Warren Chester Martin

Warren Chester Martin, October 13, 1909 (Ogden, Kan.) - August 5, 1998 (Junction City, Kan.)

VP candidate for Prohibition Party (aka National Prohibition Party) (1984)

Running mate with nominee: Earl F. Dodge (1932-2007)
Popular vote: 4,243 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538

The campaign:

In a June 1983 convention described by one reporter as having a "prayer revival atmosphere," the Prohibition Party nominated Earl Dodge in the first of his many runs for President and Party stalwart 74-year old Warren C. Martin of Junction City, Kan. as the VP. Addressing his age, Martin quipped, "I'm old enough to have some horse sense, which they haven't had in Washington for 50 years."

Mostly operating out of his own pocket, Martin campaigned mainly in his home state which was considered a Prohibition Party stronghold in that era. He went from town to town in a pickup truck festooned with billboards where on the top sign his own name took first billing over that of Presidential candidate Dodge. When the amiable Stetson-wearing VP described the "un-Constitutional two-party monopoly" he said, "When you come down to it, there's only about four cents worth of difference between the two major parties." George Wallace in 1968 used to say there wasn't a "dime's worth of difference," so the gap between the Republicans and Democrats was apparently narrowing, which must have come as something of a shock to Reagan and Mondale volunteers.

Actually, alcohol aside, the 1984 Prohibition Party platform was more conservative and evangelical Christian than ever and not too far ahead of the Republican's ever-quickening stampede to the far Right under Reagan. Anti-abortion was brought up as an issue more than once in the course of the Dodge/Martin electioneering.

Dodge suffered a mild heart attack on Jan. 3, 1984 but apparently recovered enough to continue the campaign. As a probable testimony to Martin's time and energy shaking hands and visiting editorial offices on his home turf, Kansas gave the ticket the highest popular vote percentage of any state.

On the ballot in five states, they finished with a very dismal 0.00% nationally. It was their worst showing in their long history up to that time, but wait, there's more!-- it will sink even lower as the future unfolds. Their popular vote percentages: Kansas 0.21%, Arkansas 0.10%, Colorado and North Dakota 0.07% each, and New Mexico 0.04%.

Election history:
1952 - Geary County? Commission (Kan.) (Prohibition Party?) - defeated
1954 - Kansas State Printer (Prohibition Party) - defeated
1956 - Kansas State Treasurer (Prohibition Party) - defeated
1958 - Governor of Kansas (Prohibition Party) - defeated
1964 - Kansas Attorney General (Prohibition Party) - defeated
1978 - Lt. Governor of Kansas (Prohibition Party) - defeated
1982 - Governor of Kansas (Prohibition Party) - defeated

Other occupations: variety store manager, rancher, Kansas State Parole Board

Buried: Milford Cemetery (Milford, Kan.) 

Notes:
From his obituary: "He and Harry O. Lytle were appointed minority party members of the Kansas
 State Parole Board in 1959 by Democratic governor George Docking, as a deliberate snub to the
 Republicans."
Methodist.
One of his opponents in the 1978 race was Marian Ruck Jackson.
Member of Gideons International and the Wycliffe Bible Translators Association.
Lived in Oklahoma in 1940.
Formerly a Republican.

Frank Lyle Varnum

Frank Lyle Varnum, October 6, 1916 (Pasadena, Calif.) - January 12, 2013 (Roseburg, Ore.)

VP candidate for American Party (1980)

Running mate with nominee: Percy L. Greaves Jr. (1906-1984)
Popular vote: 6,647 (0.01%)    
Electoral vote: 0/538

The campaign:

Percy Greaves (pronounced Graves) was nominated by the American Party after 16 ballots. Retired airline pilot Frank Varnum was selected as his running mate. The New York Times reported that a party spokesman "said that Mr. Greaves had won in a close battle by 'progressive' party members against a faction representing the its old 'reactionary and redneck' image."

Greaves was a Republican turned Libertarian Party and only recently turned American Party author specializing in free market capitalism and Pearl Harbor attack historical revisionism. Varnum, a member of the John Birch Society and possibly the only person in America with a toothbrush mustache in 1980, appeared to balance the ticket as part of the more traditional wing of the American Party.

Greaves' moderate stance on abortion failed to pass the litmus test for the American Party members in Minnesota and Kansas. The former state ran a slate of unpledged Electors, and the latter state ran an entirely different ticket of Frank W. Shelton and Marian Ruck Jackson.

