Karla Marie Ballard

 

Karla Marie Ballard, April 21, 1971 (Philadelphia, Penn.) -

VP candidate for Independent (aka American Shopping Party aka Unaffiliated aka No Party aka Freedom and Prosperity Party aka Independence Party of New York) (2020)

Running mate with nominee: Brock Jeffrey Pierce (b. 1980)
Popular vote: 49,720 (0.03%)
Electoral vote: 0/538

The campaign:

Until Brock Pierce had announced his Presidential run I had never heard of him before. And once I started to read about how the former child movie actor became a successful entrepreneur and philanthropist I realized why. You see, I'm a guy who still uses a flip phone that cannot connect to Internet or even accept emojis as valid characters. I belong to no social networks. Most of my vast movie collection is in VHS format. Until recently my car was from the 20th century (now I drive a 2002 Honda which can still play my cassette audio tapes!). I have no tattoos or piercings (obscure pun not intended). The world of Bitcoin, cryptocurrency, and internet gaming is beyond the comprehension of my caveman brain.

Using the slogan "Brock the Vote," Pierce announced his intention to run and filed with the FEC as an Independent in early July, 2020. Karla Ballard was added in the FEC filing later in the month as his VP.

The Philadelphia-based Ballard was a fellow entrepreneur with an interesting family backstory, claiming to be related to the infamous US Vice-President Aaron Burr. As Ballard explained to one reporter, "For many years there was talk that we were related to Burr. When the show 'Hamilton' came out, we did DNA testing, and the findings confirmed that we are in fact related to him. The family is now comfortable with it, and the Aaron Burr Association has been welcoming. We even have his family bible!" I'm not sure that being related to Burr is the best salesmanship, but it is the kind of trivia I enjoy.

Pierce was not without political baggage. He had past ties with toxic criminals and con artists such as Steve Bannon and Jeffrey Epstein. Pierce had survived and was cleared of allegations of child sexual abuse. He was also the subject of investigations on other legal matters. Most of his substantial political monetary contributions up to this point had been to Republicans such as Sen. Rubio, Sen. McCain, Gov. Perry, and tens of thousands to Trump's re-election effort as well as the Republican National Committee and National Right to Life Political Action Committee. This led to charges by some that Pierce was a ringer for Trump and his centrist Left rhetoric was designed to peel votes away from Biden.

In an interview with Pierce by The Daily Beast Sept. 23, 2020, the candidate inadvertently revealed he knew a lot more about technological innovation than he did about politics or government.

Pierce's platform as presented on his campaign webpage--

Re-legalizing Cannabis
We will pardon all individuals who have been charged with non-violent offenses related to cannabis and expunge their records.
We will work to end the prohibition of cannabis and fully legalize it.
We will reschedule cannabis to remove it from the DEA list of scheduled drugs and substances.
We will sign an executive order barring all federal agencies, particularly the Department of Justice, from pursuing any cases for crimes related to cannabis possession, use, or distribution.
We will renegotiate international treaties to facilitate the international and domestic legalization of cannabis.

Fiscal Policy
We will re-architect America’s economic and fiscal policies to benefit all Americans, rather than borrowing for the benefit of the elite.
We will balance America’s budget for the benefit of future generations.
We will implement regulations that open the financial markets to innovation that will provide alternative lending solutions.
We will work to end deficit spending and begin the process of eliminating the federal debt.

Universal Earned Income
We will establish a Universal Earned Income (UEI) for all Americans.
Universal Earned Income will be provided in equal amounts to every American as a monthly stipend.
Universal Earned Income will be funded by restructuring government programs and changing the structure of federal taxation to address the current gross misallocation of resources at the national level.
Universal Earned Income guarantees that all Americans will have their essential needs met as members of America’s political and economic system.
UEI will allow Americans to pursue work and careers that inspire them while increasing the value of their work and creating further abundance for all.

Healthcare
We will ensure affordable and effective healthcare for all Americans.
We will redesign America’s healthcare system to create win-win scenarios for companies and people through preventive care and treatments at reduced cost.
We will provide government grants for the development of technologies that allow our society to protect human life and prevent the unnecessary spread of Covid-19 and other diseases.
We will provide ethical and moral regulatory frameworks for the development of tools serving the interests of national healthcare, such as mental health reporting and contact tracing.
We will provide a non-emergency national mental health support line to make mental health services and support accessible to all Americans.

Criminal Justice Reform
We will end the “War on Drugs”
We will end asset forfeiture without a court order.
We will require police departments to have more transparent recruiting, longer, and more thorough training programs, as well as malpractice insurance.
We will require the use of body-cams by police while on duty.
We will require alternative emergency response options for non-violent incidents.

