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Brian T. Carroll

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This page was current at the end of the individual's last campaign covered by Ballotpedia. Please contact us with any updates.
Brian T. Carroll
Image of Brian T. Carroll

Independent, American Solidarity Party, Unaffiliated

Elections and appointments
Last election

November 3, 2020

Contact

Brian Carroll was an American Solidarity Party candidate for president of the United States in 2020. He lost in the general election on November 3, 2020.

Biography

Carroll's professional experience includes working as an educator. He earned a B.A. in history from UCLA and an M.F.A in creative writing from CSU Fresno.[1]

Carroll is affiliated with the American Solidarity Party of California.[1]

Elections

2020

Presidency

See also: Presidential candidates, 2020

Former Vice President Joe Biden (D) won the presidential election on November 3, 2020. Biden received 306 electoral votes and President Donald Trump (R) received 232 electoral votes. In the national popular vote, Biden received 81.2 million votes and Trump received 74.2 million votes.


Presidential election, 2020
 
Candidate/Running mate
%
Popular votes
Electoral votes
Image of
Image of
Joe Biden/Kamala D. Harris (D)
 
51.3
 
81,282,632 306
Image of
Image of
Donald Trump/Mike Pence (R)
 
46.9
 
74,223,234 232
Image of
Image of
Jo Jorgensen/Spike Cohen (L)
 
1.2
 
1,864,873 0
Image of
Image of
Howie Hawkins/Angela Nicole Walker (G)
 
0.3
 
402,795 0
Image of
Roque De La Fuente (multiple running mates) (Alliance Party)
 
0.1
 
88,214 0
Image of
Gloria La Riva (multiple running mates) (Party for Socialism and Liberation)
 
0.1
 
84,905 0
Image of
Image of
Ye/Michelle Tidball (Independent)
 
0.0
 
67,906 0
Image of
Image of
Don Blankenship/William Mohr (Constitution Party)
 
0.0
 
59,924 0
Image of
Image of
Brock Pierce/Karla Ballard (Independent)
 
0.0
 
49,764 0
Image of
Image of
Brian T. Carroll/Amar Patel (American Solidarity Party)
 
0.0
 
35,260 0
Image of
Image of
Alyson Kennedy/Malcolm Jarrett (Socialist Workers Party)
 
0.0
 
6,791 0
Image of
Image of
Bill Hammons/Eric Bodenstab (Unity Party)
 
0.0
 
6,647 0
Image of
Jade Simmons (multiple running mates) (Independent)
 
0.0
 
6,534 0
Image of
Silhouette Placeholder Image.png
Jerry Segal/John de Graaf (Bread and Roses)
 
0.0
 
5,949 0
Image of
Image of
Dario David Hunter/Dawn Neptune Adams (Progressive Party)
 
0.0
 
5,394 0
Image of
Silhouette Placeholder Image.png
Phil Collins/Billy Joe Parker (Prohibition Party)
 
0.0
 
4,844 0
Image of
Image of
Jesse Ventura/Cynthia McKinney (Green Party of Alaska)
 
0.0
 
3,284 0
Image of
Silhouette Placeholder Image.png
President Boddie/Eric Stoneham (C.U.P.)
 
0.0
 
3,171 0
Image of
Silhouette Placeholder Image.png
Joe McHugh/Elizabeth Storm (Independent)
 
0.0
 
2,843 0
Image of
Image of
Mark Charles/Adrian Wallace (Independent)
 
0.0
 
2,662 0
Image of
Sheila Tittle (multiple running mates) (Independent)
 
0.0
 
1,806 0
Image of
Image of
Connie Gammon/Phil Collins (Independent)
 
0.0
 
1,475 0
Image of
Silhouette Placeholder Image.png
J.R. Myers/Tiara Lusk (Life and Liberty)
 
0.0
 
1,372 0
Image of
Image of
Tom Hoefling/Andy Prior (Independent)
 
0.0
 
1,241 0
Image of
Silhouette Placeholder Image.png
H. Brooke Paige/Thomas Witman (Grumpy Old Patriots)
 
0.0
 
1,175 0
Image of
Image of
Christopher Lafontaine/Michael Speed (Independent)
 
0.0
 
856 0
Image of
Kyle Kenley Kopitke (multiple running mates) (Independent)
 
