Marvin Wayne Sapp Jr., March 12, 1969 -
VP candidate for No Party Affiliation (aka Stand Up America Now aka Independent) (2012)
Running mate with nominee: Terry Dale Jones (b. 1951)
Popular vote: 0 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538
The campaign:
"Doctor" Terry Jones filed with the FEC for President in Oct. 2011. The quotes surround the prefix because the title was honorary and from an unaccredited school at that. In fact, Jones was fined by a German court for false use of the title before he left that country under a cloud while working there as a visiting American pastor. But that is not what gave Jones his 15 minutes. It was burning piles of books, specifically the Koran.
Jones and his running-mate/assistant pastor, Wayne Sapp, grabbed headlines after a series of anti-Islamic and anti-Gay publicity stunts (sometimes resulting in their arrests) based from the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Fla. The rhetoric of the pair was directly responsible for reprisals internationally resulting in scores of deaths and injuries. The Jones/Sapp actions were condemned by American leaders ranging from Sarah Palin to President Obama. Meanwhile, Jones' "Islam is the Devil" book, coffee mug, baseball cap, and t-shirt franchise did a brisk business which made some question his true motives.
And speaking of commercialism, Jones and his wife Sylvia were charged by ex-members with using "volunteer" labor from their flock to be employees of their TSandCompany for-profit furniture sales business. Some contended they were running a small-scale cult.
Displays and signs that included an effigy of a lynched President Obama adorned the ironically named Dove World Outreach Center. Meanwhile, Assistant Pastor Sapp seemed to have a special obsession with the concept of Gay people being elected to public office. In a series of videos, apparently under the banner of the Center, he railed against a Gay candidate for Mayor who Sapp said was "trying to convert Gainesville into Homoville."
He also stated--
Here in Gainesville they're getting ready to have a run-off election between two candidates, and one of them is openly a homo, gay, fag – whatever you want to call him. We can't have it ... [Homosexuality] is a sin that leads to hell ... [A] public office such as mayor, governor, president, should not be held by such people, because they're perverts, they're sexually perverted ... They cannot restrain themselves.
Sapp's statements gained some unwanted attention from government authorities who take the tax-exempt status of churches seriously especially when it comes to endorsing political candidates, plus they were interested in the relationship of TSandCompany to the Center.
Jones and Sapp were registered write-ins in Indiana where they received a grand total of zero votes. Since both people on the ticket were residents of the same state, there would have been a Constitutional problem in the event of their victory.
Tying his star to Jones, Sapp joined him when the former moved to another Florida city after the election, deserting his flock and starting a Fry Guys venture in a mall which they operated until the management discovered who they were and asked them to leave. Jones expressed shock that his fame had not preceded him and assumed he had been recognized and the mall was OK with his presence. Sapp had also been a partner with Jones in the failed TSC Moving company. By 2014 the spotlight was fading and when Jones filed for President for the 2016 election no one noticed.
Election history: none.
Other occupations: pastor, fry cook, furniture moving company co-owner, dispatcher at concrete recycling center
Notes:
Sapp moved to Melrose, Fla. in 2017.
"Dr." Jones filed with the FEC in 2013 for the 2016 Presidential election.
Jones is also included in The Encyclopedia of American Loons.
