Brian T. Carroll facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Brian T. Carroll
Carroll in 2019
Born	(1949-12-15) December 15, 1949 (age 75) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Alma mater	University of California, Los Angeles (BA)
Occupation	Teacher
Political party	American Solidarity Party
Movement	Christian democracy

Brian Thomas Carroll (born December 15, 1949) is an American teacher who ran for president in the 2020 United States presidential election. He was the candidate for the American Solidarity Party, a smaller political party in the U.S.

Carroll supports a political idea called Christian democracy. This approach uses ideas from Christian teachings to make decisions about how the government and society should work.

Life and Career

Brian Carroll grew up in California. He earned a bachelor's degree in history from the UCLA. He then got his teaching license from California State University, Los Angeles.

From 1977 to 1983, he taught history and other subjects to junior high students in Farmersville, California. During this time, he also wrote for a local newspaper called the Valley Voice. He often wrote about the need for better public transportation in his town.

Carroll has also taught students in other countries, including Colombia and China. He has traveled to many places in Europe and Brazil. He is also interested in studying nature. His observations on spiders and insects have been used in scientific studies. In 2008, he returned to teaching in Farmersville.

Political Journey

2018 Run for Congress

In 2018, Carroll ran for a seat in the U.S. Congress to represent California's 22nd district. He ran against the Republican Devin Nunes, who held the position at the time, and the Democrat Andrew Janz.

In California's primary election, where voters choose the top two candidates, Carroll came in fifth place out of six candidates. This meant he was not in the final election.

2020 Presidential Campaign

Joe Schriner (right) and Brian T. Carroll (left) both wanted to be the presidential candidate for the American Solidarity Party. They debated at a party meeting in 2019.

On April 5, 2019, Carroll announced he wanted to be the American Solidarity Party's candidate for president. He won the party's nomination at their online convention. He chose Amar Patel, another leader in the party, to be his vice-presidential running mate.

During his campaign, Carroll spoke at several events. He attended the Presidential Politics Conference at Dordt University, where candidates from other parties like Republican Joe Walsh and Democrat Tulsi Gabbard also spoke. He also took part in a presidential debate with other candidates from smaller parties.

Carroll and Patel were on the ballot in eight states. In 31 other states, voters could write their names on the ballot. They received over 42,000 votes across the country.

What Carroll Believes

Carroll's political ideas are based on Christian democracy. He believes in finding a middle way between different economic systems. He supports ideas that protect human life from beginning to end, which is called a consistent life ethic.

Here are some of his key positions:

• Economy: He supports an idea called distributism, which aims to spread ownership of property and businesses more widely among the people, instead of having it controlled by the state or by a few large companies.
• Healthcare: He believes everyone should have access to healthcare, an idea known as universal healthcare.
• Environment: He thinks it is important to protect the planet and fight climate change.
• Social Issues: He supports social justice and helping communities heal from division. He also supports programs that protect young immigrants, like Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).
• Government: He supports ranked-choice voting, a different way of holding elections. He also believes very large companies like Amazon and Google should be broken up into smaller ones.

Personal Life

Carroll has been married for over 46 years. He has five children and 14 grandchildren. He is an elder in the Evangelical Covenant Church and considers himself an Evangelical Christian.