Mango Price

 

Mango Price, April 15, 2010 (Wilmington, N.C.) -

VP candidate for Feline Party of the United States (aka Independent) (2016)

Running mate with nominee: Artemis Bastet Belladonna (b. 2015)
Popular vote: 0 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538

The campaign:

Artemis Bastet Belladonna, a female grey cat in Cary, N.C., filed with the FEC as an Independent aspirant for US President on Oct. 26, 2016. The running-mate was Mango Price, a male orange tabby in Raleigh, N.C. making him the second candidate on a national ticket of that hue with no public service experience.

Although the Feline Party, as their website called them, had a late start in the election season they made up for it by a very active online campaign.

Artemis' biography as provided on her webpage--

About Artemis
Artemis is a (very cute) one year old cat living in Cary, North Carolina. She enjoys eating, sleeping, and killing things.

Her History
Artemis Bastet Belladonna was born circa June 4, 2015 near Henderson, North Carolina, United States. She was found, all by herself on July 4, 2015, and was estimated to be 1 month old. She came into the Gaska household on July 23, 2016, and found a forever home.

Her Name
​Artemis- The ancient Greek goddess of the hunt, and of all animals.
Bastet- The ancient Egyptian goddess of cats.
Belladonna- A poisonous plant.

The ticket ran on a platform of animal rights but also weighed in on other issues--

Abortion
Artemis believes that all women should have access to safe abortions, and that we should continue funding Planned Parenthood, as they do very good work. (Tweet)

Guns
The 2nd amendment is important, and Artemis wishes to keep it in its entirety. Artemis wants to ban people on the no-fly list from purchasing weapons, and she agrees with Bernie Sanders on not letting people sue the gun companies if they got shot. "If someone hit you with a hammer, would you sue Craftsman?"- Artemis

Ranked Choice Voting

Terrorism
Artemis hates ISIS/ISIL. She wants to scratch them. So, she will work with other nations in the middle east to fight terrorism.

Unemployment
Artemis wants to kill two birds with one stone (yum) with her plan for unemployment. She is going to begin a huge plan to repair our nation's failing infrastructure, employing millions in the process. This will leave our nation with all new roads, highways, bridges, airports, and more.

The Feline Party of the United States should not be confused with the Feline Party that ran two cats named Tabby and Goldie as a ticket in 2004. The Artemis campaign seemed to have a connection with a Kik Messenger chat group called "The Greatest Group Ever Created (TGGEC)."

Artemis also ran for President in 2020 but I could not confirm any running-mate for that election.

Election history: none

Other occupations: cat

Notes:
Cary, N.C. was named after another third party Vice-Presidential candidate, Samuel Fenton Cary who was the Greenback Party running-mate in 1876.

Edward Kirby Meador

Edward Kirby Meador, November 6, 1885 (Chamblissburg, Va.) - December 25, 1981 (Riverside County, Calif.)

VP candidate for Greenback Party (1956, 1960)

Running mate with nominee (1956): Frederick C. Proehl (1880-1970)
Running mate with nominee (1960): Whitney Hart Slocomb (1885-1961)

Popular vote (1956): 0 (0.00%)
Popular vote (1960): 0 (0.00%)
Electoral vote (1956): 0/531
Electoral vote (1960): 0/537

The campaign (1956):

Proehl (pronounced Pray-el), aged 76 decided to run for a second time as a Greenback, seldom leaving his grocery store in Edmonds, Wash. He never met his running mate, 70-year old Edward Kirby Meador, a Boston-based book publisher.

Any press coverage they received usually had a focus on them as colorful antiquated characters. Proehl stated the use of checkbooks was creating what he called "false money" (I wonder if he accepted checks at his store?) and Meador advocated the eradication of income tax. All of the country's financial problems, Meador added,  traced to "Jewish, American and British Bankers." You can see where this is going.

Not on any ballots, no votes recorded.

The campaign (1960):

In their final campaign the Greenback Party could have been called the Throwback Party. The relatively youthful 65-year old Whitney Hart Slocomb, a Los Angeles "ambulance first-aid man" and sometime author was the Presidential nominee with his publisher who was none other than Meador, now 74, once again as the Party's running mate. Their campaign slogan "all reform waits for money reform— then let us get money reform first!" didn't exactly set the electorate on fire.

