Alvin Greene, shocked 2010 Senate nominee, dies

A fluke Senate primary win in 2010 turned an unemployed, zero-effort candidate into the most covered politician in America, and the story only got weirder from there.

Alvin Greene's improbable primary victory

• Alvin M. Greene won South Carolina's Democratic Senate primary.
• Greene spent roughly $10,440 and ran zero campaign events.
• He owned no cellphone, no computer, and hired no staff.
• Pew ranked him the most-covered candidate that cycle.

How a ghost campaign actually won

• Greene's name appeared first alphabetically on the ballot.
• His opponent, Vic Rawl, had held 80 campaign events.
• Nobody could coherently explain the outcome afterward.
• Greene insisted voters simply agreed with his positions.

Controversies surfaced immediately after the primary

• A felony obscenity charge emerged involving a college student.
• The Army had involuntarily discharged him months earlier.
• Jim Clyburn demanded a probe into possible Republican mischief.
• Investigators cleared Greene's finances of any wrongdoing.

General election and life afterward

• Jim DeMint crushed Greene 61 percent to 27 percent.
• Greene stayed unemployed from that point until his death.
• He died on March 3 in Manning, South Carolina, at 48.
• A later state House bid netted him just 37 votes.