The American Party in 1980 stressed complicated economic issues more than hot button social topics, and it failed to excite the base. Plus, the Reagan Republicans had co-opted a lot of the John Birch Society-inspired platform used by the American Party over the years, except the major party simply changed the wording to be more acceptable to mainstream voters and had a famous Hollywood actor read the script. 1980 just was not going to be a good year for the American Party.

On Election Day the American Party ticket trailed far behind their splinter-party rival, the American Independent Party. In fact  even the combined vote of the Kansas and Minnesota American Party insurgents outpolled the Greaves/Varnum ticket.

On the ballot in five states and certified write-ins in a couple others, they had their strongest results in Indiana 0.21%, Delaware 0.17%, and Utah 0.16%.

Greaves died of cancer on Aug. 13, 1984, which meant that in the event they had been elected Varnum would have become President in the last year of the term.

Election history:
1966 - Long Beach (Calif.) City Council (Nonpartisan) - primary - defeated

Other occupations: race car driver, orchardist, realtor, US military flight instructor, airline pilot

Buried: Coles Valley Cemetery (Coles Valley, Ore.)

Notes:
Lived in Ventura, Calif. and (PNW trivia!) moved to Roseburg, Oregon-- burial place of third party
 VP Joseph Lane!
Survived a crash in 1947 when a twin-engine plane he was piloting lost power after takeoff.

Marian Ruck Jackson

Marian Ruck Jackson, May 5, 1922 (El Dorado, Kan.) - January 22, 2005 (Wichita, Kan.)

VP candidate for American Party (aka American Party of Kansas) (1980)

Running mate with nominee: Frank W. Shelton (1907-1983)
Popular vote: 1,555 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538

The campaign:

When the American Party nominated Percy L. Greaves for President there were a couple insurgent groups who could not accept his libertarian leanings (he had in fact been a member of the Libertarian Party) and his moderate views on abortion among other things. The Minnesota faction ran a slate of unpledged American Party Electors but in Kansas they ran an entirely different ticket.

At first the Kansas faction of this party had placed Ronald Reagan's name on the ballot, but Reagan declined the honor. Then they nominated Illinois US Rep. Philip Crane, perhaps the most conservative member of Congress in his era, but he withdrew as well. When the national party placed Greaves' name in the ballot, the local Kansas group challenged the placement and won the case. In Sept. 1980 they filled the void by nominating Frank W. Shelton for President and Marian Ruck Jackson for VP.

Shelton and Jackson had previously run as the American Party ticket for Kansas Governor and Lt. Governor in 1978 (and would do so again in 1982), so they were sort of a known political commodity. Even though they already had a built-in network they certainly did not have a lot of time to build and organize a campaign. Documents concerning their 1980 run are scarce.

Shelton was an active Reagan Republican until about 1977 when he joined the American Party. Jackson had also left the Republican Party citing her disapproval of "power politics."

When Shelton died the UPI summarized some of his platform issues in the obituary: "He had recommended sterilization of welfare recipients and felons, deportation of immigrants and restriction of government employees' voting rights."

On the ballot only in Kansas, they placed 5th out of 8 in that state with 0.16%. In 1978 the pair had finished with 2.32% in the Governor/Lt. Governor election, a strong result for a third party in a statewide race (they were spoilers in that one, giving the victory to the Democrats). In 1980 they were competing for votes against Reagan, who no doubt ate into their base as he was really not all that far away from the American Party on the political spectrum.

Because both candidates were residents of the same state their ticket would have been Constitutionally questioned and probably contested if they had somehow been elected. 

If Shelton and Jackson had won and passed the resident hurdle, she would have assumed the Presidency on Nov. 28, 1983 upon his death. In a sad coincidence, Percy Greaves died on Aug. 13, 1984. Neither one of the American Party Presidential nominees would have lived long enough to finish their first term in the event of their victory.

Election history: 
1978 - Lt. Governor of Kansas (American Party) - defeated
1982 - Lt. Governor of Kansas (American Party) - defeated
1984 - US Senate (American Party) - defeated

Other occupations: utilities commissioner Eureka Kansas, ranching, oil business

Buried: Sunset Lawns Cemetery (El Dorado, Kan.)

Notes:
Winner of the 1984 race was Nancy Landon Kassebaum.
Born Marian L. Fowler, buried as Marian L. Ruck.
Some sources state the running mate was Marian's husband George but I find no primary documents
 to support that.
Marian was an Elector for her own ticket.