Technology & AI
We will ensure that America’s government is effectively educated in and able to govern current technologies for the benefit of all Americans.
We will use automation and AI to benefit all Americans.
We will ensure that suitable consumer devices and network access are provided to those who otherwise could not access the Internet.
We will ensure network neutrality and bar providers from blocking or slowing Internet content or offering “fast lanes”.
We will give Americans the right to opt out of non-essential, commercial uses of their data.

U.S. Currency Strategy
We will engage in actions to increase America’s economic liquidity.
We will ensure the highest level of transparency possible in our financial systems.
We will improve relations with all nations, including China and Russia.
We will ensure that the United States keeps pace with the emergence of digital currencies, including those from abroad.
We will ensure the healthy growth of America’s economy to the benefit of all Americans.

Your Body is Yours
We will ensure that adults have the sole right to grant or withhold consent to add things to their bodies.
We will ensure that adults have the sole right to grant or withhold consent to remove things from their body.
We will work to ensure that both explicit and implicit slavery are made illegal.

In the course of the campaign Pierce received the endorsement and/or nomination of the American Shopping Party and the Independence Party of New York.

On the ballot in 16 states with some added registered write-ins, the Pierce/Ballard ticket had their strongest results in Wyoming (0.79%), Idaho (0.32%), New York (0.26%), Alaska (0.23%), District of Columbia and Hawaii (0.20% each), Arkansas and Utah (0.18% each), Kentucky and Minnesota (0.17% each), and Oklahoma (0.16%). In Wyoming they finished in 4th place. Nationally they were 9th, behind the rapidly declining Constitution Party and ahead the equally rapidly rising American Solidarity Party.

In the fall of 2020 Pierce announced his intention to start a future new third party. In May 2021 he reflected, "I achieved everything that I was attempting to achieve: to understand the mechanics of the system. I didn't have a political background. There are a lot of ways to enter politics, a lot of ways that are probably safer and cheaper. But I chose to do the most accelerated version, which is to just go run for an elected office on a national platform, to understand what it takes. I viewed it as basic training."

Election history: none

Other occupations: entrepreneur, Co-Founder and CEO of YING, board member of Alliance for Women in Media, board member of Northern Virginia Community College, speaker, president of the National Urban League Young Professionals

Notes:
aka Karla Ballard Williams.

Todd Walters Sanders

 

Todd Walters Sanders, ca1963 -

VP candidate for Independent (2016)

Running mate with nominee: Robert Partlow Morrow (b. 1964)
Popular vote: 145 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538

The campaign:

Robert Morrow's strange political journey began as a liberal Democrat supporting Dukakis in 1988 and somehow morphed into his becoming a conspiracy theorist Republican who co-authored a book with Nixon loyalist Roger Stone entitled The Clintons' War on Women (2015). When Morrow was elected as the Chair of the Travis County, Tex. Republican Party, based in Austin, there was an intra-party revolt. He served for a few months in 2016, at which point he ran for President as an Independent write-in. His running-mate was a fellow he called his "handyman," Todd Sanders.

Morrow was a self-styled expert on the JFK assassination, placing the blame on LBJ and other government figures. He also seemed obsessed with the sex lives of political figures, notably the Clintons, Rick Perry, George H.W. Bush, and Donald Trump. In a humorous way, Morrow was very much like the last named gentleman in terms of promoting spurious facts and unfounded conspiracies. Both men also were infamous for disrespecting women in blatant ways and they used the negative campaigning tactic of dehumanizing all who failed to see the issues from their perspective. And since Morrow's publicity gimmick was wearing his three-corner jester hat, that sort of compares to Trump's overdone orange cosmetics, oddball hairstyle, and clownishly oversize necktie. From the viewpoint of an outsider in some ways it is difficult to see why the Travis County Republicans would reject the former person but embrace the latter-- a point Morrow himself would make in 2016.

Morrow's social media was riddled with pornographic language and visuals, and that might have been what turned the dial to 11 where Trump was still at 10.

Early in the campaign season Morrow endorsed Ted Cruz, "Ted Cruz and Ben Carson over Donald Trump. Donald Trump has actually said that a lone nut Oswald killed JFK, which tells me he is too stupid to be president." However, in early May 2016 Trump alleged, without evidence or detail as he usually did with his many conspiracy theories, that Sen. Cruz's father was somehow implicated in assisting Lee Oswald in Nov. 1963.

Part of Morrow's electioneering included showing up at public events wearing his jester hat and holding a huge sign that read, TRUMP is a CHILD RAPIST. Morrow explained, "Donald Trump's psychopathy has been on full display on the national political stage for over a year ... I want folks to know that Trump is a child rapist and that he is currently being sued in a civil action in NY federal courts for raping, slapping [a] 13 year old girl at a Jeffrey Epstein party in 1994."

I am able to pick out a few Facebook posts from the campaign that are suitable for quoting in mixed company--

Aug. 24, 2016
Can you imagine *Trump supporters* telling ME that I am a disgrace to the Republican party?

