Jack Fellure

{{Infobox officeholder

|birthname = Lowell Jackson Fellure

|image = Jack Fellure.jpg

|image_size =

|caption = Fellure in 2011

| birth_date = {{birth date|1931|10|03}}

| birth_place = Midkiff, West Virginia, U.S.

| death_date = {{death date and age|2022|7|31|1931|10|03}}

| death_place = Huntington, West Virginia, U.S.

|party = Republican
(before 2011, 2012–2022) Prohibition
(2011–2012)

|known_for = Prohibition Party presidential nominee, 2012

|occupation = Perennial candidate
Retired engineer

|nationality =

|spouse = Jean

|children = 7

|signature = Jack Fellure signature.png

}}

Lowell Jackson Fellure (October 3, 1931 – July 31, 2022) was an American perennial political candidate and engineer. He was the presidential nominee of the Prohibition Party for the 2012 presidential election.

Early life and career

Fellure was born in Midkiff, West Virginia, in 1931, to Ellis Elwin and Bessie Jean Fellure.{{cite web|url=http://www.prohibitionists.org/history/votes/Rev_Jack_Fellure_bio.html|title=Rev. Jack Fellure (Candidate for president, 2012)|publisher=Prohibition Party|accessdate=February 9, 2022}}{{cite web|url=http://votesmart.org/candidate/biography/15717/lowell-jackson-fellure#.VaWF__lVhBc|title=Lowell Jackson 'Jack' Fellure - Biography|date=1992–2015|work=Project Vote Smart|access-date=July 14, 2015}} He attended grade school in nearby Salt Rock, graduating from Barboursville High School in 1949. Fellure then enrolled at Marshall College (now Marshall University), and upon graduation became a teacher.{{cite news|url=https://www.herald-dispatch.com/news/putnam_news/hurricane-resident-reflects-on-90-years-of-life/article_60c9d990-b64d-5499-b6f2-708bd40f5926.html|title=Hurricane resident reflects on 90 years of life|newspaper=The Putnam Herald|last=Skolny|first=Elizabeth|date=July 21, 2021|accessdate=February 9, 2022}}

In his professional life, Fellure worked a variety of jobs, culminating in a position as a field engineer for General Electric, from which he retired in 1991. He served as a minister to a wide range of churches.

Campaigns

Fellure formally campaigned for President of the United States in every presidential election since 1988 as a member of the Republican Party.{{Cite news |date=June 23, 2011 |title=Prohibition Party holds convention; nominates Jack Fellure for U.S. President |url=http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Prohibition_Party_holds_convention;_nominates_Jack_Fellure_for_U.S._President |access-date=2011-06-24 |newspaper=Wikinews}} He asserted on his campaign web site that his platform based on the King James Version of the Bible never changed.{{Cite web |title=Jack Fellure 2012 - The Sword of 1611 |url=http://swordof1611.webs.com/jackfellure2012.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121028094840/http://swordof1611.webs.com/jackfellure2012.htm |archive-date=2012-10-28 |access-date=2011-06-24 |website=Sword of 1611}} As a candidate, he called for the elimination of the liquor industry, abortion, and pornography, and advocates prayer in public schools{{Cite news |last=Bollier |first=Sam |date=January 9, 2012 |title=The 'other' political parties of the US |work=Al Jazeera English |url=http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2012/01/201217135317220259.html |access-date=2015-07-03}} and criminalization of homosexuality. He blamed the ills of society on those he characterized as "atheists, Marxists, liberals, queers, liars, draft dodgers, flag burners, dope addicts, sex perverts and anti-Christians."

File:Jack_Fellure_1992_Presidential_Campaign.jpg

In 1992, Fellure filed to run in the New Hampshire, West Virginia and Kansas Republican primaries. By November 1991, he had spent $40,000 of his own money on the campaign, and he sent a King James Bible to the Federal Election Commission as a copy of his platform.{{Cite web |last=Pollack |first=Neal |date=November 6, 1991 |title=The Not-so-Front-Runners |url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/1991/11/06/the-not-so-front-runners/ |access-date=2011-06-26 |website=The Baltimore Sun |archive-date=2012-09-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120927183806/http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1991-11-06/news/1991310107_1_federal-election-commission-campaign-documents-elect-a-woman |url-status=live }} 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.

Fellure received 36 votes in the New Hampshire primary and complained that President George H. W. Bush and commentator Pat Buchanan were receiving all the media attention.{{Cite news |date=February 21, 1992 |title=West Virginia man garners 36 votes in N.H. primary |work=Williamson Daily News |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=YpxDAAAAIBAJ&pg=2998,2672235&dq=jack-fellure&hl=en |access-date=2011-06-24}}

During the 1996 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". He added that President Bill Clinton "merely shifted into overdrive the socialistic, Marxist New World Order agenda."{{Cite news |last=Ivins |first=Molly |author-link=Molly Ivins |date=January 6, 1996 |title=Too Much Government made lives better |work=Star-News |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=8qssAAAAIBAJ&pg=2566,1755795&dq=jack-fellure&hl=en |access-date=2011-06-24}} He appeared on the primary ballot in Puerto Rico and received 34 votes (0.01%).{{Cite web |title=Federal Elections 96: Presidential Primary Election Results |url=http://www.fec.gov/pubrec/fe1996/presprim.htm |access-date=2016-01-31 |website=FEC}} In the general election, Fellure received one write-in vote in Idaho.{{Cite web |last=Bickford |first=Robert |date=October 7, 1998 |title=1996 -- Presidential Votes by State |url=http://www.ballot-access.org/1996/allvotes96.html |access-date=2011-06-24 |website=Ballot Access News |publisher=Robert Bickford}}