After the election, where they were not on any ballots and had no recorded votes, Greenback Party head honcho John Zahnd, now in his 80s, resigned as Party chair on Jan. 1, 1961. He died a month later and the Party basically died with him.

Election history: none.

Other occupations: book publisher

Buried: Olivewood Cemetery (Riverside, Calif.)

Notes:
Buried in the same cemetery as Del Lord.
If elected in 1960 would have become President in 1961 upon the death of Slocomb.
One of 12 children.
Claimed to be a descendant or close relative of Ben Franklin.

Edward John Bedell

Edward John Bedell, September 8, 1894 (Seymour, Ind.) - October, 1982 (Indianapolis?, Ind.)

VP candidate for Greenback Party (1952)

Running mate with nominee: Frederick C. Proehl (1880-1970)

Popular vote: 0 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/531

The campaign:

John Zahnd's personal political party continued to hang in there. The ticket for the 1952 election was announced quite early in the campaign, on Nov. 13, 1951.

Frederick C. Proehl, who would turn 72 during the election year, was described in 1952 as a "Seattle neighborhood grocer" but in 1956 he was reported as being located in Edmonds, Washington. Minnesota native Proehl had moved to Seattle during WWII and became a clerk and time-keeper at Boeing. He started a small grocery store around 1945, and it was there where the back room served as campaign headquarters.

His past experience in the banking business in Minnesota shaped his views concerning the Federal Reserve and banks in general, driving him to the Greenback Party ca. 1942.

No convention was held. Proehl was informed of his nomination by letter. "It was all a surprise to me," he told the newspapers, "National headquarters just wrote me I had been chosen." The Greenback Party "National headquarters" was actually John Zahnd's house in Indiana. Rather than be active in seeking votes, Proehl let the media come to him. Bedell apparently was not an energetic campaigner either. They were not on any ballots and any write-in votes they gained have not been recorded.

Election history: none

Other occupations: contractor, farmhand

Buried: Floral Park Cemetery (Indianapolis, Ind.)

Notes:
Lived in Tiskilwa, Ill. and worked on a farm in Indiantown, Ill. in 1917
Surname was Bedel but changed to Bedell after WWI.
Sometimes called J. Edward Bedell.

Granville Booker Leeke

Granville Booker Leeke, February 22, 1889 (Philadelphia, Penn.) - May 29, 1955 (Niles, Mich.)

VP candidate for Greenback Party (1948)

Running mate with nominee: John G. Scott (1879-1953)

Popular vote: 6 (0.00%)

Electoral vote: 0/531

The campaign:

The Party nominated John G. Scott who was a retired college professor raising bees in upstate NY and Granville B. Leeke of South Bend, Ind. by mail-vote. Scott indicated that aside from voting for himself, he planned to vote Republican in all other races.

Scott described the Greenback Party as: "Neither right, left nor middle but all three in one ... It is a conservative party, democratically-managed, with a progressive platform and liberal outlook."

Although not on the ballot in any states, six write-in votes were recorded from California.

Election history:
1944 - US House of Representatives (Ind.) (Prohibition Party) - defeated

Other occupations: maintenance man in a lathe factory, farmer, minister (Church of God)

Buried: Mount Pleasant Cemetery (South Bend, Ind.)

Notes:
Moved to Indiana ca. 1913.

Frank Jefferies

Frank Jefferies, Aug. 4, 1874 (Bethlehem, Ind.) - June 14, 1947 (Rochester, Ind.)

VP candidate for Greenback Party (1944)

Running mate with nominee: Leo Charles Donnelly (1889-1958)

Popular vote: 0 (0.00%)

Electoral vote: 0/531

The campaign:

Greenback Party leader John Zahnd did not run a fifth time for President. Instead the 1944 nominee was Leo C. Donnelly, a pastor at Westminster Community Church in Detroit. He was also a fascist sympathizer and an associate of Father Charles Coughlin. Donnelly had run as a member of the Democratic Party for a few public offices in the past.

Donnelly was at one time a medical doctor. A graduate of the Detroit College of Medicine in 1911, he was suspended in 1924 by the Wayne County Medical Society and in the early 1930s his license was revoked by the State of Michigan for "unprofessional and dishonest" conduct.