Sept. 25, 2016
Morrow/Sanders 2016!! Pro-liberty, anti-war, anti-death penalty, pro boobyliciousness, pro legalize marijuana!!

Sept. 27, 2016
I am calling on my FB friends to kick megalomaniac loser Donald Trump non stop until the election. Child molester, abuses women, pathological liar in the extreme, cheats people, a full on criminal. Donald Trump's campaign must be destroyed. We will deal with Hillary later. If Texan, vote for libertarian political truth teller Robert Morrow. I will be on the ballot as an official write-in candidate!!

Oct. 10, 2016
I have a family member who is planning to vote for Trump in hopes that he will be assassinated so Pence can take over. "There are a lot of crazy people out there" is how the thinking goes.

Oct. 10, 2016
No further proof needs to be supplied for me to acknowledge Mr. Trump as not a real man but instead a weak, spoiled, slimy scumbag, psychopath and sexual predator who doesn’t respect women but rather objectifies them every chance he gets.
Put aside the argument that Mr. Trump, a buffoonish brute who has appeared in at least two soft-core porn videos, isn’t fit to be president and instead acknowledge that he’s not a good fit for American society. Mr. Trump is, as General Colin Powell put it, a national disgrace.

Oct. 18, 2016
Here is how the presidential race is looking now: Angry Bull Dyke 368, Orange Hitler 170.

Nov. 4, 2016
Donald Trump reminds me a lot of Adolph Hiter, the pathological lying, abuse of people, mental instability.

Nov. 4, 2016
Hillary Clinton is the LESSOR EVIL when compared to psychopathic, fascist child molester Donald Trump. He is also an incompentent loser who can't beat a half-dead criminal target of an FBI investigation.

Nov. 8, 2016
We are putting a fascist psychopathic child molester into the White House tonight. Thanks Crooked Hillary!! You totally suck.

The Morrow/Sanders ticket were registered as write-ins in Texas only. If they had won the national election the fact they were residents of the same state had the potential to be problematic per the Constitution. Morrow ran again in 2020 as a write-in with Anne Beckett as his VP.

Election history: none

Other occupations: handyman

Notes:
It is challenge to profile an X-rated candidate on a G-rated blog.

James Richard Perry

 

James Richard Perry, March 4, 1950 (Haskell, Tex.) -

VP candidate for Independent (2016)

Running mate with nominee: Cynthia Torres Cavazos (b. 1971)
Popular vote: ? (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538

The campaign:

Cynthia T. Cavazos, a San Antonio, Tex. hotel housekeeper and "social services coordinator for A Mission of God's Love," filed with the FEC on Oct. 26, 2015 as an Independent for President. Most of her campaign was conducted on social media, mainly Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube.

Cavazos provided a bit of autobiography on a Oct. 4, 2016 Facebook post--

Religious Beliefs: From both parent's being catholic, to my father converting to Jehovah Witness- I was into all that church stuff when I was young. My grandma...well, she was a Catholic and I was able to see all them saints and candles of Jesus, with those palm crosses hung over the door. I grew up with that in my grandma's home.
 My dad gave me my first bible- I from that after reading...I began to look inot other religions, I used to love when Mormons would come knocking on my door to speak- I allowed a whole group of kids to learn about John Smith.
I was baptized in The Baptist Church after the baptism in the Catholic Church at the age of 12- My children witnessed the dunking of a pool baptism. I was pregnant and finally after many years, I became confirmed, and, the neat thing...my lifestyle was as the poor in other countries living in a tent.  Having to go door step to door step until I came to a church where I stayed in my tent for about two months.- weird Huh? 9:32p.m.

Her stand on the issues came across as slightly cryptic, and the same applied to her philosophy behind the choice of a Vice-President. For reasons never really spelled out, she wanted the names of 13 men as running-mates. Although not officially designated as her VP, I am going to profile the eclectic four names out of the 13 she identified as desirable for her ticket: Newt Gingrich, (probably) Danny Google Aguilar, Rick Perry, and Joaquin Castro.

Tracing Cavazos' Facebook entries regarding the VP saga presents a murky story--

Mar. 31, 2016:
Email your Vice Presidential Resume to: meetcynthia@outlook.com

June 7, 2016:
Still looking for a Vice President. [Accompanied with a short video where Cavazos makes a direct appeal for a VP]

July 14, 2016:
Searching for  a Vice President....To make sure y'all understand, If elected, I will choose one for now...and once I have my Vice President running Mate...I will search for six more....this is the first time if I am elected we will have Seven Vice Presidents (all men) if Cynthia T.Cavazos is elected the next President of the U.S.

July 16, 2016:
I have several people in mind to choose from...but, based on what I am looking for, I will choose 13 Vice Presidential Elects ....The Electoral College will choose from the 13 nominated to be the next Vice President.

