Robert Moulton Ely (born 1958) is an American entrepreneur and former investment banker. He challenged
President
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
* President (education), a leader of a college or university
* President (government title)
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Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...
in several
primaries
Primary elections, or direct primary are a voting process by which voters can indicate their preference for their party's candidate, or a candidate in general, in an upcoming general election, local election, or by-election. Depending on the c ...
for the
Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to:
*Democratic Party (United States)
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*Botswana Democratic Party
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's
2012
File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gat ...
presidential nomination, and
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...
for the
Republican Party's 2020 presidential nomination.
Early life
Ely was born in
Connecticut
Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its capita ...
in 1958 to Harriet and John Ingraham Ely. His mother, the daughter of the ''
New Haven Register
The ''New Haven Register'' is a daily newspaper published in New Haven, Connecticut. It is owned by Hearst Communications. The Register's main office is located at 100 Gando Drive in New Haven. The ''Register'' was established about 1812 and ...
'' and ''Journal Courier'' owner John Day Jackson, was also a newspaper owner. Ely's father was a lawyer and partner at the firm Wiggin & Dana.
Ely attended the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...
to study engineering, but transferred to
Yale University
Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...
, where he received a
Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...
in History in 1980.
He recounted that while at Yale, "my academic achievements and alcohol consumption would have embarrassed
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Career
After graduating from Yale, Ely moved to Chicago, Illinois. He was initially unemployed, but found work with Nuveen Investments. For an 18-year period as an investment banker, he also worked at Merrill Lynch
and served as managing director at
Dillon, Read & Co.,
which was later taken over by
UBS.
In 2000, Ely left the banking industry and became an entrepreneur and private investor.
That year, he worked as a consultant and acting president for SeafoodAlliance, LLC until 2001, when he founded the M&M Investors Firm with Michael C. Morton, and became interim CEO for PayDQ Services.
In 2010, Ely purchased the weekly community newspaper, ''The Canton Press-News Journal'' of
Canton, Missouri with partner Phil Calian. Ely remarked that he had wanted to buy such a publication for the previous three years due to the belief that "small newspapers – especially those who know how to embrace their community and provide relevant news and local information – have great futures."
2012 presidential campaign
![Bob Ely ad run in the New Hampshire Union Leader](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/29/Bob_Ely_ad_run_in_the_New_Hampshire_Union_Leader.jpg)
In 2011, Ely grew concerned about the economy and
national debt. Because he was "tired of bitching and moaning", he opened a campaign website titled "workmorekeepless.com" and filed with the
Federal Election Commission
The Federal Election Commission (FEC) is an independent regulatory agency of the United States whose purpose is to enforce campaign finance law in United States federal elections. Created in 1974 through amendments to the Federal Election Cam ...
to run for president as a Democrat, reasoning that "if
ongresswomanMichele Bachmann
Michele Marie Bachmann (; née Amble; born April 6, 1956) is an American politician who was the United States House of Representatives, U.S. representative for from 2007 until 2015. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican ...
can run for president, I can, too."
On his website, he expressed support for spending cuts and higher taxes and promoted a "jobs bank" to allow businesses to create new positions and hire new employees, who would then receive a
minimum wage salary from the government in lieu of
unemployment benefits
Unemployment benefits, also called unemployment insurance, unemployment payment, unemployment compensation, or simply unemployment, are payments made by authorized bodies to unemployed people. In the United States, benefits are funded by a comp ...
.
He lists "two dozen good reasons not to vote for me" on the site,
and refers to himself as a "jerk", explaining that he has such an attitude "because I am angry, scared and fed up with what passes for political discourse and leadership in this country."
In a later interview with ''
Wikinews
Wikinews is a free-content news wiki and a project of the Wikimedia Foundation that works through collaborative journalism. Wikipedia cofounder Jimmy Wales has distinguished Wikinews from Wikipedia by saying, "On Wikinews, each story is to be ...
