Rufus Edward Shackelford, March 6, 1926 (Wauchula, Fla.) - June 17, 1992 (Manatee, Fla.)
VP candidate for American Party (aka Americanist Party aka Independent aka American Constitution Party) (1976)
Running mate with nominee: Thomas Jefferson Anderson (1910-2002)
Popular vote: 158,724 (0.19%)
Electoral vote: 0/538
The campaign:
By the 1976 election the American Party and the American Independent Party were two separate political entities, both claiming to be the rightful philosophical heir to George Wallace's 1968 significant third party effort.
The 1976 American Party convention was an unenthusiastic, sparsely attended event according to news accounts. Continuing the John Birch Society trajectory as set by 1972 Presidential nominee John G. Schmitz, the Party's 1976 top pick was the old 1972 running mate, Tom Anderson. Some of the Party faithful wanted Anderson and company to wait and see if Ronald Reagan would be the Republican choice or if George Wallace would be the Democratic standard bearer so they could endorse one of those two. But Anderson wouldn't have it. He wanted to run.
The VP choice was Rufus E. Shackelford, a very wealthy tomato grower from Wauchula, Fla. with operations in California and Texas. He owned his own plane and the size of his pocketbook probably helped in the selection process which was not an unusual practice for several minor parties. This was the only time Shackelford had ever run for public office.
Shackelford was "born a Democrat" and then became a Republican before joining the American Party in 1969.
His stump speeches pulled no punches:
This may sound corny, but I have always felt very close to the Constitution and those two parties have gotten away from it. That's why I belong to the American Party. I find that the other parties are alright to a point. But after you leave the local and state level and get them to Washington, they're the same. You've got Socialism A and Socialism B. We're bogged down in the bureaucratic sense of socialism.
This country is financially, morally and spiritually bankrupt, and all due to the foolishness of the Democrats and the Republicans.
Not many people know this, but it's a fact. The Republicans and Democrats alike are governed and looked after by a single organization, the Council on Foreign Relations. And it's because of this organization the willingness of the two political groups that this country is in the mess it's in today.
The Commies are desperately trying to destroy the very fibre of this nation through the destruction of the Christian concept, and I will not stand for it.
I feel that Henry Kissinger is one of the most unqualified and evilest men in the White House today. How can a man who doesn't even have a complete control of the English language try to solve our foreign problems? I'll tell you this right now, I will have nothing to do with this man.
On Lester Maddox and the American Independent Party: He (Maddox) has no organization. He's a populist movement. We are not a movement. We are a political party and we've got some 700 candidates running for office in this country.
The 1976 American Party platform included: opposition to abortion and euthanasia, dramatically scale back government commercial regulations, support capital punishment, no court plea bargaining for criminals, no federal day care centers, encourage nuclear and solar power, oppose the Equal Rights Amendment, oppose any form of gun control, oppose socialized medicine, abolish the Federal Reserve, oppose quota systems in employment, eliminate public welfare, abolish foreign aid, no detente with Communist states, keep the Panama Canal, remove the United States from the United Nations.
On Election Day the American Party placed 6th, right on the heels of the American Independent and Libertarian parties with all three in a tight 0.19% - 0.21% range. Anderson/Shackelford were on the ballot or had recorded write-ins in 28 states. Consistent with their 1972 results, the John Birch Society-inspired American Party had their strongest support in the Far West: Utah 2.45%, Montana 1.76%, and North Dakota 1.24%. Other states where they, relatively speaking, did well: Virginia 0.98%, Mississippi 0.87%, Kentucky 0.71%, Minnesota 0.70%, Shackelford's Florida 0.68%, and Indiana 0.63%. Anderson actually beat Maddox, both of them write-ins, in the latter's home state of Georgia.
Immediately after the election Shackelford expressed gratitude that Carter had won over Ford because the Georgia Governor would be "the most closely watched man in history" and his inexperience would mean he would certainly face stumbling blocks in getting his "socialist program" through Congress. Shackelford also made a prediction that over time revealed his strength was not in punditry: "Anybody who sees the Republican party as being conservative is crazy. The Republican party is a tool of Nelson Rockefeller and the Ripon Society and will be four years from now despite what columnist Jack Anderson says about Ronald Reagan reorganizing the party."
Other occupations: soldier (WWII), President of 4 Star Tomato
Election history: none
Buried: New Hope Baptist Cemetery (Wauchula, Fla.)
Notes:
Baptist, born-again Christian.
In 1977 Shackleford was endorsed by the American Party leadership in California for President in
1980.
Financially backed NH Gov. Meldrim Thomson's short-lived 1980 bid for President as a third party
nominee.
Was a member of Democrats for a Better Government in 1964, an anti-LBJ group.
Earliest Presidential election with a Florida-born VP on the ticket.
His obituaries had no mention of his 1976 VP run.
