for President in every election 1988-2020. It appears he entered electoral politics after he retired as an engineer. He had run for President in the Republican primaries since 1988 describing himself as "a total conservative with the Bible as my platform." The King James version to be precise. In 2000 he filed with the FEC as a Republican but did not actually run in the primaries.

Although Fellure was a write-in for President on sporadic ballots in the past, so far as I can ascertain 2000 was the first time he was still in the game in the general election past the primaries with a clearly stated running-mate, his brother Jim.

Some of his quotes and views recorded up to the time of the 2000 election:

He was anti-house husband, anti-abortion, pro-capital punishment, for outlawing the Communist Party, for outlawing homosexuality, supported balancing the budget, eliminate gun control, men should have short hair, opposed Rock music, Bush and Clinton have pushed a Marxist-Satanic New World Order agenda.

"We are losing a nation. The nation we knew was based on Christian principles that we are losing faster and faster all the time."

"I believe absolutely in the separation of church and state. I believe in freedom of religion. I merely believe this country must be guided by the Christian principles that made it great."

"We're being destroyed by atheists, Marxists, liberals, queers, liars, draft-dodgers, flag-burners, dope addicts, sex perverts, and anti-Christians."

In 1990 Jack Fellure said, "Sure, I don't have much chance in 1992, but intend to keep running the rest of my life or until I win. I figure I have six Presidential campaigns in me."

Fellure gained the Prohibition Party nomination in 2012, and time had not softened his rhetoric, as he was quoted by one reporter--

"Our country started off as a Christian nation [with] basic, fundamental Christian philosophy and principles, and we're so far off that now, we're not even close to that. And we're self-destructing. Unless the government of our nation, our society, gets back to those basic fundamental principles, we're going to continue to go down. We've defied the laws of God Almighty going and coming. We're even now—if you would believe—ordaining queers into the ministries and the churches." He added, "I'd make homosexuality illegal."

Fellure's campaign website, The Sword of 1611, spelled out his positions on the issues--

Jack Fellure For President of the United States 2012

Why You Should Vote For Jack Fellure For President of the United States 2012

“My Presidential Campaign Platform is the Authorized 1611 King James Bible. God Almighty wrote that Book as the supreme constitution and absolute authority in the affairs of all men for all time and eternity. It shall never be necessary to change it.

Quality leather bound copies of this Bible have been sent to the Presidential Office, the Supreme Court, the Senate, the House of Representatives, the National Republican Party, the National Democratic Party, and the Federal Election Commission.

Should I be elected to the Presidency, this Bible will be open on the desk in the White House Oval Office to Psalm 33:12, “BLESSED IS THE NATION WHOSE GOD IS THE LORD”, and also to II Samuel 23:3, “HE THAT RULETH OVER MEN MUST BE JUST, RULING IN THE FEAR OF GOD”. It shall never be closed during my tenure. I will take the inauguration oath of office with my hand on my Bible opened to Deuteronomy 28.

God Almighty, the creator and Holy Sovereign of the universe, ordained only three institutions on earth; the family, the church, and the civil government. He wrote one Book (the Holy Bible) to govern all three, making them equally responsible to that one supreme book of law.

Every basic truth and fundamental philosophy required for proper survival here and hereafter is contained in the Holy Bible. IT’S THE GREATEST SINGLE BOOK EVER WRITTEN ON HUMAN GOVERNMENT, and upon its precepts our nation was conceived, born and nurtured to become the greatest nation in the history of the human race. WE ARE NOW REJECTING THAT BOOK AND THOSE PRECEPTS.

Therein lies the eternal cardinal truth of why our nation continues to decay and deteriorate, morally and physically. Every failed civilization in recorded history rejected God’s moral laws first, and then collapsed physically. God will allow ours to be no different. We as a nation will either return to the Bible for divine direction or continue our human self-destruction. God provides no other alternatives. All men shall ultimately stand before a high tribunal to be judged by God and His Book with no court of appeals ever.