'', Ely remarked that the intent of the website was to combine "humor, some outrageousness and a cogent 'platform'
omake me a safe protest vote."
Ely filed for the January 2012
New Hampshire Democratic primary in 2011. To spread his message, he bought space in local newspapers and sent out 145,000 mailers to homes throughout New Hampshire, asking, "Are you pissed-off enough to vote for a jerk?" For the primary, he told ''
The Portsmouth Herald
''The Portsmouth Herald'' (and ''Seacoast Weekend'') is a six-day daily newspaper serving greater Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Its coverage area also includes the municipalities of Greenland, New Castle, Newington and Rye, New Hampshire; and Eli ...
'' that he had spent $200,000 of his own money,
including the $1,000 filing fee. Among the field of 14 candidates on the ballot, Ely finished seventh with 287 votes for 0.47 percent of the total. In additional primaries, his numbers steadily improved. At the March 6 Oklahoma primary, for which he paid $2,500 to appear, he finished in fifth place with 5,318 votes for 4.72 percent. At the March 24 Louisiana primary, whose filing fee was $1,125, he came in third, behind only Obama and attorney
John Wolfe, Jr., and won 9,897 votes for 6.57 percent. After this, his strongest showing, Ely sent out a letter, later published by ''
Politico
''Politico'' (stylized in all caps), known originally as ''The Politico'', is an American, German-owned political journalism newspaper company based in Arlington County, Virginia, that covers politics and policy in the United States and intern ...
'', which explained that in Louisiana without buying any advertisements or campaigning, he was able to win 120 voting precincts and out-paced President Obama in 457 precincts. He speculated that "most
f the votescame from those who concluded 'I’ve never heard of this guy so he can’t be any worse than the rest of these clowns.' It seems a strange indictment of our political establishment that obscurity becomes an asset."
After prison inmate
Keith Judd
Keith Russell Judd (born May 23, 1958) is an American convicted criminal and perennial candidate for political office. His nicknames include "Dark Priest"Dana MilbankRichard Mourdock and Keith Judd vs. Washington ''The Washington Post'', May 11, ...
won 41 percent against President Obama in the
West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the B ...
Democratic primary, Ely was featured in a ''
Politico
''Politico'' (stylized in all caps), known originally as ''The Politico'', is an American, German-owned political journalism newspaper company based in Arlington County, Virginia, that covers politics and policy in the United States and intern ...
'' article as "an aspiring Keith Judd". He paid $2,500 to appear on the May 29 Texas primary ballot, and was listed alongside Obama, Wolfe, and historian Darcy Richardson. A contributor to ''The Hays Free Press'' of
Hays County, Texas
Hays County is located on the Edwards Plateau in the U.S. state of Texas. Hays County is part of the Austin-Round Rock metropolitan area. As of the 2020 census, its official population had reached 241,067. The county seat is San Marcos. Ha ...
speculated that some Texas Democrats may vote for Ely, "on the hopes he is kin to
Joe Ely, who belts out good songs on the radio." Ely won about 2.4 percent of the vote in Texas and received a plurality in
King
King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king.
*In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...
and
Loving counties.
2020 campaign
In November 2019, Ely got on the ballot in several states for the 2020 presidential primary, running as a Republican. In the
2020 New Hampshire Republican primary
The 2020 New Hampshire Republican presidential primary took place on Tuesday, February 11, 2020, as the second nominating contest in the 2020 Republican Party presidential primaries, Republican Party presidential primaries for the 2020 United Sta ...
, Ely received 65 total votes.
Personal life
In 1983, Ely married freelance illustrator Alice Fairchild Moulton, and both assumed the last name Moulton-Ely.
References
External links
Campaign websiteFEC filing
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ely, Bob
1958 births
Living people
American investment bankers
American newspaper publishers (people)
Businesspeople from Illinois
Illinois Democrats
Candidates in the 2012 United States presidential election
21st-century American politicians
Yale College alumni