0.0
 
815 0
Image of
Silhouette Placeholder Image.png
Ricki Sue King/Dayna Chandler (Genealogy Know Your Family History Party)
 
0.0
 
546 0
Image of
Image of
Princess Khadijah Maryam Jacob-Fambro/Khadijah Maryam Jacob Sr. (Independent)
 
0.0
 
497 0
Image of
Image of
Blake Huber/Frank Atwood (Approval Voting Party)
 
0.0
 
409 0
Image of
Silhouette Placeholder Image.png
Joseph Kishore/Norissa Santa Cruz (Socialist Equality Party)
 
0.0
 
317 0
Image of
Silhouette Placeholder Image.png
Richard Duncan/Mitch Bupp (Independent)
 
0.0
 
213 0
Silhouette Placeholder Image.png
Silhouette Placeholder Image.png
Jordan Marc Scott/Jennifer Tepool (Independent)
 
0.0
 
175 0
Image of
Image of
Gary Swing/David Olszta (Boiling Frog)
 
0.0
 
141 0
Silhouette Placeholder Image.png
Silhouette Placeholder Image.png
Keith McCormic/Sam Blasiak (Bull Moose)
 
0.0
 
126 0
Silhouette Placeholder Image.png
Silhouette Placeholder Image.png
Zachary Scalf/Matthew Lyda (Independent)
 
0.0
 
29 0
  Other write-in votes
 
0.1
 
183,207 0

Total votes: 158,402,026

0 states have not been called.


2018

See also: California's 22nd Congressional District election, 2018

General election

General election for U.S. House California District 22

Incumbent Devin Nunes defeated Andrew Janz in the general election for U.S. House California District 22 on November 6, 2018.

Candidate
%
Votes
Image of Devin Nunes
Devin Nunes (R)
 
52.7
 
117,243
Image of Andrew Janz
Andrew Janz (D)
 
47.3
 
105,136

Total votes: 222,379
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.

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Nonpartisan primary election

Nonpartisan primary for U.S. House California District 22

The following candidates ran in the primary for U.S. House California District 22 on June 5, 2018.

Candidate
%
Votes
Image of Devin Nunes
Devin Nunes (R)
 
57.6
 
70,112
Image of Andrew Janz
Andrew Janz (D)
 
31.7
 
38,596
Image of Bobby Bliatout
Bobby Bliatout (D)
 
4.9
 
6,002
Image of Ricardo Franco
Ricardo Franco (D)
 
3.6
 
4,365
Image of Brian T. Carroll
Brian T. Carroll (Independent) Candidate Connection
 
1.3
 
1,591
Image of Bill Merryman
Bill Merryman (L)
 
0.9
 
1,137

Total votes: 121,803
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.

Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Campaign themes

2020

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Brian Carroll did not complete Ballotpedia's 2020 Candidate Connection survey.

2018

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's candidate surveys
Candidate Connection

Brian Carroll participated in Ballotpedia's candidate survey on May 30, 2018. The survey questions appear in bold, and Brian Carroll's responses follow below.[2]

What would be your top three priorities, if elected?

Climate protection, healthcare for all, and protection of life from conception to natural death[3][4]

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about? Why?

I view life issues broadly to protect not just the unborn and the elderly, but all of those in need of healthcare, regardless of economic status. It also includes protection of our climate, without which there is no life. I have spent 40 years as a classroom teacher, never knowing which of my students might be in the country without documents. In the farmlands around my little community, 80% to 90% of the field workers are estimated to be undocumented, yet these are the people who feed our country. We must find better policies to cover immigration. As a teacher, I also see how many of our educational practices are designed more to help technology and publishing companies sell their products than to serve our students, their families, and the communities where they will live as adults.Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; invalid names, e.g. too many[4]

Ballotpedia also asked the candidate a series of optional questions. Brian Carroll answered the following:

Who do you look up to? Whose example would you like to follow and why?

