Libertarian adherents are holding their national convention in the southern city of Orlando, Florida, where Johnson wants the party to nominate another former Republican governor, William Weld of MA, as his vice-presidential running mate.
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“I would say that Weld is disliked by the Radical Caucus”, he added. 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.
If Weld gets the vice presidential nomination, Johnson said, he expects to make it into the presidential debates.
“I hope you can see the wisdom of this Libertarian Party exploding”, Johnson said. In addition to immigration participants particularly took issue with Trump’s stated positions on global trade and national security – all of which stand in firm opposition to a party that tends to favor lax immigration restrictions, free trade and is skeptical of military intervention. A Fox News poll in mid-May had Johnson at 10 percent, but a Public Policy Polling Poll showed him at 4 percent and a Monmouth University poll from mid-March showed Johnson receiving 11 percent of the vote. It is not hard to imagine a scenario in which the negative campaigns of Hillary and The Donald drive enough voters to the mild-mannered Johnson to tip enough states to throw the race into the House of Representatives, or even win the Electoral College outright. Johnson said in his acceptance speech before an audience of around a thousand delegates and attendees.
“In many cases illegal immigrants are taken much better care by this country than our veterans and that’s not going to happen”, Trump said. At least two surveys put him in double digits in a hypothetical 3-way race against the Republican Trump and the Democrat Clinton.
Now that Johnson’s the nominee, he’ll be on the ballot in all 50 states. Petersen is a young party activist with a sizable following online, and Feldman is an affable figure many convention goers, including Johnson, have praised.
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He told the crowd of how he was “lost” before he came to the Libertarian Party. Weld, 70, has been criticized for only recently joining the party, but nabbed the nomination after getting 51 percent support during the second round of voting, the Huffington Post reported. Sarwark also said he had been speaking to Matt Kibbe, former president of conservative advocacy group Freedomworks, about supporting the party’s nominee. But while Johnson does not appear to be in trouble for choosing Weld, since the convention chooses both running mates, Weld is far from being a shoo in.
