“Ninety percent of the time I spent running for president ended up to be wasted time“, says former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson of his 2012 run for the presidency as the Libertarian Party candidate.
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Delegates to the party’s convention in Orlando on Sunday picked Johnson on the second ballot over Austin Petersen, the founder of the Libertarian Republic magazine, and John McAfee, sometime fugitive and founder of the eponymous anti-virus company.
There are 18 declared Libertarian presidential candidates.
Since last week, Johnson has made the rounds touting his newly minted alliance with former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld, who is seeking the party’s vice presidential nomination. He finished second to Democrat Woodrow Wilson, the only time a third party candidate has finished that well.
For some Libertarians, the prospect of choosing a ticket with two former, moderate, GOP governors from blue states smacks too much of catering to Republicans for votes.
Despite his bruising reception, Johnson said he would strongly prefer not to continue his bid without Weld, arguing they were “arguably the two most Libertarian governors that ever served”. Many Libertarians here are wary of Weld, who joined the party less than two weeks ago and endorsed Ohio Gov. John Kasich in the Republican primary earlier this election cycle.
Mr Johnson was the party’s candidate in 2012, gaining 1.2m votes – under 1%.
“It is a breakout year for the Libertarians”, Chair of Libertarian Party Nicholas Sawark told MSNBC on Friday morning. Sarwark said the party had established a “back channel” to the Koch brothers, in the hopes the wealthy libertarian-leaning funders donate to the Libertarian Party.
“To me, there’s one guy up there that’s head and shoulders above the rest”, Johnson told NM Political Report. In his acceptance speech, Johnson pleaded, repeatedly, to the crowd to select his running mate, focusing on the national notoriety that Weld would bring to the ticket. In polls that pitted Johnson against Trump and Clinton, Johnson got 10 percent from Fox News and 11 percent from a Monmouth poll. He needs to be polling at 15 percent in national polls to qualify for presidential debates. Johnson suggested Weld would help secure millions in fundraising donations and garner national media attention that no other vice presidential contender would be able to. Libertarians might find common ground with Cruz Republicans “when it comes to smaller government and the general philosophy of small government”, Crevaux added, “but the thing is, we don’t believe that an individual like Ted Cruz, a Senator like Ted Cruz, would actually act upon his promises were he to become the President, especially given all of his talk about controlling people’s social life”.
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The party has been reaching out to “fiscal conservatives”: “The good news for fiscal conservatives is that the Libertarian presidential nominee-a tax-and-spending-cutter’s dream-is expected to be on the ballot in all fifty states, plus D.C., this November”, the press release stated.