His license was reinstated in 1947, three years after his Presidential run for office. At the start of May, 1958 he was arrested and charged with seven counts of fraud for basically victimizing vulnerable people using marketing by mail-order for such products as a cure for cancer and anti-radioactive fallout tablets. He was facing the possibility of over 30 years in prison. But before the month was over, he died of a heart attack on May 30, 1958.

Frank Jefferies, his running mate, seems to have been a Republican who was active in real estate.

The Donnelly/Jefferies ticket did not appear on any ballots, although one news account said they filed in Indiana, where the Greenback Party was headquartered (John Zahnd's house). Any votes they earned had to be write-ins.

Election history: none.

Other occupations: newspaper circulation manager, realtor, President of the South Bend Indiana Real Estate Board, soldier in Spanish-American War

Buried: Mount Hope Cemetery (Logansport, Ind.)

Notes:
Member of the Church of Christ.
His health began to fail in 1945. If elected, he would have died in office in 1947.
Sometimes his surname is spelled Jeffers or Jeferies or Jeffries by writers and reporters.
Moved to South Bend, Ind. ca. 1912

James Elmer Yates

James Elmer Yates, March 12, 1874 (Johnsville, Ohio) - April 7, 1954 (Phoenix, Ariz.)

VP candidate for Greenback Party (aka National Greenback Party) (1940)

Running mate with nominee: John Zahnd (1877-1961)

Popular vote: 0 (0.00%)

Electoral vote: 0/531

The campaign:

This was Zahnd's final campaign for President. Initially the standard bearer was supposed to be Anna T. Milburn of Seattle but she declined and so Zahnd himself headed the ticket. The number two spot was taken by James E. Yates of Arizona. No serious campaign seems to have been waged and no votes were recorded.

Election history: none.

Other occupations: author, Apostle in the Church of Christ (Temple Lot), editor, missionary

Buried: Sedona Community Cemetery (Sedona, Ariz.)

Notes:
Buried in the same cemetery as James Gregory.
His second wife was the granddaughter of Mormon prophet Joseph Smith.
Was a member of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints until 1927. Received a
 revelation from God on May 1, 1927 that included a rejection of the RLDS Church. Made an Apostle
 of the Church of Christ (Temple Lot) in Apr. 1928.

Florence Garvin

Florence Garvin, February 27, 1876 (Middletown, Conn.) - July 10, 1968 (Providence, RI)

VP candidate for National Party (aka Independent Party aka Greenback Party) (1932)
VP candidate for National Greenback Party (1936)

Running mate with nominee (1932, 1936): John Zahnd (1877-1961)
Popular vote (1932): 1645 (0.00%)
Popular vote (1936): 0 (0.00%)
Electoral vote (1932): 0/531
Electoral vote (1936): 0/531

The campaign (1932):

Ex-leader of his own religion John Zahnd chose not to run in 1932 as he had in 1924 and 1928, but sometimes our best plans go awry.

Seymour E. Allen of Springfield, Mass. was nominated for President but he withdrew once he learned more about the anti-union record of the National Party.

The National Party then nominated 72-year old George Wilson, a newsstand and drugstore operator in Vineland, NJ as their nominee. Wilson had been connected with the People's Party and was a member of Coxey's Army in 1894. 62-year old J.A. Parker of Blytheville, Penn. was picked as his running mate.

Wilson said he would only accept the nomination on the condition the National Party merged with the Farmer-Labor (which was home to Jacob Coxey in 1932) and Liberty parties. Zahnd, who ran his party with an iron fist, would have none of that, so Wilson was out. As Fate would have it, the National Party and Liberty Party would indeed merge on the Indiana ballot a month or two later.

With time getting short, Zahnd himself stepped up to the nomination at some point in late August or early September. Florence Garvin of Rhode Island was selected as his running mate.

Indiana was the only state where the Zahnd/Garvin could be found on a ballot.

The campaign (1936):

In 1936 the Zahnd/Garvin ticket ran again, this time under the banner of the National Greenback Party. They were not on the ballot in any states.

Election history:
1924 - US House of Representatives (Del.) (Prohibition Party) - defeated

Other occupations: author, suffragette, Vice-President of the Women's National Single Tax League 

Buried: Swan Point Cemetery (Providence, RI)

Notes:
Daughter of Lucius Garvin, Gov. of Rhode Island 1903-1905.
Buried in the same cemetery as Ambrose Burnside, Nelson Aldrich, Thomas Wilson Dorr, H.P. Lovecraft.

