A Philly Guy Got 22 Votes for President in New Hampshire

Ed O'Donnell, who has run for president — in New Hampshire — for the last 32 years, finished in 18th place yesterday in the Democratic primary.

Ed O'Donnell for president

Photo | Dan McQuade

Last month, Philadelphia magazine talked with Ed O’Donnell, a Philadelphia man who was running for the Democratic presidential nomination. He was only on the ballot in New Hampshire – and he really considered himself not affiliated with any party — but he was going for it, visiting the state late in 2015 to stump for votes.

Last night, Bernie Sanders got 60 percent of the vote. Hillary Clinton got 38 percent. And part of that missing 2 percent went to O’Donnell: He received 22 votes for the Democratic presidential nomination.

The perennial candidate finished between James Valentine (25 votes) and Robert Lovitt (21 votes). He beat 10 other candidates, including Sam Sloan — a chess player and writer who has a long Wikipedia page.

O’Donnell, who said last month he was campaigning on a platform that included ending unemployment by hiring people to hand out fliers for small businesses, has been running for president for 34 years — pretty much half his life. He takes advantage of the New Hampshire election law that allows anyone to get their names on the ballot as long as they affirm they’re eligible to be president and pay the $1,000 filing fee.

“While he can forgive politicians for all their nefarious plots against him to prevent him from bringing the message of Christmas (Christianity) to the world as the first third-party president of the United States, he cannot and will not tolerate distortions of his sports career!!” O’Donnell wrote in a release announcing his candidacy. “But he can forgive such distortions if those who make them correct the record in full and pay restitution to him in the form of free tickets to University of Virginia sports events and Phillies games.”

No word yet on those free tickets. But come 2020, we’ll probably be seeing O’Donnell’s name on the ballot once again. Hey, somebody from Philly should run for president. Why not this guy?

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