Jesse Benjamin Stoner Jr.

Jesse Benjamin Stoner Jr., April 13, 1924 (LaFayette, Ga.) – April 23, 2005 (LaFayette, Ga.)

VP candidate for National States' Rights Party (1964)

Running mate with nominee: John Kasper (1929-1998)
Popular vote: 6,953 (0.01%)    
Electoral vote: 0/538

The campaign:

US Sen. Barry Goldwater running for President as a Republican in 1964 was a dream come true for many ultra Right-wing voters. The Republicans preempted the issues and policies for several conservative third parties leaving only the most extreme of the extremes as compared to other election years.

The Constitution Party was pretty far Right on the political spectrum, sure. You would think George Lincoln Rockwell running for President (without a VP candidate from what I can gather) under the American Nazi Party might have the distinction of being the most openly fascistic of the political parties in the 1964 campaign. But then there is the National States' Rights Party.

John Kasper, the Presidential nominee of the National States' Rights Party, was already well-known for hate speech and had served prison time for conspiracy in 1957. Kasper had been active in the 1956 "Ez for Prez" Ezra Pound campaign. According to the Constitution Kasper would have been too young to have taken office if he had been elected.

The VP nominee was Jesse Benjamin "J.B." Stoner Jr.-- KKK member, anti-Semite, racist, white supremacist, church bomber, terrorist, and early member of the NSRP.

An admirer of segregationist Theodore Bilbo, Stoner started his own local chapter of the KKK in Tennessee and created the Stoner Christian Anti-Jewish Party in the 1940s declaring that "being a Jew [should] be a crime punishable by death."

A suspect in many acts of Right-wing terrorism, Stoner was eventually convicted in 1980 for a 1958 church bombing attempt.

Authorities blamed Stoner for inciting a race riot in St. Augustine, Fla. during the campaign.

The NSRP ticket made the ballot in two states finishing with 0.33% of the vote in Kentucky and 0.53% in Arkansas.

Election history:
1948 - US House of Representatives (Independent) - defeated
1970 - Democratic nomination for Governor of Georgia - defeated
1972 - Democratic nomination for US Senate (Ga.) - defeated
1974 - Democratic nomination for Lt. Governor of Georgia - defeated
1978 - Democratic nomination for Governor of Georgia - defeated
1980 - Democratic nomination for US Senate (Ga.) - defeated
1990 - Democratic nomination for Lt. Governor of Georgia - defeated

Other occupations: attorney (disbarred), insurance claims adjuster

Buried: Forest Hills Cemetery (Chattanooga, Tenn.)

Notes:
Contracted polio as a small child.
Winner of the 1970 primary was Jimmy Carter.
One of his opponents in the 1972 primary was Sam Nunn.
Winner of the 1974 primary was Zell Miller.
Winners of the 1980 primary were Herman Talmadge and Zell Miller.
Served three and half years in prison in the 1980s for the 1958 church bombing.
Considered a suspect by the FBI in the assassination of Martin Luther King.
Was on James Earl Ray's appeals legal team.
"Stoner ran for governor of Georgia in 1970. During the campaign, where he called himself the
 'candidate of love,' he described Adolf Hitler as 'too moderate,' black people as an extension of the
 ape family, and Jews as 'vipers of hell.'"--Wikipedia.
"He never married and once told an interviewer that any woman 'would be too dumb for him.'"--Los
  Angeles Times obituary.
"Only through intolerance do nations become great."--J.B. Stoner.
"We had lost the fight for the preservation of the white race until God himself intervened in earthly
 affairs with AIDS to rescue and preserve the white race that he had created ... I praise God all the
 time for AIDS.--J.B. Stoner.
Lester Maddox, yes, THAT Lester Maddox, even he refused to share the same stage with Stoner.
"He was, perhaps, the most malevolent racist in America."--Larry Keller.

John Geraerdt Crommelin, Jr.

John Geraerdt Crommelin, Jr., October 2, 1902 (Montgomery, Ala.) – November 2, 1996 (Montgomery, Ala.)