Wesley Henry Bennington

Wesley Henry Bennington, May 18, 1861 (Bucyrus, Ohio) - October 30, 1928 (Cleveland Heights, Ohio)

VP candidate for National Party (aka Greenback Party) (1928)

Running mate with nominee: John Zahnd (1877–1961)
Popular vote: ? (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/531

The campaign:

Although running for President as a write-in on his personality-driven National Party, John Zahnd was also running for real as candidate for the US Senate in Indiana under the same party label in 1928. Back in 1924 he had also started to a run for the presidency but decided to withdraw and endorsed La Follette's Progressive Party.

Zahnd, a former Socialist, had started a new religion in Sept. 1918 in Kansas City, Mo., the Church of Christ/Order of Zion, an offshoot of an offshoot of the Mormons. He was a proponent of communal living, and, of course, the prophet for the new religion. His church appeared to be disappearing about the time of the 1928 election but Zahnd's political life would live on.

Zahnd's National Party appeared to be the last outdated gasp of the old People's Party and Greenback Party. The platform included planks supporting Prohibition, equal rights for women, the conscription of land as well as people during wartime, and the abolition of the Electoral College.

Running mate and typewriter executive Wesley H. Benningtion was ill during much of the campaign. He died shortly before the election on Oct. 30, 1928 in Cleveland Heights, Ohio and apparently was not replaced on the ticket at the last minute. Not that it really mattered in terms of votes since the National Party did not appear on any ballots.

Election history:
1894 - Associate Justice (Kan.) (People's Party) - defeated

Other occupations: attorney, inventor, typewriter executive, notary public

Buried: Knollwood Cemetery (Mayfield Heights, Ohio)

Notes:
Buried in the same cemetery as Sam Sheppard.
Member of the People's Party in Topeka, Kansas 1890s
Obituary falsely claims he was a Lt. Gov. of Kansas.
Fined for shooting a cat while a resident of Kansas City, Kan. July 1901.
Took part in the pre- New Age "Mental Science Convention" of Nov. 28, 1901 in Sea Breeze, Fla.
Arrested for fraud in Cleveland 1908 for selling stock by misrepresentation.
Sometimes called William H. Bennington.

Absolom Madden West

Absolom Madden West, 1818 (Perry County, Ala.) – September 30, 1894 (Holly Springs, Miss.)

VP candidate for Greenback Party 1884

Running mate with nominee: Benjamin F. Butler (1818-1893)
Popular vote: 134,294 (1.33%)              
Electoral vote: 0/401

The campaign:
The Blaine/Cleveland contest was one of the nastiest campaigns in US history. The Greenback Party was in decline and the Prohibition Party was rising and actually placed third. Together they were spoilers in this very close election.

West was considered a conservative Greenbacker who was not in favor of the 8-hour workday or women's suffrage.

The Greenback Party was listed on the ballot in all but 9 states. Their strongest showings were in Butler's home state of Massachusetts (8.04%) and in Kansas (6.15%). Where there were 4-ways races they placed third in Ala., Ore., Ind., Penn., Colo., Me., Kan., and Mass.

As the late 1880s progressed, the Greenbackers either rejoined the Democratic Party (which was starting to co-opt some of their monetary views) or they became part of building the future populist movement. In 1888 so few delegates showed up at the Greenback nominating convention that the Party simply dissolved.

Election history:
1847 - Mississippi State Senate (Whig)
1863 - Mississippi Governor (Democratic) - defeated
1865 - US House of Representatives (Miss.) (Democratic) - not permitted to serve
187-? - Mississippi State Senate (Greenback Party)
1880 - US Senate (Miss.) (Greenback Party) - defeated
1880 - Nominee for Vice-President (Greenback Party) - defeated

Other occupations: Brigadier General - Mississippi State Militia during the Civil War, President of the Mississippi Central Railroad, Democratic Party Elector 1876, plantation owner

Buried: Hillcrest Cemetery (Holly Springs, Miss.)

Notes:
Purchased a mansion called "Oakleigh" in Holly Springs, Miss. in 1870.
Holly Springs is also the hometown of Fox News reporter Shepard Smith.
The Butler/West ticket was endorsed by the Anti-Monopoly Party.
Initially not in favor of secession but supported it as the Confederate States were created.