I encourage everyone to RETAIN, USE, AND DISTRIBUTE MY WRITINGS AND POSITION PAPERS FROM THE PREVIOUS PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGNS (1988 to 2012). THEY ARE ALL AS APPLICABLE NOW AS BEFORE. I haven’t shifted positions or altered course one iota. I never intend to, so help me God.

Yours for a nation under the authority of Almighty God, Jack Fellure United States Presidential Candidate 2012”

JACK FELLURE IS :

For : A National Return to reading God’s Book, the Holy Bible. This includes teaching the true Christian history and heritage of our nation in the public schools. It also includes bringing voluntary prayer and Bible reading back into the public schools.

Against : Abortion, and especially paying for abortions with government funding.

For : Leaders whose decisions are governed by what’s right or wrong rather than what is politically expedient.

Against : The Liquor Industry which is a detriment to our nation. Alcohol is America’s number one drug problem.

For : Balancing the Federal Budget. The Government must quit spending more than its income.

Against : Continuing to permit criminals to go unpunished.

For : Making Homosexuality illegal. This will stop much of the AIDS plague.

Against : Allowing Anti-American organizations, such as the American Civil Liberties Union and the Communist Party to continue their destruction of this nation.

For : Making Prisons into places of punishment instead of leisure.

Against : Moving our jobs and industrial production to foreign nations.

For : Capital Punishment. God Almighty mandated it.

Against : Every movement, effort, and person that would remove God from our national currency and declarations.

For : Getting the United States out of the United Nations (UN) and getting the UN out of the United States.

Against : The continued moral destruction of our society by the television and entertainment media.

For : Reducing the Tax Burden of the working American.

Against : The New World Order, Pornography, and Gun Control.

Mother Jones included Fellure in their article, "19 Wacky Presidential Candidates You've Never Heard Of"--

Fellure is a perennial candidate from West Virginia who has run for president as a Republican since 1988. This year, he switched his affiliation after winning the nomination of the anti-booze Prohibition Party, the country’s oldest active third party. Fellure’s platform is the Authorized 1611 King James Bible, the “supreme constitution and absolute authority in the affairs of all men for all time and eternity.” He seeks to protect the nation from a New World Order takeover orchestrated by “atheists, Marxists, liberals, queers, liars, draft dodgers, flag burners, dope addicts, sex perverts, and anti-Christians.”

The Prohibition Party 2012 platform was an extremely Right-wing Christian document, with a few exceptions such as "a moratorium on the construction of new nuclear power plants." Aside from the anti-alcohol emphasis, most of the platform could have easily been interchanged with the Constitution Party.

VP Toby Davis was a pastor in Mississippi. He was active in the national leadership of the Prohibition Party and helped bring the group into the online world. At some point between his 2011 nomination and Nov. 2012, Davis moved to Illinois.

It was not a stellar year for the Prohibition Party. Only on the ballot in Louisiana, they finished 9th out of 11 in that state with 518 (0.03%) votes.

Fellure was inducted into the Encyclopedia of American Loons in Aug. 2013.

Election history: none

Other occupations: pastor, private school headmaster

Notes:
Joined the Prohibition Party in 2001.
Father of 7 children in 2012.   
Toby was the second third party VP named Davis born in Alabama. The first was Angela Davis, Communist Party USA VP 1980 and 1984.

Sortition Candidate

Sortition Candidate

VP candidate for Nihilist Party (aka National Nihilist Party) (1988)

Running mate with nominee: Elisha Shapiro (b. ca1954)
Popular vote: 0 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538

The campaign:

This profile is more about a concept than a candidate. The term "sortition" means "the action of selecting or determining something by the casting or drawing of lots," like we do with our jury selection system, or like military conscription during the Vietnam War era.

Los Angeles conceptual artist Elisha Shapiro ("A Dangerous Leader for Dangerous Times"), Presidential candidate of the Nihilist Party proposed that his Vice-President be selected by "a random national lottery, so everybody has an equal chance." He added his method was "a lot better way of choosing my Vice President than the Republicans. I'll have someone the people can really relate to, who is more stable."