My early heroes were Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, who cultivated keen curiosities and had broad interests and education. They read widely and traveled extensively. I have tried to pattern my own life and education on his model.[4]
Is there a book, essay, film, or something else that best describes your political philosophy?
Not yet. I may need to write one.[4]
What characteristics or principles are most important for an elected official?
Availability and empathy[4]
What qualities do you possess that would make you a successful officeholder?
Sometimes honesty requires that a leader tell constituents truths they don't want to hear. Supervisors tell me that this is one of my strengths, telling unpleasant truths with a gentleness that helps make it acceptable. As a teacher, my job is to assess where a student is now, and judge where I would like to help them grow. A congressional district, or even our entire nation can be considered in the same light. Where are we? Where do we want to go? How do we get there?[4]
What do you believe are the core responsibilities for someone elected to this office?
A congressperson is the face of the district to the Federal government, and the face of the Federal government to the voters of the district. The Constitution designed Congress to be the portion of the government closest to the people.[4]
What legacy would you like to leave?
On a wide range of issues on which Congress has become very polarized, I would like to say that I helped the two sides begin constructive discussions over setting aside the partisanship and addressing the real problems. If we can begin solving problems, I don't care who gets credit. I don't need a publicly recognized legacy. I would rather have the private satisfaction that I made the country a better place for my grandchildren, and for all the children who have passed through my classes.[4]
What is the first historical event that happened in your lifetime that you remember? How old were you at that time?
I remember my uncle coming home from the Korean War, where he served in a submarine, when I was three. I also remember my dad and a different uncle arguing over Truman firing MacArther. That happened when I was only one, but they must still have been arguing about it a couple of years later.[4]
What was your very first job? How long did you have it?
I had a route selling eggs to the neighbors when I was seven. My cousin had chickens as a 4-H project, and I had six or eight regular customers, and made a profit of 10 cents a dozen.[4]
What happened on your most awkward date?
I took a girl from church to the Hollywood bowl to see the Mamas and the Papas and Jimi Hendrix. As the concert ended, she told me she had to be in by 11:00. There was no way. Then the car overheated and we ended up in a dark gas station in a bad part of town. My parents were out of town, and her dad had to come get us.[4]
What is your favorite holiday? Why?
Easter is central to my Christian faith. It's also a great time for family to get together, and school takes a week off, so I can get some of my Spring yard work done.[4]
What is your favorite book? Why?
I appreciate the Bible, because no matter how often I may have read a passage, there is always something new and fresh when I come to it again.[4]
If you could be any fictional character, who would you be?
I write fiction, and have an MFA in creative writing, but the characters I want to emulate come from history. It would be hard to find a fictional character more amazing than John Quincy Adams, who entered government service at age 13, served under George Washington, tutored Abraham Lincoln, authored the Monroe Doctrine, and went back to serve 18 years in Congress after his presidency. I am entering government service at 68, so I will have to settle for a very different trajectory, but there are some very impressive Congressmen who entered politics after other careers.[4]
What is your favorite thing in your home or apartment? Why?
That's a hard choice, but it's either a painting my daughter did for me her senior year of high school, or the recliner where I sleep at night because it's more comfortable than any bed, or it's the kitchen window looking out at my backyard, which I have planted to attract birds and butterflies.[4]
What was the last song that got stuck in your head?
My brother's old-timey band recorded a version of Bonaparte's Retreat that I often whistle or hum.[4]
What is something that has been a struggle in your life?
I battle stuff. I never have enough room to spread out the projects I have going, so they tend to stack upon top of each other.[4]
What qualities does the U.S. House of Representatives possess that makes it unique as an institution?
Many other countries have tried to copy our Congress/President system, but with less success than ours has provided. I don't think you can separate out one portion of that system and speak of it apart from the others, and I don't think our House has functioned recently as well as it ought to. Partly that is because our nation as a whole has become so polarized. Partly it is because of the importance money now plays in elections. Those are conditions we must work to overcome.[4]
Do you believe that it's beneficial for representatives to have previous experience in government or politics?
There must be a balance. With 435 members of Congress, we need some with legislative experience, but we also need doctors, teachers, policemen, farmers, etc., who can remind the experienced legislators that there is a world outside Washington.[4]
What do you perceive to be the United States’ greatest challenges as a nation over the next decade?
We must learn that the value of people, first, but aspects of our lives and institutions, as well, cannot always be measured quantitatively, and certainly not in dollar amounts.[4]
If you are not a current representative, are there certain committees that you would want to be a part of?
As an independent, I'm not sure how I can get onto the Climate Solutions Caucus, which requires two-by-two, one Republican and one Democrat joining at the same time, but I'll give it a try. I live in an agricultural district, and I'm an educator, so those are two obvious ones. I lived nine years in Latin America, so the Latin American subcommittee of the Foreign Relations committee would seem obvious.[4]
Do you believe that two years is the right term length for representatives?
Yes. The Constitution wisely established that the House could change quickly if the voters so chose, but the Senate would change more slowly.[4]
What are your thoughts on term limits?
Term limits would not be necessary if the system did not so strongly favor incumbents. We don't want a situation where the only veterans are the lobbyists who are telling the elected representatives what to do, but we must tilt the advantage back to where a challenger has a better chance of bumping the incumbent who is poorly representing his constituents..[4]
What process do you favor for redistricting?
I think California has come up with a good system. It should be adopted nation wide.[4]
If you are not currently a member of your party’s leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives, would you be interested in joining the leadership? If so, in what role?
I don't have career ambitions in the House. I want to serve my constituents by making friends and allies on both sides of the aisle, but as an independent, I am not going to be eligible for a leadership office.[4]
Both sitting representatives and candidates for office hear many personal stories from the residents of their district. Is there a story that you’ve heard that you found particularly touching, memorable, or impactful?
I am still in touch with many former students, some of whom signed up for DACA, trusting that the US government would not use that information against them. They are now attending universities, but afraid to even travel home for holidays, because they might get stopped and picked up. These are the kind of fine citizens we need to be cultivating, not deporting.[4]