Barzillai Jefferson Chambers

Barzillai Jefferson Chambers, December 5, 1817 (Montgomery County, Ky.) – September 16, 1895 (Cleburne, Tex.)

VP candidate for Greenback Party 1880
Running mate with nominee: James B. Weaver (1833-1912)
Popular vote: 308,649 (3.35%)              
Electoral vote: 0/369

The campaign:
By 1880 the Greenbacks had widened their appeal, adding urban and industrial laborers to their ranks. Weaver and Chambers set out to actively campaign but shortly after the convention the 62-year old Chambers fell from a train in Kosse, Tex., broke some ribs, and had to curtail his political activities as he was bedridden for some weeks.

Chambers represented a more extreme wing of the party, a faction that had already held their own convention (Union Greenback Party) nominating him for VP. When re-unification took place with the regular Greenback Party, Chambers retained the second-place spot. Members of the Socialist Labor Party also came on board.

Along with their historical single-issue monetary policy, the Greenbackers also supported Chinese labor exclusion, women's suffrage, a graduated income tax, and the 8-hour workday. The Party was listed under slightly different names state by state.

Although the Garfield-Hancock popular vote was incredibly close, the vote was more lopsided in the Electoral College. The Greenbacks did not appear to be spoilers in the outcome. On the ballot in all but 4 states, the Greenbackers polled the strongest in Texas (11.34%), Iowa (10.11%), Michigan (9.89%), Kansas (9.87%), Missouri (8.84%) and West Virginia (8.05%)

Election history:
1847 - District Surveyor of the Robertson Land District (Tex.)
1871? - Alderman (Cleburne, Tex.) (Democratic)
1876 - Texas State Legislature (Democratic) - defeated
1878 - Texas State Legislature (Greenback Party) - defeated

Other occupations: Captain in Texas War of Independence, surveyor, attorney, soldier in Confederate Army (Tex.), delegate to the Texas Constitutional Convention of 1875, newspaper publisher, chairman of the Texas Greenback Party 1882, 

Buried: Cleburne Memorial Cemetery (Cleburne, Tex.)

Notes:
Joined the Greenback Party in 1877.
Was a Freemason.
Belonged to the Christian Church.
Sometimes listed as "Benjamin J. Chambers"

Samuel Fenton Cary

Samuel Fenton Cary, February 18, 1814 (Cincinnati, Ohio) – September 29, 1900 (Cincinnati, Ohio)

VP candidate for Greenback Party 1876
Running mate with nominee: Peter Cooper (1791-1883)
Popular vote: 83,726 (0.99%)             
Electoral vote: 0/369

The campaign:
The Greenback Party was initially an agrarian response to the economic Panic of 1873. It could be argued it was the ancestor of the later Populist Party boom of the 1890s. Philanthropist Peter Cooper, the Party's nominee, was 85 years old at the time of the campaign.

The 1876 vote results was one of the most messed up affairs in Presidential election history, practically starting a second Civil War. There was one state where the Cooper/Cary ticket were possible spoilers-- Indiana, the very place where the Party was born. The tally there was Tilden 213,526 (48.65% and 15 electoral votes), Hayes 208,011 (47.39%) and Cooper  17,233 (3.93%).

Cooper and Cary were on the ballot in 18 states with their strongest showing being in Kansas (6.26%). In subsequent elections the Greenbacks would add urban and industrial laborers to their ranks. 

Election history:
1867-1869 - US House of Representatives (Ohio) (Independent Republican)
1868 - US House of Representatives (Ohio) (Democratic) - defeated
1875 - Lieutenant Governor of Ohio (Democratic) - defeated

Other occupations: attorney, Ohio Paymaster General during US-Mexican War earning him the title of "General Cary", prohibitionist and anti-slavery and rights of labor lecturer and author, Collector of Internal Revenue (Ohio 1st Dist.), Chief of Staff for three Ohio governors 

Buried: Spring Grove Cemetery (Cincinnati, Ohio)

Notes:
Cary was the only Republican in the House to vote against impeaching President Andrew Johnson.
Became the Greenback Party VP nominee after Sen. Newton Booth (Calif.) turned it down.
Declined a position on the Ohio Supreme Court.
Delegate for Lincoln at the 1864 Republican Convention.
The city of Cary, NC is named in his honor.