David Martosko is The Daily Caller's executive editor. He is the father of two, a frequent public speaker, and a graduate of Dartmouth College and the Johns Hopkins University.
A 52-year-old felon with a ponytail, a mullet, a 210-month federal prison sentence — and a surprising amount of political experience — gave President Barack Obama a serious fight Tuesday night in West Virginia’s Democratic primary election. With 47 of 55 counties reporting their results, Keith Russell Judd had collected 55,592 votes statewide, or 42.80 percent of the total.
Although party rules would award Judd at least one Democratic National Convention delegate for winning more than 15 percent of the vote, it’s unclear whether he would actually have a voice at the Charlotte, N.C. event since no one has volunteered to represent him as a delegate. Still, the ultimate outsider was leading Obama in eight counties late Tuesday night.
As disaffection with the president grows nationwide, Obama has already suffered one embarrassing defeat in Oklahoma, where anti-abortion activist Randall Terry won 18 percent of votes in that state’s March primary contest.
Judd, otherwise known as “prisoner #11593-051″ at the Beaumont Federal Correctional Institution in Texas, is serving time for “mailing a threatening communication with intent to extort money or something of value” in New Mexico. He was arrested in 1995 and convicted in 1999. In 2000 a federal appeals court noted that he had already “filed thirty-six notices of appeal … [and] no less than 180 motions,” all unsuccessfully.
Ironically, while felons can’t vote in many states, they can run for president.
Judd’s eclectic resume includes the claim that he spent a year studying political science at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, but that may be taken with a grain of salt: He claims to have been a member of the ”Federation of Super Heroes” from 1976 to 1982.
He also boasts a stint as a U.S. Air Force band leader, says he founded an organization called “World Peace Through Musical Communications Skills,” and claims he earned “various degrees” in physics, nuclear physics and acoustics at the “University of California Los Alamos.” (RELATED: Twenty percent of NC Dems decline to vote for Obama)
The UC system operates the national laboratory at Los Alamos, Calif., but has no degree-granting campus there.
Though Judd may be a less-than-serious candidate, he has all the political experience of a dogged insider. Beginning in 1995, he has filed more than 70 Federal Election Commission reports on his various political committees. In December 2010 he reported that his presidential committee had raised “well over $700,000 in contributions, collectively from almost every State.”
Judd sent the report not to the FEC, but to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. He later filed a copy with the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
More reports followed, including one in December 2011 that claimed he had $946,581.50 in cash on hand. It was accompanied by a list of donors, including a “John Doe” category listing nearly 50 phone numbers of supposed contributors and a subsequent list of 1,080 additional donors’ phone numbers.
It’s unclear whether the FEC has verified that any of the numbers belong to actual voters.
He appeared on the 2008 presidential primary ballot in Idaho, after filing his forms and paying the $1,000 fee with a check drawn on his prison account.
Ben Ysursa, then Idaho’s Secretary of State, told the Spokane, Wash. Spokesman-Review in April 2008, “We got conned.”
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NEXT: Judd's appeal this year appears to be tied to protest voting
Federal prison inmate , of Texas, won 72,459 votes (40.6 percent) in Tuesday's West Virginia Democratic presidential primary, behind President Barack Obama, who finished with 105,833 (59.4 percent). 

Judd qualified to appear on the West Virginia ballot after completing a notarized certification of announcement and paying the required $2,500 filing fee. Although surpassing 15 percent of the vote qualifies him for a  delegate, according to Democratic Party Executive Director Derek Scarbro, Judd did not specify a delegate slate and will likely not be awarded a delegate.  
West Virginia Democratic primary by county. President Obama won the counties in black while Keith Judd won the counties in red.
Judd has run several unsuccessful write-in campaigns for  of  and  of New Mexico, and appeared on the 2008 Idaho Democratic primary ballot, winning 734 votes. He was sentenced to 210 months of prison in 1999 after being found guilty of "mailing a threatening communication with intent to extort money or something of value" at the . He is currently serving his term at the .

Though federal law prohibits felons from voting in elections, they are still eligible to run for office. Judd is not the first prisoner to run for president. In ,  of the  ran a presidential campaign from prison after being prosecuted under the . He won nearly a million votes.

According to Democratic consultant Mike Plante, "most of the people who were casting a vote for Keith Judd, it was not a vote for him, it was a vote expressing dissatisfaction with the president." One West Virginia voter expressed this sentiment, telling the Associated Press that he "voted against Obama" because "I don't like him. He didn't carry the state before and I'm not going to let him carry it again." In 2008, Obama finished with only 25.77 percent of the West Virginia primary vote, losing to Hillary Clinton.

Though Obama has faced some challenges in the Democratic primaries, losing 18 percent to anti-abortion activist  in Oklahoma, losing nearly 12 percent to attorney  in Louisiana, and having 18 and 21 percent of Democrats in Alabama and North Carolina vote "uncommitted", he has already won enough delegates to secure the Democratic nomination.