O P I N I O N
On May 27, Chase Oliver secured the nomination to become the Libertarian candidate for president in 2024. He won in the seventh ballot over Michael Rectenwald, a conservative author and academic. Oliver, who was a Democrat until 2009, caused a schism in an already schismatic party when he secured the nomination. Despite being a Libertarian Party member for 14 years, he is not the choice many state affiliates prefer.
In Colorado, some Libertarians in the state preferred Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as the nominee, despite Kennedy having been defeated in the Libertarian primary in May. While there was no legal way to overthrow Oliver and install Kennedy as the presidential nominee, a plan was underway in the state to make this happen. The state party chair, Hannah Goodman, publicly endorsed Donald Trump while hoping that Oliver would lose ballot access.
In part due to local activism on Oliver’s behalf, the Colorado Secretary of State, Jena Griswold, made an unusual announcement: Chase Oliver would appear on the state’s ballot as a presidential candidate. The announcement was unusual because political parties, major or minor, typically do not have internecine disputes over who the candidate will be after their national convention.
The Montana state affiliate of the party wrote on Twitter on June 4, 2024, that they have “rejected Chase Oliver as our presidential candidate.”
On July 23, Josiah Baker, chairman of the Libertarian Party of Tennessee, released a press statement on Twitter proclaiming that the state party would choose Clint Russell as its nominee instead.
At issue is the fact that the Libertarian Party, which has traditionally defined itself as a non-partisan organization, has of late shifted toward the right. The dominant group in the party, the Mises Caucus (so named after economic theorist Ludvig von Mises), more closely identifies with Republican goals and objectives.
Chase Oliver is what might best be described as a left-libertarian. He is someone who rejects the current system of government, but maintains many of the beliefs he had while he was a Democrat. These leftist positions have proven anathema for many state affiliates.
A similar, though smaller in scale, backlash occurred against 2020 Libertarian candidate Jo Jorgensen, when she expressed support for the Black Lives Matter movement. Prior to 2020, Jorgensen received a doctorate Industrial and Organizational Psychology. She is a full-time educator at Clemson University in South Carolina.
With around three and a half months left to go until the presidential election on November 5th, it’s unclear whether the national party and the state affiliates will find enough common ground to support a single candidate. At this point, it seems unlikely that any libertarian candidate will win the election for president; state affiliates would consider themselves lucky if they meet a threshold for percentage of votes to guarantee ballot access, rather than gathering signatures to maintain a place on the ballot- a practice common for third-party candidates.
Editor’s note: This essay was updated at 11 a.m. on Aug.11, 2024 to correct eroneous information.
Winter Trabex is a freelance writer and contributer to the Ink Link.