Donald Trump is the king of dire post-election predictions, warning that a Hillary Clinton presidency would result in — among other things — terrorists flooding the country, illegal immigrants “flowing across the border,” “disasters on the Supreme Court” and “a very massive recession.”
“It won’t be pretty,” Trump has warned.
But Dell “Super Dell” Schanze, a little-known candidate running for governor of Utah, may have one-upped the presidential hopeful.
Voters who fail to cast their ballots next month for Schanze, a member of the Independent American Party, will “face the judgments of God,” according to language the candidate authored in the state’s official voter information pamphlet.
Schanze, who has previously told a judge that he is a Christian, didn’t specify the type of judgments awaiting Utah voters who don’t vote for him. And after reaching Schanze by phone, he hung up after identifying himself as the manager of Paraglider Mall, the adventure-sport business he owns.
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He didn’t respond to subsequent requests for comment.
Schanze’s full voter-pamphlet statement, which calls for a return to freedom, declares that “RIGHTEOUSNESS can solve every problem in the world. God made a promise ‘as ye keep my commandments ye shall prosper in the land’. The vast majority in our state are against murdering unborn children. You are against perversion and perversion of marriage. You are against more encroachment on your 2nd Amendment rights.
“The voice of the people and the constitution are being utterly mocked!!! Vote SUPERDELL Schanze or face the judgments of God. If even one single state can return to freedom and the constitution the entire world would flow unto it. Your honor rests on your vote.”
Schanze has been in and out the local limelight — and on and off Utah ballots — for nearly a decade.
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He made his first bid for governor as a libertarian in 2008, when he racked up nearly 25,000 votes, about three percent of the electorate, according to Fox affiliate KSTU. A year later, he ran for mayor of Saratoga Springs, according to the Salt Lake Tribune. He did not win.
His latest campaign for governor, which began when he filed papers in March, is Schanze’s third attempt to reach the office. Gregory C. Duerden, a military veteran and onetime sports reporter who has made several failed bids for the Utah State Legislature, is running as lieutenant governor.
Polls last month projected that the pair would receive 2.1 percent of this year’s vote, but suggested more than 12 percent of voters remained undecided, according to NBC affiliate KSL
But Schanze is probably best known for the headlines he’s created outside of politics.
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His rise to recognition began with a series of outlandish television commercials for his now defunct Salt Lake City business, Totally Awesome Computers.
Schanze, who considers himself a champion of Second Amendment rights, is also an avid power paraglider and described himself as an “instructor, master pilot” and “coolest guy on the planet,” in a Discovery Channel segment on the sport.
“When I get into something, I’m hardcore — I go all the way,” he said in the Discovery feature.
Share this articleShare“I used to race motorcycles — ride the tires off them things — until I broke 11 vertebrae, broke my hip off; that’s bolted on,” he added. “Hands bolted together, lost a finger, and then I switched to power paragliding.”
In 2011, Schanze was arrested in Astoria, Ore., after he parachuted off the Astoria Column near Portland, KSL reported. He was charged for violating city code, the station reported. Footage of the aspiring pol’s daredevilry was posted on YouTube.
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Two years later, another controversial, high-flying video surfaced on YouTube showing a powered paraglider pursuing a barn owl through the air, according to the Tribune. The pilot, later identified as Schanze, can be seen kicking the bird before it peels off seemingly unharmed.
“I kicked an owl’s butt,” Schanze can be heard boasting.
During an appearance in court, Schanze said the video was created by an “anti-Christ homosexual who hates me,” the Tribune reported.
He eventually pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of knowingly using an aircraft to harass wildlife and pursuing a migratory bird, the paper reported.
During the same court hearing, federal prosecutors said Schanze has been ticketed and arrested for eight separate incidents over the years, including “traffic violations, illegally carrying a concealed weapon and threatening the use of a firearm during a fight,” according to the Tribune.
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Schanze told a judge the legal incidents are misleading and that he is a regular church-goer led by his Christian faith with “a history of being a hero in the community.”
“I don’t think anyone in this courtroom has ever been as exemplary like I am,” he said.
In the past, Schanze has openly discussed his hostile relationship with the media and gone as far as blaming the press for his legal entanglements and failed business.
“It’s too bad that all of the media in Utah are liars and murderers,” he told reporters in 2015, according to the Deseret News. “You just destroyed the greatest computer company of all time. We were the best in the world, the world champion. All this hatred was created by you. You’re basically angels of Satan. All I can say to the people in Utah is, please pray for all the news people.”
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Former employees told the paper that, despite their former boss’s strident language, Schanze is “misunderstood.”
“He’s just Dell,” one employee said. “He’s a great person.”
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