Carroll provided the following description of his political philosophy to Ballotpedia:

I believe in a consistent or whole-life ethic, with means opposition to abortion, assisted suicide, and capital punishment; while favoring universal healthcare, action to protect our climate, pursuit of adequate supplies of clean water and air, immigration reforms and DACA student protections, and laws to make adoptions easier and less expensive.[1][4]
—Brian Carroll, 2018

Campaign website

The following campaign themes were found on Carroll's official campaign website.

Foreign Affairs
The primary foreign affairs tasks given to Congress are to supply funds and advice to the President, and to ask the hard questions. In our complex world, any corner can spin out of control on a moment’s notice, yet no candidate for any office can be an expert in the whole world. I would bring to Congress a generalist’s wide knowledge, gained over a lifetime of reading, travel, and international friendships.

Some of my experiences I attribute to dumb luck. I happened to be standing on a sidewalk Berlin, in 2000, when French President Jacques Chirac arrived to meet German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder. They shook hands all around, and then we all walked together under the Brandenburg Gate, a monumental moment that signified French acceptance of Berlin as Germany’s capital, 55 years after the end of World War II. In 1967, a high school teacher told me that Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie would be speaking at UCLA, and that it would be worth playing hooky for a day to go see him. I correctly guessed his exit route, and was standing within a few feet as he passed by. In Colombia, I was asked to host a dignitary, and I found myself over dinner, chatting with a senator who had served as a delegate to that country’s 1990 Constitutional Convention. On another occasion, I got to observe the election of a village headman among a slave-tribe in the Amazon.

Other background also comes from travel. In 2004, I taught a summer school English class in China, where my assignment was to get the students to talk, and talk about anything. They asked whether the US would ever fight a war with China over Taiwan. I remember their eyes getting big when I answered that no, if the US fought a war with China, it would be over the crazy guy in North Korea. In 1972, hiking near the Jordan River, I was stopped by an Israeli patrol wanting to know what I was doing there. After interrogating me and deciding I was harmless, they gave me a lift out to the main highway. Altogether, I have almost ten years in Latin America, either living in Colombia or visiting friends and family in Brazil. My five trips to Europe, Turkey, and Israel total about six months, and I have friends or family in England, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. Nine weeks in Asia have introduced me to six Chinese provinces and Uzbekistan. My experiences with Africa come vicariously. My aunt and uncle served in the Congo, doing community development during the turbulent early 1960s, and I maintain a lively Facebook friendship with the Maasai headmaster of an elementary school in Kenya, and other Africans.

I began voraciously reading biographies at age eight, and between ten and twelve I added the habit of reading the world and national sections of both the daily newspaper and a weekly newsmagazine. I majored in history at UCLA, researching and writing extensively about Chinese and Japanese immigration into Europe and the Americas. My teaching career has included both US, Latin American, and World History. I taught Comparative Democracy as a civics course to international students. I speak passable Spanish and have a fair reading knowledge of Portuguese.

As a generalist in a world of complexity and specialization, I can quickly be up to speed on an area of the world that spins out of control. There is no way to predict what foreign difficulties the United States might face in the future, and no way for anyone to be an expert on everything. However, I believe my background prepares me to combine on-the-ground experience with broad knowledge to a degree that few other congresspersons will be able to match.

