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A little levity amongst the madness: Gracie Allen ran for president in 1940.
She ran as the nominee of the Surprise Party, toured the country, was invited by Eleanor Roosevelt to speak at the Women's National Press Club, and received a few thousand write-in votes.
Gracie Allen was a comedian known for hosting a wildly popular radio show alongside her cigar-chomping husband, George Burns. During the 1940 presidential election, the couple staged a now-legendary publicity stunt by throwing Gracie’s hat in the ring as the nominee of the tongue-in-cheek “Surprise Party,” which featured a kangaroo as its mascot and the slogan “It’s in the bag.”
Allen toured the country on a whistle-stop tour, and fans flocked to hear her quips on the national debt (“we ought to be proud of it, it’s the biggest in the world!”) and her lack of a vice president (she was adamant that she would “tolerate no vice” in her administration). First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt even got in on the fun by inviting Allen to speak at the Women’s National Press Club. Allen suspended the joke campaign a few months before Election Day, but not before she was unofficially elected mayor of a small Michigan town and endorsed by Harvard University’s student body. She went on to receive a few thousand write-in votes during Franklin D. Roosevelt’s landslide victory in the general election.
Allen toured the country on a whistle-stop tour, and fans flocked to hear her quips on the national debt (“we ought to be proud of it, it’s the biggest in the world!”) and her lack of a vice president (she was adamant that she would “tolerate no vice” in her administration). First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt even got in on the fun by inviting Allen to speak at the Women’s National Press Club. Allen suspended the joke campaign a few months before Election Day, but not before she was unofficially elected mayor of a small Michigan town and endorsed by Harvard University’s student body. She went on to receive a few thousand write-in votes during Franklin D. Roosevelt’s landslide victory in the general election.
https://www.history.com/news/8-unusual-presidential-candidates
7 replies
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I had no idea. Thanks for this. 
... Dizzy Gillespie's Presidential run in 1964. Miles Davis, CIA Chief; Malcolm X, Attorney General, etc, etc.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/story/dizzy-gillespie-for-president-1964-campaign
Sounds reasonable.
As an aside, you're one post from 120k. Premature congrats! 