Former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson on Sunday was chosen as the nominee of the Libertarian Party at its convention in Orlando, Florida.
Advertisement
Delegates gathered at a hotel here picked former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson as their presidential standard-bearer and backed Johnson’s preference for former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld as the vice presidential nominee.
Calling the poll results a sign of significant potential for his third-party run, Johnson said, “2016 could very well be the year when American voters recognize that there are more than just two choices for President”.
Hoping to emerge as a viable contender against the two major parties’ nominees in the general election, Johnson says he aims to tap into voters’ broad reluctance to fall in line behind Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. I think government tries to do too much and in the process it taxes us too much.
But two former Republican governors will be on top of the Libertarian Party ticket in November. Bill Weld of MA will be on Johnson’s ticket as a vice presidential nominee.
He told the crowd of how he was “lost” before he came to the Libertarian Party. Johnson received almost one percent of the votes in the 2012 election, and is marketing himself as a candidate for the #NeverTrump crowd.
According to a Data Targeting poll released earlier this month, 55 percent of voters preferred a third party candidate in the race.
Johnson won on the second ballot after falling short of a majority by just a few votes – getting 49.5 percent – on the first.
“The most important number we’re looking at in Arkansas is we’d like to see our candidate get three percent of the vote”.
“This is another voice at the table”, Johnson said.
Some held up anti-Weld signs such as, “Weld is for
repairing metal, not America” – despite pleas from Johnson to back the former Bay State governor.
The party’s best showing so far was in 1980, when candidate Ed Clark got slightly more than 1 percent of the vote.
He joined the Libertarian party in December 2011 and was nominated as the party’s official Presidential candidate in 2012.
Advertisement
At one point on Sunday, an announcer told the convention that Trump had begun attacking Johnson and Weld.
