VP candidate for Church of God Party (aka Church of God Bible Party) (1952)
Running mate with nominee: Homer A. Tomlinson (1892-1968)
Popular vote: 0 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/531
The campaign:
The Church of God Party was the brainchild of Homer Aubrey Tomlinson, who was the son of Ambrose Jessup Tomlinson who founded his own independent Church of God in 1922. When the father died in 1943 his sons Homer and Milton engaged in a power struggle to take over the family business and Milton emerged victorious. So Homer went out and started his own splinter of a splinter church. He also had gathered some experience in the advertising business and developed a natural flair for publicity.
Tomlinson claimed he started the campaign with a fast and said Gen. Eisenhower was his first choice for his running mate. He initially made overtures to the Prohibition Party to run as their Presidential nominee but was rebuffed. His true running mate was found in a member of his Church flock with mechanic, WWI veteran and some time minister Willie Isaac Bass of North Carolina.
Bass was frequently alongside Tomlinson during some of the publicity stunts, such as actually turning swords into plowshares using a forge or picketing a major party convention.
The Church of God Party believed in abolishing the line between church and state, instead of paying taxes citizens should tithe, and two new Cabinet positions needed to be created-- Sec. of Righteousness and Sec. of The Holy Bible.
As a sign of more outlandish things to come in his subsequent runs for President, in Richmond, Va. the media reported that Tomlinson, "will proclaim a kingdom of West Africa and anoint a Richmond barber as its king in a ceremony at Nathalie, Va. ..." In future hindsight, 1952 would be Homer Tomlinson's most subdued campaign for President compared to the others awaiting the nation.
On Oct. 17, 1952 Tomlinson told the press, "I am depending on miracles to bring me to the White House." Since he was not on a single ballot he was asking for a lot even if he did garner more publicity than some other third parties that were officially listed. Undoubtedly the Church of God Party received some write-in votes, but they have been unrecorded.
A month after the election Tomlinson went to Korea and offered his services to the US government, or that of Willie I. Bass if they preferred, in negotiating a peace treaty to end the war.
Election history: none
Other occupations: mechanic, inventor, sailor in US Navy WWI, Church of God minister
Buried: Lafayette Memorial Park (Fayetteville, NC)
Notes:
Applied for a patent concerning an amphibious vehicle, 1948
Birthdate sometimes given as Nov. 3, 1895 or 1896.
Minister in Oakwood, Va. 1942.