VP candidate for National States' Rights Party (1960)

Running mate with nominee: Orval Faubus (1910-1994)

Popular vote: 44,984 (0.07%)
Electoral vote: 0/537

The campaign:

The National States' Rights Party was easily the most vicious of all the third parties on the 1960 ballot, and anticipated the Right-wing domestic terrorism that would continue to grow to the present day. The NSRP with the number of unabashed Klansmen, Nazis, white supremacists, anti-Semites, and other assorted racists and fascists in their orbit made the Constitution, Conservative, and Tax Cut parties look downright liberal by comparison. Their Party flag was basically a mixture of the Confederate and Hitler's Schutzstaffel symbols.

The Party was created in 1958 and both of the founders, chiropractor Edward Reed Fields (born 1932 and reported to be still living as of this writing) and future third party VP nominee Jesse Benjamin Stoner Jr. (1924-2005), had early established their credentials as extreme Right-wingers with other groups. Stoner later served prison time for firebombing Bethel Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., and was a top suspect in other bombings. More on him in 1964.

The Party motto was "Honor—Pride—Fight! Save the White!"

As close as I can find for their platform:

    1. Encourage voluntary resettlement of Negroes in their African homeland.
    2. Restore segregation in the Armed Forces.
    3. Permit only "White Folk to take part in affairs of government or serve in courts."
    4. Demand that government should refrain from competing with private enterprise.
    5. Demand that confiscatory taxation policies of the federal government be ended immediately.
    6. Demand the removal of all federal control over National Guard units and law enforcement
        agencies of the states.
    7. Demand that all financial and moral support to the State of Israel cease as a basis for the
        rebuilding of Arab American friendship.
    8. Favor complete separation of all non-White and dissatisfied racial minorities from "our White
        Folk Communities."
    9. Preservation of Indian national life in America and unlimited development of reservation
        facilities.
    10. Demand that total segregation be maintained in the nation's schools and that only "members of
          the White Folk Community be allowed to engage in the educational and cultural activities of
          our White society."

At their convention in Ohio in March 1960 they nominated segregationist Democratic Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus for President, and ex-Rear Admiral John G. Crommelin Jr. as his running mate. There are conflicting accounts about the Governor's attitude regarding the nomination, but he took an action to remove his name, and thus the NSRP, from the Florida ballot. Faubus endorsed the JFK/LBJ ticket.

One source claims that at the last minute the Party selected Robert Bolivar DePugh (1923-2009) as their standard bearer once it was clear Faubus was not interested. He was a Missouri veterinary drug manufacturer, survivalist, and John Birch Society member who in June 1960 founded the Minutemen anti-communist militia movement. In later years he would be charged and convicted of firearms violations (for which he did some hard time), charged but acquitted of bank robbery, and pornography and morals accusations involving underage girls. DePugh eventually joined the Christian Identity Movement. For a spell he was a fugitive from justice, living underground. In some states it was too late to remove the name of Orval Faubus from the ballot, so if DePugh was indeed the substitute the NSRP in a way were running two candidates for President. In Alabama and Arkansas only the Electors were listed, not the actual candidates, so it is difficult to confirm if DePugh was actually a candidate. Faubus' name did appear on the Tennessee ballot.

VP nominee Crommelin, a WWII Naval hero, was an outspoken participant in the 1949 "Revolt of the Admirals," protesting President Truman's unification of the Armed Forces which in the view of the admirals favored air power at the price of the Navy. This activity probably involuntarily shortened Crommelin's military career, but once released into civilian life he started a new pursuit as a perennial candidate in Alabama. Crommelin was an anti-Semitic, anti-Catholic, pro-segregation, anti-Federal Reserve, anti-UN, white supremacist and had exhibited some of these beliefs during his time as a Navy officer, which didn't exactly help his future professional prospects.

A staunch defender of Sen. Joseph McCarthy's anti-communist activities, Crommelin was and would be an associate of Gerald L.K. Smith, Pedro Del Valle, David Duke, George Lincoln Rockwell, and John Kasper. Kasper introduced Crommelin to the poet Ezra Pound (incarcerated in a mental hospital at the time) in Jan. 1956, the same year as the "Ez for Prez" campaign took place and which for some that slogan was a fascist rallying cry. Kasper became an aide to the Admiral during his failed 1956 bid for the US Senate. In 1957 Kasper served 8 months in prison for conspiracy. Oddly, newspapers in 1960 reported that Kasper endorsed Nixon shortly before the election. In 1964 Kasper would be the NSRP Presidential nominee.