There are a few Presidential candidates who made a deliberate point of not choosing a running-mate because they felt the office of Vice-President was not needed. But Shapiro was the first I am aware of to propose the concept of sortition as a method of selecting someone for the office. He also advocated this method of selection for most other federal positions. 

But there were some government offices that Shapiro was not going to leave to chance and he announced his intended appointments, including: FBI Chief- Angela Davis, Ambassador to the USSR- Ted Koppel, Head of Joint Chiefs- David Byrne, Ambassador to South Africa- Louis Farrakhan, Press Secretary- Hunter Thompson, Chief Economic Advisor- Louis Rukeyser, Secretary of State- Bobcat Goldthwait, Poet Laureate- Patti Smith.

The Nihilist Party platform also had the following policy proposals:

THE GOVERNMENT EXCHANGE PROGRAM

"For one month every year, our government and the government of another country will change places. For example, the first year, for one month, our government will run the USSR, and the Soviet Government will run the US. This is a way to better understand the problems of peoples from other lands."

THE PENTAGON CHANGEOVER

"No one can get Congress to cut the Defense Department budget. The Pentagon employs too many people in too many states. But that doesn't mean we can't change what people in the Pentagon do. In the PENTAGON CHANGEOVER we don't fire anyone, we just give them useful jobs like making VCRs, telephone answering machines and personal computers. This will earn money for our government and reduce the deficit."

PROPOSED LEGISLATION

    --Change American capital to Los Angeles.
    --Change national bird to the Thunderbird.
    --Play jazz-fusion, go to jail.
    --A constitutional amendment making sodomy mandatory in Georgia.
    --Limit capital punishment to inconsiderate driving infractions.
    --Force the National League to expand to include a team for Havana and Managua.

NUKE ISLAND

"The nuclear arms stalemate will be resolved on NUCLEAR ISLAND. It will be an isolated island between the US and the USSR. The first American Nihilist Administration will disarm ten war heads and put them on the island. Then the bet will be to the Soviets. They can call or raise. The assumption is that their concern for public opinion won't let them fold. That's all there is to it. We bet, they raise, we raise and so on. They can keep making them and so can we--but they'll all end up on NUCLEAR ISLAND."

FOREIGN AID

"The American policy of supporting any regime or party which claims to be anti-Communist has landed our country in trouble many times since World War II. The Nihilist administration would radically change this approach to East/West competition and regional conflicts. Any country or party to which the Soviets give money would receive exactly the same amount of money from us. If the Soviets give the Nicaragua $100 million in an attempt to gain more influence than the US in that region, this bid would be quickly answered by a $100 million grant from the US. If the Soviets cynically switch sides and give $200 million to the Salvadoran government, we will answer this by an immediate $200 million gift to the Salvadorian government."

NEW NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

    --TV Dinner Day
    --Small Appliance Day
    --100 Mile-an-Hour Day
    --Automatic Weapon Day
    --Sodomy Day
    --Halloween


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Running as write-in, Shapiro told a reporter the day before Election Day, "We're a little behind in the polls, but we're about to make our move."

Election history: none

Other occupations: none

Buried: n/a

Notes:
Full disclosure. I have been an advocate for using the sortition method of filling some municipal and county offices on an experimental basis for several years.

Angela Yvonne Davis

 Washington State Voters Pamphlet: 1980 (above), 1984 (below)

Angela Yvonne Davis, January 26, 1944 (Birmingham, Ala.) -

VP candidate for Communist Party USA (aka People Before Profits Party aka Independent) (1980, 1984)

Running mate with nominee (1980, 1984): Gus Hall (1910-2000)
Popular vote (1980): 44,933 (0.05%)
Popular vote (1984): 36,386 (0.04%)
Electoral vote (1980, 1984): 0/538

The campaign (1980):

In the course of gathering the story of the typical third party Vice-Presidential candidate I usually have to scrape and dig to find even the most meager nuggets of data and information. But in the case of Angela Davis my challenge will be to sift through mountains of history and try to focus on her two runs as VP for the CPUSA.

