Jack Fellure | |
|---|---|
 Fellure in 2011 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Lowell Jackson Fellure (1931-10-03)October 3, 1931 Midkiff, West Virginia, U.S. |
| Died | July 31, 2022(2022-07-31) (aged 90) |
| Political party | Republican (before 2011, 2012–2022)Prohibition (2011–2012) |
| Spouse | Jean |
| Children | 7 |
| Occupation | Perennial candidate Retired engineer |
| Known for | Prohibition Party presidential nominee,2012 |
| Signature |  |
Lowell Jackson Fellure (October 3, 1931 – July 31, 2022) was an Americanperennial political candidate and engineer. He was the presidential nominee of theProhibition Party for the2012 presidential election.
Fellure was born inMidkiff, West Virginia, in 1931, to Ellis Elwin and Bessie Jean Fellure.[1][2] He attended grade school in nearbySalt Rock, graduating fromBarboursville High School in 1949. Fellure then enrolled atMarshall College (now Marshall University), and upon graduation became a teacher.[3]
In his professional life, Fellure worked a variety of jobs, culminating in a position as a field engineer forGeneral Electric, from which he retired in 1991. He served as a minister to a wide range of churches.[1]
Fellure formally campaigned forPresident of the United States in everypresidential election since1988 as a member of theRepublican Party.[4] He asserted on his campaign web site that his platform based on theKing James Version of the Bible never changed.[5] As a candidate, he called for the elimination of theliquor industry,abortion, andpornography, and advocatesprayer in public schools[6] and criminalization ofhomosexuality.[4] He blamed the ills of society on those he characterized as "atheists,Marxists,liberals,queers,liars,draft dodgers,flag burners,dope addicts,sex perverts andanti-Christians."[7]
In1992, Fellure filed to run in theNew Hampshire,West Virginia andKansasRepublican primaries. By November 1991, he had spent $40,000 of his own money on the campaign, and he sent a King James Bible to theFederal Election Commission as a copy of his platform.[8] Regarding the 1611 English version of the Bible, he said:
God wrote it as the supreme document and final authority in the affairs of all men, nations and civilizations, for time and eternity ... It shall never be necessary to change it.[8]
Fellure received 36 votes in the New Hampshire primary and complained that PresidentGeorge H. W. Bush and commentatorPat Buchanan were receiving all the media attention.[9]
During the1996 presidential election while running for the Republican Party presidential nomination, he criticized former president George H. W. Bush as a man "responsible for inestimable damage toward the destruction of this sovereign democratic constitutional republic [who] continued to water the seeds of international, Satanic Marxism to the exclusion of our national sovereignty".[7] He added that PresidentBill Clinton "merely shifted into overdrive the socialistic, MarxistNew World Order agenda."[7] He appeared on the primary ballot inPuerto Rico and received 34 votes (0.01%).[10] In the general election, Fellure received one write-in vote inIdaho.[11]
Fellure again filed to run for president in2000,[12] but did not appear on any primary ballots. In2004, he challenged incumbent PresidentGeorge W. Bush for the Republican Party nomination. Fellure was the only candidate to appear alongside Bush in theNorth Dakota caucus, as he met theFederal Election Commission requirement of $5,000 in receipts. He received 14 of the 2,020 votes cast (about 0.7%),[13] and lost all 26 delegates to Bush.[14]
After another run in2008, Fellure initially ran for the Republican Party's 2012 presidential nomination.[12]
After failing to gain attention for his 2012 presidential campaign as a Republican, Fellure decided to seek the nomination of theProhibition Party at the party's national convention inCullman, Alabama.[15] Fellure was nominated for president on the second ballot,[16] beating out formerThompson Township tax assessor and longtime Prohibition Party activistJames Hedges ofPennsylvania. Party chairman Toby Davis was named as hisrunning mate.[4] The ticket appeared on the ballot only in Louisiana and received 518 votes on Election Day.[17]
In November 2012, Fellure filed with the FEC to run for theRepublican Party's 2016 presidential nomination. He was unsuccessful.[18] In November 2016, Fellure filed to run for the party's2020 presidential nomination, but failed to make the ballot in any state.[19]
In a 2021 interview, Fellure reflected on his many campaigns, and remarked, "I found that people either readily accept or totally reject the Word of God. There seems to be no middle ground."[3]
Fellure resided inHurricane, West Virginia, with his wife Jean, and was the father of seven children.[2] They attended anIndependent Fundamental Baptist church in Hurricane.[1] Fellure was also aKentucky Colonel.[20]
On July 31, 2022, Fellure died atSt. Mary’s Medical Center inHuntington, West Virginia, at the age of 90.[21]
| Party political offices | ||
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| Preceded by | Prohibition Party presidential nominee 2012 | Succeeded by |