Darrell Castle 2016 presidential campaign

Castle 2016
Campaign	2016 United States presidential election
Candidate	Darrell Castle Lawyer Scott Bradley University Administrator
Affiliation	Constitution Party
Headquarters	Germantown, Tennessee
Receipts	US$72,264 [1]
Slogan	Preserve Protect Defend The Constitution
Website
castle2016.com

The 2016 presidential campaign of Darrell Castle of the Constitution Party began on the eve of the Constitution Party National Convention in April 2016.^[2] 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.^[3]

In his acceptance speech, Castle stated;

Today I want to speak to you in defense of liberty and against tyranny. I speak for the republic and against the fascism that seems to be enveloping us. The general government was created by the sovereign states for a specific purpose; that purpose was to protect our God-given rights. Anything that runs afoul of that purpose is therefore illegal and unconstitutional. And since virtually everything this government does runs afoul of that purpose, virtually everything it does is illegal and unconstitutional.^[4]

Six days after the Convention, he formally filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC).

The Constitution Party of Idaho nominated Scott Copeland of Texas for President and J.R. Myers of Alaska 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.^[5][6]

On Election Day, Castle finished with 172,570 votes to finish in 6th place, with just under 300,000 votes less than Evan McMullin'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.^[7]