Among the third party VPs for 1980 and 1984 Davis was easily the one who arrived as the most widely recognized national figure, and among the most controversial. It was a rare instance of the running-mate being better known than the Presidential nominee, in this case Gus Hall. She had been identified with the Black Panther Party, anti-war activity, Communist groups and countries, feminism, and prison reform. In a highly publicized criminal case, she had been held in prison 1970-1972 on three felony charges regarding her purchase of firearms that were later used in a Marin County, Calif. courtroom takeover that resulted in four deaths, including the judge. For a brief time Davis was on the Ten Most Wanted List when she became a fugitive. After her capture and subsequent trial she was eventually found not guilty.

The 1980 CPUSA platform included support of the ERA, transfer of money from the military to schools and hospitals and mass transit, outlawing the KKK and the Nazis, opposition to the draft, not allowing American companies to close plants and move out of the country, six-hour workday with 8-hour wages, and ratification of SALT II.

On the ballot in close to 30 states, the Hall/Davis ticket placed 6th nationally. Davis helped the Party gain a little more publicity than usual. It always amazes me how the CPUSA really outdid other third parties in terms of campaign buttons, stickers, and pamphlets. The major source of their electioneering funds was assumed to originally be in the form of rubles but we'll never know the exact amount or percentage of contributions from the CCCP because the CPUSA has hardly been transparent about these sort of things.

Strongest popular results were in: District of Columbia 0.21%, Illinois 0.20%, Arkansas and Hawaii 0.15% each, Alabama and New York 0.12% each. 

The campaign (1984):

Four years later the CPUSA offered the same Hall/Davis team. In this Orwellian year they spent more energy campaigning against President Reagan than they did in promoting their own agenda. In some ways they were giving a backhanded endorsement to the Mondale/Ferraro Democratic ticket.

Describing Reagan as a "nuclear madman," Davis told the press, "We understand millions of people are not going to vote for the Communist Party this time around. We are working primarily to defeat Reagan, a mouthpiece for the military-industrial complex that is willing to risk the sake of our planet for profits."

Hall added, "As the election approaches, Reagan's now calling for peace. He used to be a lousy actor, but now he's getting good at it." Davis said, "We do have problems with Mondale, who vacillates and thinks the way to win is by courting people who ordinarily would be in the Republican constituency. But if we do not defeat Reaganism this year, there is a possibility of nuclear holocaust."

This would be the final Presidential campaign for the CPUSA. Davis' star power presence on the ballot probably helped slow the rate of decline, but the popular votes were diminishing. More importantly, changes taking place in the soon to be former Soviet Union would shake the philosophical foundation of the American party and cut off financial support. Also, many of the idealistic young Leftists of the 1970s had become materialistic Yuppies of the 1980s. For a second time, Reagan won in a landslide.

The CPUSA finished in 8th place nationally. On the ballot in almost a dozen states they finished strongest in: Alabama 0.32%, Hawaii 0.24%, Maine 0.23%, Arkansas 0.17%, and District of Columbia 0.12%.

Election history: none

Other occupations: teacher, lecturer, author

Notes:
When skyjacker Garrett Brock Trapnell took control of a jet in 1972 he not only demanded money, he wanted Angela Davis released from prison and he wanted a pardon from President Nixon among other things. Instead he was made an involuntary guest of the Crowbar Hotel. During the 1980 election he was incarcerated in Marion and ran for President with VP and fellow convicted skyjacker Martin Joseph McNally under the Nationalist Christian Democratic Party.