War and Peace
In 1914, Woodrow Wilson ran as the “Peace” candidate, promising to keep the US out of World War I. In 1940, FDR campaigned on the promise to keep us out of World War II. LBJ demonized Barry Goldwater as a warmonger, before escalating the “police action” in Vietnam that eventually cost some 1,353,000 lives (Wikipedia, counting combatants on both sides and civilians). Barack Obama won a Nobel Peace Prize, but the US was bombing seven countries when he left the White House.

Self proclaimed “Peace” candidates have a very poor record, and I have no intention of making promises I won’t be able to keep. But these will be my intentions should I be elected to Congress:

· I will never vote to put a war on the nation’s credit card. If a situation is not sufficiently serious that one generation sees war as worth the price, it isn’t worth the price. Much of our national debt today stems from decisions by Presidents Bush and Obama—and the Congresses that accompanied them—to pass war debt to the next generation.

· I will never vote to give the President a War Powers blank check. LBJ abused the Tonkin Gulf Resolution and Presidents Bush and Obama have stretched whatever permission Congress gave them beyond recognition. Where, for example, has Congress given the President permission for our participation in the war in Yemen, where carpet-bombing has destroyed housing and infrastructure, subjecting some 7 million civilians to famine and 700,000 to cholera. What, for that matter, is the US national interest in Yemen? Are we primarily there because we sell munitions to the Saudis? The Constitution gives Congress the power-of-the-purse precisely to rein in an adventurous president.

· I will never vote to send American soldiers to a war for which we are not ready to care for the wounded and distraught soldiers who return. Too often, our wars seem designed to protect corporate interests, and our returning soldiers are treated as collateral damage. If we are not prepared to fund top quality veterans’ care and reentry programs, then we are not prepared to go to war.

· I will never vote for military spending that provides things the military hasn’t even asked for. I have seen examples of the military budget being padded with goodies to benefit favored Congressional districts. When the goal is to stimulate depressed economies, there are more efficient—and more honest—ways to do it.

· I will never vote for war without considering both the lives of the young Americans we are sending into harm’s way, and the lives of civilians on both sides who have increasingly become the victims of modern warfare.

Civil Rights
So many subtopics come under the general heading of civil rights. Twenty-five times during the last 40 years, I have taught through the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, Bill of Rights, and the Gettysburg Address, at either the junior high or high school level. I teach that much of this was less a description of what we were than an outline of what we wanted to become, and that we are not there yet. My purpose in teaching it to my students is that they would pick up the task and work to complete it. Until “All Men” are not just “Created Equal” in theory, but in day-to-day practice, we still have room to improve.

We have come a long way, just during my lifetime. As a child, I saw the news reports as President Eisenhower used the National Guard to walk American citizens to their rightful places in the neighborhood schools of Little Rock Arkansas. Our own state had legalized red-lining to keep minority home-buyers out of White neighborhoods. Poll taxes kept the poor from voting. We have managed to move many of the barriers from de jure violations of civil rights to de facto, but too many violations still exist. High rates of incarceration within minority communities, coupled with a system of private prisons, make me wonder if we have truly fulfilled the promise of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments. The protections of the 1st, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th and 14th Amendments are enjoyed by corporations at the same time that they fail to protect categories of natural persons, both born and pre-born. Just in the last three weeks, police shootings in both Tulare and Sacramento raise serious questions about how we train our officers, and the instructions we give them. I have families in my classroom, where one sibling is here legally and protected, while a brother or sister could be detained and deported on short notice. The list could go on. I don’t expect that we can ameliorate all of these civil rights issues in our lifetimes, but we must keep the goal ever in our sights.[4]

Carroll for Congress[5]


See also


External links

Footnotes

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 Information submitted on Ballotpedia’s biographical information submission form on January 29, 2018
  2. Note: The candidate's answers have been reproduced here verbatim without edits or corrections by Ballotpedia.
  3. Ballotpedia's candidate survey, "Brian Carroll's responses," May 30, 2018
  4. 4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 4.10 4.11 4.12 4.13 4.14 4.15 4.16 4.17 4.18 4.19 4.20 4.21 4.22 4.23 4.24 4.25 4.26 4.27 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
  5. Caroll for Congress, "Issues," accessed April 23, 2018


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