A novelty candidate is a person who runs for political office in an election as a form of satire or protest, without seriously expecting to win. Novelty candidates are similar to and sometimes synonymous with perennial candidates, but whereas perennial candidates sometimes run on substantive policy issues, novelty candidacies are typically run for satirical purposes.
Novelty candidates and parties are a staple of British general elections, as running for Parliament of the United Kingdom typically only requires a £500 deposit and 10 signatures from registered voters. Candidates may either be affiliated with a novelty party, run as independents, or create their own political party.
The oldest and most prominent novelty party is the Official Monster Raving Loony Party, founded in 1982. Notably, a handful of their policy proposals (such as pubs being allowed to stay open throughout the day) have actually been implemented.
Other examples include Lord Buckethead, "independent space warrior" Count Binface, the Elmo-costumed Bobby Smith, an AI chatbot, and a pub owner who listed his pub as a political party and himself as a candidate for advertising purposes. [1]
In 2024, the Icelandic glacier Snæfellsjökull was running in the Icelandic presidential election. [2] Icelandic law requires presidential candidates to be at least 35 years old, hold Icelandic citizenship, and have no criminal record. To meet these criteria and secure the glacier’s place on the nomination list, campaign founder Dr. Angela Rawlings legally changed her middle name to "Snæfellsjökull". [3] The unconventional candidacy drew international media attention, sparking debates on the political representation of nonhuman entities. [4] [5] [6]
On very rare occasions, novelty candidates may actually win the elections they run in. A famous example occurred in Hartlepool in 2002, when Stuart Drummond, standing as the local football club mascot H'Angus the Monkey, won the Hartlepool mayoral race and was subsequently re-elected. [7]
A write-in candidate is a candidate whose name does not appear on the ballot but seeks election by asking voters to cast a vote for the candidate by physically writing in the person's name on the ballot. Depending on electoral law it may be possible to win an election by winning a sufficient number of such write-in votes, which count equally as if the person were formally listed on the ballot.
Stuart Drummond is a British politician, who was the first and only directly elected mayor of Hartlepool in North East England. He was first elected in 2002, under the guise of H'Angus the Monkey, the town's football club's mascot, and was re-elected in 2005 and 2009. He was the first elected mayor in Britain to win a third term. He stood down when his term ended in May 2013 after the councillors and people of Hartlepool voted to abolish the mayoral system on 15 November 2012.
Snæfellsjökull is a 700,000-year-old glacier-capped stratovolcano in western Iceland. It is situated on the westernmost part of the Snæfellsnes peninsula. Sometimes it may be seen from the city of Reykjavík over Faxa Bay, at a distance of 120 km (75 mi).
HartlepoolHART-lih-pool is a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament by Jonathan Brash of the Labour Party from 2024. The constituency covers the town of Hartlepool plus nearby settlements.
A perennial candidate is a political candidate who frequently runs for elected office and rarely, if ever, wins. Perennial candidates are most common where there is no limit on the number of times that a person can run for office and little cost to register as a candidate.
"Monkey hanger" is a colloquial nickname by which people from the town of Hartlepool in the ceremonial county of County Durham, England are sometimes known.
H'Angus the Monkey is the official mascot of Hartlepool United. The name "H'Angus" is a pun of the word hang and the name Angus, and is derived from the monkey hanger legend of Hartlepool. The mascot made his debut on 31 October 1999, during Hartlepool's first round FA Cup victory over Millwall.
Non-human electoral candidates have been found in a number of countries. Often, the candidacies are a means of casting a protest vote or satirizing the political system. At other times it is simply done for entertainment value.
The Borough of Hartlepool is a unitary authority area with borough status in County Durham, England. Hartlepool Borough Council became a unitary authority in 1996; it is independent from Durham County Council. It is named after its largest settlement, Hartlepool, where the council is based. The borough also includes a rural area to the west of the town. The population of the borough at the 2021 census was 92,571, of which over 95% (87,995) lived in the built-up area of Hartlepool itself.
Howard Gresham Hawkins III is an American trade unionist, environmental activist, and perennial candidate from New York. A co-founder of the Green Party of the United States, Hawkins was the party's presidential nominee in the 2020 presidential election. His ideological platform includes enacting an eco-socialist version of the Green New Deal—which he first proposed in 2010—and building a viable, independent working-class political and social movement in opposition to the country's two major political parties, and capitalism in general.
Elections to Hartlepool Borough Council in the ceremonial county of County Durham in England were held on 2 May 2002. One third of the council was up for election and the council stayed under no overall control. At the same time an election took place for a directly elected mayor, which was won by independent candidate Stuart Drummond.
The Mayor of Hartlepool was the executive mayor of Hartlepool Borough Council in County Durham, England. Established in 2002 and abolished in 2013, all three terms of office were served by Stuart Drummond, who was first elected under the guise of H'Angus the Monkey, the town's football club's mascot.
Local elections were held in Manila on May 13, 2013, within the Philippine general election. The voters elected for the elective local posts in the city: the mayor, vice mayor, the six congressmen, and the councilors, six in each of the city's six legislative districts.
The 2016 United States Senate election in Nevada was held November 8, 2016 to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the State of Nevada, concurrently with the 2016 U.S. presidential election, as well as other elections to the United States Senate in other states and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections. The state primary election was held June 14, 2016.
The 2016 Oregon gubernatorial special election took place on November 8, 2016, to elect the Governor of Oregon, concurrently with the 2016 U.S. presidential election, as well as elections for the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives, other gubernatorial elections and various state and local elections.
Local elections were held in Cavite on May 9, 2016, as part of the 2016 general election. Voters will select candidates for all local positions: a town mayor, vice mayor and town councilors, as well as members of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan, the vice-governor, governor and representatives for the seven districts of Cavite. Originally, incumbent Governor Jonvic Remulla was set running for his final term under Partido Magdalo and supported by the Estrada-Binay-led United Nationalist Alliance along with Vice-Governor Jolo Revilla, however, he later dropped out and was replaced by his brother Jesus Crispin Remulla, who ran solo instead.
Candidates associated with the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries for the 2020 United States presidential election:
The 2024 United States Senate election in Utah was held on November 5, 2024, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the state of Utah. Republican congressman John Curtis and Democratic environmentalist Caroline Gleich are seeking their first term in office. The winner will succeed Republican incumbent Mitt Romney, who is not seeking a second term.
Henry F. Hewes is an American real estate developer and perennial candidate. Throughout his career, he ran for Mayor of New York City and for the U.S. Senate as the nominee of the Right to Life Party. He served on the presidential campaigns of numerous Republican politicians.