Martin Joseph McNally

Martin Joseph McNally, ca1944 (Michigan) -

VP candidate for Nationalist Christian Democratic Party (1980)

Running mate with nominee: Garrett Brock Trapnell (1938-1993)
Popular vote: ? (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538

The campaign:

The evening of Thanksgiving Eve, 1971 was a typically nasty one here in Washington State for that time of year. Lots of rain and high winds. I remember it very well as we were glued to the local TV watching a live skyjacking taking place by a fellow the media later called D.B. Cooper. He was holding a Northwest Orient Airlines jet and crew hostage in exchange for 200 grand at Sea-Tac Airport. If the weather had not been so awful we could've run outside and watched the jet pass over our farm just minutes before Cooper bailed out two counties away and became part of Pacific Northwest folklore.

Personally, I think he sunk to the bottom of a lake or river and since Mt. St. Helens blowed up real good whoooee (as my friends Big Jim McBob and Billy Sol Hurok like to say) in May 1980, the odds of finding his body are pretty slim.

And speaking of 1980, among the Vice-Presidential candidates that year was one of Cooper's many imitators, one Martin Joseph McNally (aka Robert Wilson). He skyjacked a passenger airliner in 1972 and in the '80 election was serving a life sentence plus 75 years in prison in Marion, Ill.

The presidential candidate was Garrett Brock Trapnell, another Cooper-inspired skyjacker, who was also a bigamist, con man, bank robber, jewel thief, and, as it turns out, politician. When Trapnell took control of the jet in 1972 he not only demanded money, he wanted Angela Davis (a future third party VP candidate!) released from prison and he wanted a pardon from President Nixon among other things. Instead he was made an involuntary guest of the Crowbar Hotel. During the 1980 election he was also incarcerated in Marion.

Trapnell and McNally's escapades both before and after they met are the stuff of adventure movies. But I'll just focus on their much less action-packed run for the White House in 1980-- otherwise this profile will turn into a book.

Trapnell had announced his Presidential run in 1979 under the Nationalist Christian Democratic Party banner. His platform was short on specifics but he did state he wanted Secret Service protection and some of that public money doled out to the other major politicians running for the White House. McNally's name as the VP choice first appears in news articles around April Fools Day 1980.

By 1980 both Trapnell and McNally had become sort of jailhouse lawyers and they kept the courts constantly busy with various cases. In terms of their campaign, they went to court to be placed on the Indiana ballot during the primary, but learned that "minor" parties were excluded from the primaries in the Hoosier State. At the same time this was going on the duo were also in court over their alleged involvement with a prison breakout.

There is a legal point that could have complicated things in the event the Trapnell/McNally ticket had won. There is no law preventing felons or imprisoned people from serving in office as President if elected although getting on the ballot appears to be a state-by-state decision. It is plausible that President Trapnell could have pardoned himself. However the fact they were both "residents" of the same state poses a Constitutional problem that has never been tested. McNally's last address had been in Michigan so maybe he could have argued that was his real residence.

There have been a few previous tickets where one of the candidates was in jail or prison during part or all of the election but this was the first time I am aware of where both the Presidential and Vice-Presidential nominees were behind bars.

Not on the ballot and apparently not certified write-ins, there is no record of how many votes the Trapnell/McNally ticket received. A couple sources mention McNally himself ran for President, year unspecified, but I cannot ascertain if this is in error or if he really ran and I have never come across a solid reference to it. [Update: An observant reader provided documentary verification that McNally filed with the FEC in 2000 for President as a member of the National Christian Party]

Election history:
2000 - US President (National Christian Party) - defeated

Other occupations: US Navy, service station attendant, skyjacker

Notes:
Served 37 years in prison and was released Jan. 27, 2010.
A couple years ago I went on a long road trip and stayed the night in Marion, Ill. The drinking water
 alone in Marion might be punishment enough for anyone.
McNally's skyjacking plan was complicated when a drunken would-be hero named David J. Hanley
 rammed the jet at takeoff with his wife's Cadillac. So they had to switch to another jet. Hanley later
 ran for President in the Democratic Party primaries in 1976.