Cap Fending, a former County Commissioner and 2008 Republican presidential candidate, lost his bid for State House on Tuesday.
Cap Fendig and Ray McKinney, both of Georgia, briefly sought the Republican presidential nomination in 2008. And both long-shots were back on the ballot this week, appearing in races for a Congressional seat and a State House seat in Georgia.
McKinney is a mechanical engineer from Savannah. The high point of his bid for the White House came on September 1, 2007, in Fort Worth, Texas. The candidate and his mother attended the Texas Republican Straw Poll and offered complimentary blood pressure checks at a booth to delegates. McKinney also spoke to the delegates, along with Congressman Duncan Hunter, businessman Jon Cox and Congressman Ron Paul.
In the end, McKinney won the votes of 28 delegates, or 2.2%, putting him ahead of eventual nominee John McCain and Kansas Senator Sam Brownback.
He continued to campaign for several months in late 2007, but cut short his bid to instead seek the Congressional seat representing Georgia’s 12th District. On July 15, 2008, McKinney lost the primary to John Stone, who was ultimately defeated by the Democratic incumbent in November.
This week, McKinney took another shot at the same seat.
Propelled by support from the Tea Party Express and other activists from around the country, he finished first in a four-way primary with 42.6% of the vote. He’ll now advance to a run-off election and compete head-to-head for the right to challenge potentially vulnerable Democratic Congressman John Barrow.
While McKinney’s presidential bid never really got off the ground, he exited weeks before the Iowa caucus, Cap Fendig’s campaign for President was a monumental disaster. The Glynn County Commissioner, possessing more years of elected experience than several of the top contenders, headed off to travel Iowa and New Hampshire on his own dime in late 2007, and he even paid a $25,000 fee to secure a spot on the South Carolina ballot. According to the Florida Times-Union, Fendig had sold off his business to finance his campaign and kept only his St. Simons home.
When it came time to count votes, Fendig finished dead last everywhere. No votes were counted for him in the Iowa caucus, he polled only 13 votes in New Hampshire, and then another 23 votes in South Carolina.
This week, Fendig finished a close third in the GOP primary for a seat in the State House, narrowly missing a spot in the run-off and winning 25.3% of the vote.
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