The 2016 presidential campaign of Darrell Castle, lawyer and 2008 Vice Presidential nominee of the Constitution Party began on the eve of the

Constitution Party National Convention The Constitution Party National Convention is held by the United States Constitution Party every two to four years. , there have been eight. National conventions 1992 convention *The first national convention of the party, then known as the U.S. ...

in April 2016. On April 16, the Constitution Party nominated Castle on the first ballot after he won 184 votes out of the 339.5 cast to win the nomination with 54.19%. His running mate, Scott Bradley, was nominated by voice vote. In his acceptance speech, Castle stated that he wanted to speak to the American public, Six days after the Convention, he formally 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 ...

(FEC). The Constitution Party of

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyomi ...

nominated Scott Copeland of

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

for President and J.R. Myers of

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S. ...

for Vice President in 2016 instead of Castle and Bradley, who were put on the ballot with no party affiliation. The Copeland-Myers ticket received 2,381 votes in Idaho to 4,403 votes cast for Castle. On Election Day, Castle finished with 172,570 votes to finish in 6th place, with just under 300,000 votes less than

Evan McMullin David Evan McMullin (born April 2, 1976) is an American politician and former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer. McMullin ran as an independent in the 2016 United States presidential election and in the 2022 United States Senate electio ...

's campaign. They did however gain 50,000 more votes than the previous Constitution Party ticket (Goode/Clymer) four years prior, with their 0.15% being better than the previous campaign's 0.09% of the vote.

Background

Castle was a commissioned officer in the U.S. Marine Corps for four years and operator of the law firm Darrell Castle and Associates since 1984. Darrell Castle has held many positions in the Constitution Party such as Vice-Chairman and the Chairman of the Platform Committee. In the 2008 election Darrell Castle was selected as the vice-presidential (VP) nominee on the

Chuck Baldwin Charles Obadiah Baldwin (born May 3, 1952) is an American right-wing politician, radio host, and founder-former pastor of Crossroad Baptist Church in Pensacola, Florida. As of January 2011 he was pastor of Liberty Fellowship in Kalispell, Mon ...

campaign Campaign or The Campaign may refer to: Types of campaigns * Campaign, in agriculture, the period during which sugar beets are harvested and processed *Advertising campaign, a series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme * Bl ...

in 2008 after winning the Vice-Presidential vote by 75.8%. After losing the Constitution Party nomination to

Virgil Goode Virgil Hamlin Goode Jr. (born October 17, 1946) is an American politician who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from 5th congressional district of Virginia between 1997 and 2009. He was initially a Democrat, but b ...

four years later and receiving only 30% of the votes, Castle became the nominee the following cycle. Castle is the second VP nominee from the Party to later run as the Presidential nominee, the first since 2008.

Ballot access

The campaign has ballot access in Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada (as the Independent American Party of Nevada), New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming, with write-in status in Alabama, Delaware, Georgia, Indiana, Maine, New Hampshire, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, Texas, and Vermont. The campaign is attempting to gain write-in status in Arizona, California, Connecticut, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Montana, Nebraska, New York, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia.

Campaign funds

From April 1 to June 30, the campaign had $0 in federal funds, $3,778 in Itemized Individual Contributions, $4,012 in Unitemized Individual Contributions for a total of $7,789, with $2,500 in Candidate Loans for a total of $10,289 in receipts. In Disbursements, the Operating Expenditures totaled up to $7,313.

Political positions

The campaign's main objective is to adhere to the United States Constitution, citing it as a "charter of liberty for the American Republic". Castle advocates for the end of the

Federal Reserve The Federal Reserve System (often shortened to the Federal Reserve, or simply the Fed) is the central banking system of the United States of America. It was created on December 23, 1913, with the enactment of the Federal Reserve Act, after a ...

by repealing the

Federal Reserve Act The Federal Reserve Act was passed by the 63rd United States Congress and signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson on December 23, 1913. The law created the Federal Reserve System, the central banking system of the United States. The Pani ...

and letting lenders and borrowers set interest rates instead, adding that banks would no longer depend on the Reserve to lend them money in an emergency. He also advocates the U.S. Treasury to accept any major currency such as bitcoin and

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile me ...

. Castle believes in the United States withdrawing from the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...

in order to regain sovereignty, freedom, and independence, citing the U.N. as a "church of unbelieving humanism" that is in "direct opposition to the ideas of America" and "an affront to liberty and human dignity". He also supports getting out of

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

, North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA),

Trans-Pacific Partnership The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), or Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, was a highly contested proposed trade agreement between 12 Pacific Rim economies, Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Sin ...

(TPP),

Dominican Republic–Central America Free Trade Agreement :''Note: Within this article, "CAFTA" refers to the agreement as it stood before January 2004, and "CAFTA-DR" is used after that.'' The Dominican Republic-Central America-United States Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR; Spanish: ''Tratado de Libre ...

(CAFTA-DR), General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), and the

World Trade Organization The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization that regulates and facilitates international trade. With effective cooperation in the United Nations System, governments use the organization to establish, revise, and ...

(WTO). Castle asserted that he is the only candidate in any party to be 100% opposed to abortion rights, stating that unborn persons have rights to live in part due to the 5th Amendment and 14th Amendment. He supports vetoing any attempt to spend money to fund Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers along with taking away the power of the Supreme Court to preside over the matter via recommendation and collaboration with

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

. Like the party's platform, the campaign is opposed to gun control of any kind. They also oppose any attempt to go to war without a declaration of war by Congress under Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution. The platform also rejects letting women train or participate in combat due to the practices of dual qualification standards and forced integration undermining the "integrity, morale, performance" of the military organizations. Citing the 10th Amendment, the campaign supports the right of parents to provide for the education of their children, opposing any federal involvement in education. Castle advocates for the replacement of the current tax system with a "tariff based revenue system supplemented by excise taxes", along with repealing the 16th Amendment and abolishing the Internal Revenue Service. Citing

James Madison James Madison Jr. (March 16, 1751June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, diplomat, and Founding Father. He served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Madison is hailed as the "Father of the Constitution" for h ...

, the platform and campaign favor a moratorium on immigration to the United States until proper security procedures and the discontinuation of all federal subsidies and assistance, except under extreme circumstances. They also reject giving citizenship to children of immigrants born in the country, extension of amnesty and bilingual ballots along with supporting English as the official language for all government business.

Polling

Statewide

Nevada

Five-way race

South Dakota

Four-way race

Utah

Six-way race

Endorsements

;People *

, 2008 Constitution Party Presidential Candidate *Matthew Carr, writer at Liberty Hangout *Sam Bushman, The host of Liberty Roundtable *Dan Phillips MD, Professor of Psychiatry *Rebecca Kiessling, International Pro-Life Speaker ;Organizations *

Georgia Right to Life Georgia Right to Life (GRTL) is a 501(c)(4) anti abortion organization that is non-profit, non-partisan, and non-sectarian. It was incorporated in 1971 by Jay and Cheryl Bowman. In 1973, it became the state affiliate of the Washington, D.C.-based ...

, An anti-abortion Political Action Committee

References

External links

Official campaign site

Constitution Party site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Darrell Castle presidential campaign, 2016 Castle, Darrell Castle, Darrell Constitution Party (United States)