During the 2018 midterm elections, Dennis Hof, a Nevada reality TV personality, brothel owner, and author of the book The Art of the Pimp, ran for a seat in the Nevada state legislature and easily won it. There was only one problem: Hof had died. He passed away only three weeks before the election.
While Hof's circumstance was unusual, it wasn't exceptional. Here are a few more examples of persons who were able to win elections despite their death.
Jenny Oropeza from California.
Jenny Oropeza, a California state senator, was re-elected in the 2010 midterm elections despite having died two weeks prior from complications induced by a blood clot. Despite being primarily absent on the campaign trail due to sickness, the incumbent won by a margin of 58% to 36%.
Patsy Mink from Hawaii.
Patsy Mink was a pioneering politician who represented the state of Hawaii in the United States House of Representatives for 12 terms. Mink returned to the United States House of Representatives in 1990 after serving in President Carter's cabinet and on the Honolulu City Council. She served until she died of illness weeks before election day in 2002.
A few weeks after having a state funeral, Mink was honoured once more when Hawaii voters re-elected her to Congress—a position that was reassigned a few months later following a special election.
Harry Stonebraker from Missouri
Missouri voters did it again in 2009, when the town of Winfield's recently dead incumbent mayor Harry Stonebraker won a fourth term with a whopping 90% of the vote. According to the New York Daily News, Stonebraker's death from a heart attack appeared to strengthen his already high popularity.
Stonebraker's opponent, a local alderman called Bernie Panther, was unable to persuade voters that he was a better choice than their late hero, receiving just 23 votes in total.
Carl Geary from Tennessee.
In early 2010, residents in the small town of Tracy City, Tennessee, gave Carl Geary a landslide victory in the city's mayoral campaign, defeating incumbent Barbara Brock with more than 70% of the vote. Geary couldn't accept, of course, since he died of a heart attack a month before the election.
Geary's triumph appeared to some voters to be an homage, but others saw it as a lesser-of-two-evils choice. Geary's wife Susan is mentioned in a Telegraph piece about the vote as stating, "The day he passed away, people were calling with condolences and saying, 'We're still voting for him.'"
Mel Carnahan from Missouri.
Missouri Governor Mel Carnahan notably won election to the Missouri Senate in 2000, 38 days after dying in an aircraft crash that also killed his son and a campaign adviser. Carnahan defeated incumbent Senator John Ashcroft, who later became President George W. Bush's Attorney General. Carnahan's wife, Jean, occupied his Senate seat until a special election in 2002.
Anthony DeLuca from Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania state representative Anthony DeLuca received an amazing 85% of the vote in the state's 2022 midterm elections. Unfortunately, he had died from cancer the month before. However, Pennsylvania kept him in the race since the state has a statute that prohibits alternative candidates from being submitted once ballots have begun printing. "While we are very grieved by the passing of Representative Tony DeLuca, we are pleased to see people continue to place their trust in him and his devotion to Democratic ideals by re-electing him posthumously. "A special election will be held soon," the Pennsylvania House Democrats said on X.
I know these are only 6 and I told you to talk about 7 of these dead politicians in the thumbnail, so, sorry for that, it's only 6, thank you for reading.
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