Juan Antonio Muñoz, August 28, 1978 (San Antonio, Tex.) -
VP candidate for American Solidarity Party (aka Non Affiliated) (2016)
Running mate with nominee: Michael Andrew Maturen (b. 1964)
Popular vote: 6,777 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538
The campaign:
Founded as the Christian Democratic Party USA in 2011, the new party endorsed an Independent, Joe Schriner, in the 2012 Presidential election. Shortly after that they renamed themselves the American Solidarity Party and ran their first full fledged nominees for the 2016 election.
Based on Catholic Social Teaching, the Party sees itself as being consistent across the board on "pro-life" issues such as opposition to abortion, capital punishment, and right to die initiatives. The Party could be characterized as centrist, leaning Left on economics and Right on social issues.
In an online convention on July 9, 2016 the Party nominated Dr. Amir Azarvan, a political science teacher at Georgia Gwinnett College, for President. His running-mate was Mike Maturen of Michigan, who worked in sales and was a magician, and was a former Republican. Apparently Azarvan's employer had some issues with a member of their faculty running for President and he withdrew from the campaign after having been the nominee for a brief time. Maturen stepped in as the new standard bearer and Juan Muñoz of Cypress, Tex. became the new VP.
Muñoz grew up in San Antonio during the Reagan/Bush years and considered himself a conservative Republican of the Rush Limbaugh variety. In college he was an active Republican but had "flirted" with the Libertarian Party. Marriage and family life had given Muñoz a new political focus and in the course of finding an alternative he discovered the American Solidarity Party.
The campaign was very active on social media, networking and laying the foundation for what would become a fast-rising third party.
The ticket was on the ballot in Colorado (placing 12th with 0.03%) and were registered write-ins in at least 17 states. Not all of those states reported their write-in tally, but for those that did the American Solidarity Party did pretty well in terms of activating their base (especially for a new party), earning over 1000 votes each in California and Texas, and seldom less than 200 in the remaining states where they were active.
Election history: none
Other occupations: bookstore assistant manager, restaurant manager, sales, customer service
Notes:
Any relation to Maria Elizabeth Muñoz, New Alliance Party VP in 1992?