Fellure again filed to run for president in 2000, but did not appear on any primary ballots. In 2004, he challenged incumbent President George W. Bush for the Republican Party nomination. Fellure was the only candidate to appear alongside Bush in the North Dakota caucus, as he met the Federal Election Commission requirement of $5,000 in receipts. He received 14 of the 2,020 votes cast (about 0.7%),{{Cite news |date=February 5, 2004 |title=Bush big winner in North Dakota |work=The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead |url=http://www.inforum.com/content/bush-big-winner-north-dakota |access-date=2015-06-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924034914/https://www.inforum.com/content/bush-big-winner-north-dakota |archive-date=2015-09-24 |url-status=live }} and lost all 26 delegates to Bush.{{Cite web |last=Winter |first=Deena |date=February 3, 2004 |title=Democrats happy with N.D. turnout |url=http://www.bismarcktribune.com/news/local/article_7ad67944-50c4-5b82-bcca-0a15a8f0aefa.html |access-date=2011-06-24 |website=The Bismarck Tribune}}

=2012 campaign=

{{wikinews|Prohibition Party holds convention; nominates Jack Fellure for U.S. President}}

After another run in 2008, Fellure initially ran for the Republican Party's 2012 presidential nomination.{{Cite web |title=Reports Image Index for Candidate ID: P20000089 |url=http://images.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/fecimg/?P20000089 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150714014127/http://images.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/fecimg/?P20000089 |archive-date=2015-07-14 |access-date=2011-06-24 |website=Federal Election Commission}}

After failing to gain attention for his 2012 presidential campaign as a Republican, Fellure decided to seek the nomination of the Prohibition Party at the party's national convention in Cullman, Alabama.{{Cite web |last=Bullard |first=Benjamin |date=June 23, 2011 |title=Prohibition Party meets in Cullman |url=http://www.cullmantimes.com/local/x603690793/Prohibition-Party-meets-in-Cullman |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120525203338/http://www.cullmantimes.com/local/x603690793/Prohibition-Party-meets-in-Cullman |archive-date=25 May 2012 |access-date=24 June 2011 |website=The Cullman Times}} Fellure was nominated for president on the second ballot,{{Cite web |date=June 22, 2011 |title=Prohibition Party Nomines Jack Fellure for President |url=http://www.ballot-access.org/2011/06/22/prohibition-party-nomines-jack-fellure-for-president/ |access-date=2011-06-22 |website=Ballot Access News |publisher=Richard Winger}} beating out former Thompson Township tax assessor and longtime Prohibition Party activist James Hedges of Pennsylvania. Party chairman Toby Davis was named as his running mate. The ticket appeared on the ballot only in Louisiana and received 518 votes on Election Day.{{Cite web |date=January 17, 2013 |title=Official 2012 Presidential General Election Results |url=http://www.fec.gov/pubrec/fe2012/2012presgeresults.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140731191620/http://www.fec.gov/pubrec/fe2012/2012presgeresults.pdf |archive-date=July 31, 2014 |access-date=2013-06-23 |website=FEC}}

=Return to Republican Party=

In November 2012, Fellure filed with the FEC to run for the Republican Party's 2016 presidential nomination. He was unsuccessful.{{Cite web |date=November 7, 2012 |title=Jack Fellure 2016 FEC Statement of Candidacy |url=http://images.nictusa.com/pdf/633/12030944633/12030944633.pdf#navpanes=0 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150720225745/http://images.nictusa.com/pdf/633/12030944633/12030944633.pdf |archive-date=July 20, 2015 |access-date=2013-12-28 |website=Federal Election Commission}} In November 2016, Fellure filed to run for the party's 2020 presidential nomination, but failed to make the ballot in any state.http://docquery.fec.gov/pdf/838/201611070300117838/201611070300117838.pdf {{Bare URL PDF|date=March 2022}}

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."

Personal life

Fellure resided in Hurricane, West Virginia, with his wife Jean, and was the father of seven children. They attended an Independent Fundamental Baptist church in Hurricane. Fellure was also a Kentucky Colonel.{{Cite web |date=2022-08-10 |title=Lowell Jackson Fellure |url=https://www.herald-dispatch.com/obituaries/wv/lowell-jackson-fellure/article_718f08a4-41ca-5614-9e2b-5b12a32fb790.html |access-date=2023-09-29 |website=The Herald-Dispatch |language=en}}

On July 31, 2022, Fellure died at St. Mary’s Medical Center in Huntington, West Virginia, at the age of 90.{{cite news|title=Lowell Jackson Fellure|url= https://www.herald-dispatch.com/obituaries/wv/lowell-jackson-fellure/article_718f08a4-41ca-5614-9e2b-5b12a32fb790.html|access-date=11 August 2022|work= The Herald-Dispatch|date=10 August 2022}}

References

External links

[https://web.archive.org/web/20121028094840/http://swordof1611.webs.com/jackfellure2012.htm Unofficial Campaign website (archived)]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20150714014127/http://images.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/fecimg/?P20000089 FEC filing]

{{succession box|

before=Gene Amondson|

title=Prohibition Party presidential nominee|

years=2012|

after=James Hedges

}}