Mr Johnson, 63, won the nomination on the second ballot at the party’s convention, defeating Austin Petersen, the founder of The Libertarian Republic magazine, and anti-computer virus company founder John McAfee.
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“Please, give me Bill Weld”, Johnson said, adding before the end of his speech, “Please, please, please”. But things got weird when it came time to nominating candidates for chairman of the party.
“I realize, I realize the confidence you’ve put in me to be that spokesperson and I’m very, very grateful for that”, Johnson said.
Most of those candidates are more aligned with the party’s Radical Caucus, standing against the more moderate tone Johnson wants to take on the national campaign trail. This year, the former two-term Republican governor of a Democratic state is joined on the ticket by William Weld, another former two-term Republican governor of a Democratic state.
He insisted that his frank approach would appeal to disaffected voters and help the long-marginal Libertarians achieve “major-party status”. Recent polls show Johnson at 10% in a three-way competition with Trump and Clinton.
He registered as Libertarian in 2012, winning the party’s nomination and gaining just short of 1% of the vote against President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney.
At one point on Sunday, an announcer told the convention that Trump had begun attacking Johnson and Weld.
After his win, Weld addressed the remaining delegates and said he was excited to receive the nomination.
The party is also likely to be the only third-party option on the ballot in all 50 states this fall.
Voters will be won over, he predicted, with “the notion that smaller government is something that really is desirable”.
“Gary will be an outlet for millions of Americans who just can’t fathom the idea of voting for Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump”, said Ed Crane, who co-founded the libertarian-leaning Cato Institute.
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Judging from Trump’s latest insulting tweet – labeling Weld an alcoholic – the presumptive GOP nominee must already feel the heat. This means that the Libertarian candidates have more executive government experience and so are arguably better qualified than either the Democratic or the Republican nominee!
