Mark Stedman

 

Mark Stedman, ca1962 -

VP candidate for Independent (2012)

Running mate with nominee: Josiah Stoltzfus (ca1957-2014)
Popular vote: ? (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 270+/538

The campaign:

In Martha Bolton's work of political fantasy fiction Josiah for President (Zondervan, 2012) US Congressman Mark Stedman of Wisconsin fails in his quest to gain the Presidential nomination and on his road trip home from DC has a fateful accidental meeting in Lancaster County, Penn. with Josiah Stoltzfus, an Amish farmer. So impressed is Stedman with Stoltzfus' character, he runs Josiah as an independent write-in candidate for President. In turn the candidate insists that Stedman be the running-mate.

I'll try to not spoil the story too much, but Josiah does indeed win the election as a write-in. The book mentions that among the states he won were Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Tennessee, North Carolina, Iowa, Indiana, Texas, Arizona, Michigan, Illinois, and New York.

The fictitious campaign actually became real in the 2012 cycle. Zondervan released a couple Josiah for President electioneering videos with actors portraying Stoltzfus and Stedman. A Facebook page was set up. The novel was also presented on stage as a musical.

Four years earlier in the 2008 election there was a ticket with an Amish connection. The Florida-based Real Food Party of the United States of America ran farmers James Harlin Carter and Dennis Eugene Stoltzfoos as the President and VP. Raised in Lancaster County, Penn. as an Amish Mennonite, Stoltzfoos went out on his own both spiritually and physically, moving to Florida in 1989. After working in the alternative health field and an EMT for a time he eventually started his own farm. Citing the writings of Weston Price as a major influence, Stoltzfoos shared Carter's enthusiasm for non-pasteurized dairy and natural foods.

Election history:
1993-2013 - US House of Representatives (Wis.) (party unknown)
2012 - Presidential nomination from unknown major party - defeated

Other occupations: ?

Notes:
Mark Stedman should not be confused with Seymour Stedman, running-mate in the Socialist Party of America in 1920 with Eugene Debs.

Seymour Stedman

Seymour Stedman, July 4, 1871 (Hartford, Conn.) – July 9, 1948 (Chicago, Ill.)

VP candidate for Socialist Party of America (1920)

Running mate with nominee: Eugene V. Debs (1855-1926)
Popular vote: 913,693 (3.41%)    
Electoral vote: 0/531

The campaign:

The Socialist Party of America had not had a good four years since the 1916 election. WWI and the post-war Red hysteria had landed many members behind bars. The 1917 Russian Revolution had made communism a more attractive action-based solution for many of the Socialists, starting an exodus to the more Leftward parties. The creation of the Farmer-Labor Party was also drawing away a significant number of SPA members. The SPA itself was splitting as a result of irreconcilable differences between the Left and Right, with the latter camp gaining more control.

And to top it off, their presidential nominee was serving a prison sentence of 10 years, found guilty of "sedition" in Nov. 1918 for advocating resistance to military conscription. He was nominated anyway in what would be his final run for President.

His running mate Seymour Stedman was a founding member of the SPA and the actual job of barnstorming and electioneering fell on his shoulders. He represented the Right wing of the party and was something of a Machiavellian figure in the Socialist world. Strongly anti-Soviet, he was accused of cooperating with police to prosecute Communists, which is rather ironic considering he later became a card-carrying Communist himself ca. 1936-1942, although not politically active.

With votes recorded in 40 states, the Debs/Stedman ticket had their best results in Wisconsin (11.50%), Minnesota (7.62%), New York (7.01%), Nevada (6.85%), California (6.79%), and Oklahoma (5.29%). These were states where the Farmer-Labor Party was basically not in the equation. Landslide winner Warren Harding commuted Debs' sentence effective Christmas Day, 1921.

Election history:
1902 - Illinois State House of Representatives (Socialist Party of America) - defeated
1904 - States Attorney (Cook County, Ill.) (Socialist Party of America) - defeated
1906 - Supreme Court Justice (Ill.) (Socialist Party of America) - defeated
1908 - Socialist Party of America nomination for US Vice-President - defeated
1908 - States Attorney (Cook County, Ill.) (Socialist Party of America) - defeated
1913-1915 - Illinois State House of Representatives (Socialist Party of America)
1915 - Mayor of Chicago, Ill. (Socialist Party of America) - defeated
1916 - Governor of Illinois (Socialist Party of America) - defeated
1923 - US House of Representatives (Ill.) (Socialist Party of America) - defeated

Other occupations: shepherd, foundry worker, messenger, janitor, writer, attorney

Buried: Oak Woods Cemetery (Chicago, Ill.)

Notes:
Buried in the same cemetery as James "Big Jim" Colosimo, Enrico Fermi, Jesse Owens, William H.
 "Big Bill" Thompson (his 1915 opponent), June Travis, and Harold Washington.
Began his political life as a Georgist.
Was a Democrat, then a Populist before joining the Socialists in 1897. Had worked to make Eugene
 Debs the Populist nominee in 1896.
Was an officer of the City State Bank in the 1920s-1930s. After it went bust in 1929 he was accused of accepting deposits when he knew the bank was going to fail but the charges were dropped.