July 18, 2016:
Having to look for a Vice President with Immigration Standards is not too hard...based on the quality and communication these candidates have, I am thinking about choosing...
(Round 1) Without Immigration as to where they stand.... Newt Gingrich, Aguilar from Nevada, Rick Perry, Joaquin Castro,
 California not sure of who and other states I have not searched, but I am keen when it regard Human Resources. "A few I have seen to be an asset".
Understand this, because I have not yet chosen a Vice President...I am not saying the names listed will be my choice....but, they may be the list of 13 *I will submit as my chosen for legislature to choose from..after the people have chosen.

Rick Perry, the former Governor of Texas, had made his second attempt to win the Republican nomination for President starting in June 2015, but by Sept. he had dropped out and endorsed Sen. Ted Cruz. Perry said Trump was a "mix of demagoguery, mean-spiritedness and nonsense" and "Donald Trump's candidacy is a cancer on conservatism, and it must clearly diagnosed, excised and discarded." However he did endorse Trump after Cruz dropped out. He was rewarded with a cabinet post as the US Secretary of Energy. This was the agency he felt should be abolished but could not name when he blew his moment at a Republican primary debate in 2012.

An anti-science creationist, Perry tends to explain that political events, such as the election of Trump, were ordained by God. He also called for "Christian warriors" to become more involved with politics. Here is a Perry quote from a "40 Days to Save America" conference call with Rick "AIDS is God's punishment for homosexual behavior" Scarborough--

     This separation of church and state, which has been driven by the secularists to remove those people of faith from the public arena, there is nothing farther from the truth. When you think about our founding fathers, they created this country, our Constitution, the foundation of America upon Judeo-Christian values, biblical values and this narrative that has been going on, particularly since the ’60s, that somehow or another there’s this steel wall, this iron curtain or whatever you want to call it between the church and people of faith and this separation of church and state is just false on its face. We have a biblical responsibility to be involved in the public arena proclaiming God’s truth. You know, are we going to get up and say ‘you are going to vote for X’? No, but we’re going to talk about Christian values. When you think about the issue of life and protecting life, it’s so important that we as Christians put legislation into place, that we elect women that defend life. The idea that we should be sent to the sidelines I would suggest to you is very driven by those who are not truthful, Satan runs across the world with his doubt and with his untruths and what have you and one of the untruths out there is driven—is that people of faith should not be involved in the public arena.

...

     You think about what has gone here in the last few days around the world and never has there been a time that I think we need more spiritual courage, that we need more moral fiber if you will. The American family is under seize, traditional values are somehow exclusionary, a simple prayer in our public schools is the basis for these secular attacks; you think about this spiritual warfare that’s going on and [inaudible] going strong as President Obama and his cronies in Washington continue their efforts to remove any trace of religion from American life. It falls on us, we truly are Christian warriors, Christian soldiers, and for us as Americans to stand our ground and to firmly send a message to Washington that our nation is about more than just some secular laws. Activist courts, we see them chipping away from our values and remove so much that is very special and unique about the United States. I don’t want to get too far off course here but when you think about what’s going on in the Middle East and the president stood up in Cairo in 09 and either incredible naïve or very unschooled in the ways of these radical Islamists, and four American lives were lost in Libya. It is our founding fathers knew and understood the importance of the role of our Creator in public discourse and they didn’t shy away from referencing Him, using the values he brought and the message of his son Jesus Christ to build the system that we as a society have enjoyed for more than 200 years. Securing that system, rebuilding our nation is what these 40 Days to Save America is really all about. It’s about saving our nation, it’s about preserving the values that make us special, about rejecting the concept that freedom of religion means freedom from religion, about turning away from this growing tide of secularism and atheism, the way they preach tolerance and diversity while they engage in oppression and bullying tactics.

Cavazos was registered as a write-in, with no running-mate, in Washington and West Virginia. In the event of a Cavazos/Perry victory there would have been a potential problem with the Constitution since both were residents of the same state.

In 2017 Cavazos finished 4th out of 6 candidates for the San Antonio City Council.

Election history:
1985-1991 - Texas House of Representatives (Democratic/Republican)
1991-1999 - Texas Commissioner of Agriculture (Republican)
1999-2000 - Lt. Governor of Texas (Republican)
2000-2015 - Governor of Texas (Republican)
2012 - Republican nomination for US President - defeated
2016 - Republican nomination for US President - defeated

Other occupations: door-to-door salesman, US Air Force, cotton farming, US Secretary of Energy, author, actor

Notes:
Supported Al Gore in the 1988 Democratic Presidential primaries. Switched parties and became a Republican in 1989.
Inducted into The Encyclopedia of American Loons.
Longest serving Governor in Texas history.
One of his opponents in the 2006 primary was Robert "Star" Locke."