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.

Edward Everett

Edward Everett Horton

Edward Everett, April 11, 1794 (Dorchester, Mass.)– January 15, 1865 (Boston, Mass.)

VP candidate for Constitutional Union Party 1860
Running mate with nominee: John Bell (1796-1869)
Popular vote: 590,901 (12.61%)         
Electoral vote: 39/303 (Ky., Tenn., Va.)

The campaign:
The short-lived Constitutional Union Party had a vague centrist platform on preserving the union but took no stand on the issue of slavery. Conservative Whigs and former members of the American (Know-Nothing) Party filled their ranks. Everett was a reluctant running mate and was not very active in the campaign.

The Party placed 4th in the popular vote but 3rd in the Electoral College winning Kentucky, Virginia, and Tennessee. They were on the ballot in more states than the eventual victor, the Republicans. Bell/Everett placed in second in many states in the South, and came very close to winning Maryland and Missouri.

Stephen Douglas, the Democratic Party nominee, placed 2nd in the popular but 4th in the electoral count, one of the rare times a mainstream political party trailed a third party.

Election history:
1825-1835 - US House of Representatives (Mass.) (National Republican/1834-1835, Whig)
1836-1840 - Governor of Massachusetts (Whig)
1839 - Governor of Massachusetts (Whig) - defeated
1853-1854 - US Senate (Whig)

Other occupations: professor at Harvard University, editor of the North American Review, United States Minister to the United Kingdom 1841-1845, President of Harvard University, United States Secretary of State 1852-1853,

Buried: Mount Auburn Cemetery (Cambridge, Mass.)

Notes:
His persistence in his student days earned him the nickname "Ever-at-it"
Ralph Waldo Emerson was one of his students.
Charles Francis Adams (another 3rd party VP nominee) was not only a student of Everett's but also

 eventually related by marriage
Promoted the work of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe who he had met in Europe in the 1810s.
His son William served in the US House of Representatives (D-Mass., 1893-1895)
Lost his 1839 bid for re-election as Gov. of Mass. by one vote.
Daniel Webster was his mentor.
Began to suffer from ill-health in the late 1840s.
Was involved in the preservation efforts of George Washington's Mount Vernon home.
Supported Lincoln's re-election in 1864, serving as an elector from Mass.
Buried in the same cemetery as B.F. Skinner, I.F. Stone, Bucky Fuller, and many other historical

 figures.
The beloved character actor Edward Everett Horton (1886-1970) was named after his father. Edward

 Everett Horton Sr. (1860-1915) was born in Maryland in May 11, 1860, two days after the

 Bell/Everett ticket was nominated in Baltimore. It is reasonable to speculate the later actor was

 indirectly named after Edward Everett the third party VP figure.
As a young man was interested in becoming a Unitarian minister to the point of even delivering sermons.
Had Everett been elected he would not have lived through his first term, having died a couple months

 before the 1865 inauguration.
He delivered his own Gettysburg Address which was immediately followed by Lincoln at the same

 event.