With votes recorded in 5 states, their strongest showing was in Faubus' Arkansas with 6.76%. In over half the counties their result ranged between 5.04% clear to 14.90%. Other results: Tenn. (1.07%), Ala. (0.77%), Del. (0.18%), Tex. (0.00%, i.e. 7 write-in votes).

Election history:
1950 - US Senate (Ala.) (Independent) - defeated
1954 - US Senate (Ala.) (Democratic) - primary - defeated
1956 - US Senate (Ala.) (Democratic) - primary - defeated
1958 - Governor of Alabama (Democratic) - primary - defeated
1959 - Mayor of Montgomery, Ala. - defeated
1960 - US Senate (Ala.) (Democratic) - primary - defeated
1962 - US Senate (Ala.) (Democratic) - primary - defeated
1964 - US House of Representatives (Ala.) (Democratic) - primary - defeated
1966 - US Senate (Ala.) (Democratic) - primary - defeated
1968 - US Senate (Ala.) (Democratic) - primary - defeated
1968 - Democratic nomination for US President - defeated
1970 - Lt. Governor of Alabama (Independent) - defeated

Other occupations: US Navy Rear Admiral, farmer

Buried: Greenwood Cemetery (Montgomery, Ala.)

Notes:
Winner of the 1954, 1960, 1966 primaries was John Sparkman
Buried in the same cemetery as George and Lurleen Wallace.
Known as "Bomb-Run John"

Edward Estlin Cummings

Edward Estlin Cummings, October 14, 1894 (Cambridge, Mass.) – September 3, 1962 (Madison, NH)

VP candidate for Independent (1956)

Running mate with nominee: Ezra Pound (1885-1972)

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

The campaign:

To include the poet ee cummings as a member of the third party vice-presidential nominee club might be stretching things a bit, but the story is too good to bypass. I did the same thing with the Spirit of George Washington in the 1952 election.

Omni-artist Bruce Conner (1933-2008) was just starting his professional career during this election year. Conner credited himself and his friend Frank English with cooking up the idea of running the poet Ezra Pound for President, starting around Feb. 1956. Heavily influenced by Marcel Duchamp and the conceptual artists of his time, Conner's campaign of "Ez for Prez" could be viewed as a dry humor art exercise rather than a political statement.

Pound, who I would like to note gives us another Pacific Northwest connection as he was born in Idaho, was a major figure in the American and expatriate literary scene during the Lost Generation and Jazz Era. By the 1930s-1940s he was an outspoken anti-Semite and fascist who embraced Hitler and Mussolini. During WWII he was a paid propagandist for the Italian government. Pound was no doubt saved from being executed for treason when the US courts ruled he was mentally ill and unfit to stand trial, and by 1956 he had been incarcerated in St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Washington, DC for a decade.

One of the many fellow poets agitating for Pound's release was ee cummings. Although not especially political, a trip to the Soviet Union in 1931 had shifted Cummings to the far Right and he quietly supported Sen. Joe McCarthy's efforts to root out "subversives." Conner, who Cummings described to Pound as a "young scamp," had struck up a correspondence with both poets.

On the 28th of June 1956 Conner wrote to Cummings, "Ez says he wd. be most happy for you to be running mate if you wd. accept. Would you?" There is no record of Cummings declining the honor, so I will for the purposes of this blog take that as a "Yes."

Unfortunately for Pound, several people in Right-wing hate groups loved the idea of supporting this fascist for President and promoted it as well, which no doubt made the poet's release more problematic. What started as an artistic joke, Ez for Prez became an American fascist rallying cry. One of the chief organizers was John Kasper, a white supremacist, anti-Semite, KKK member, and accused Right-wing terrorist. In 1964 he ran for President with the National States' Rights Party.

Needless to say the Pound/Cummings ticket was not any ballots.

Election history: none.

Other occupations: poet, painter, essayist, author, playwright, soldier (WWI),

Buried: Forest Hills Cemetery and Crematory (Jamaica Plain, Mass.)

Notes:
Buried in the same cemetery as William Lloyd Garrison, Eugene O'Neill, fellow third party VP nominee Samuel Clarke Pomeroy, and Anne Sexton.