The Libertarian Party selected one of its own as its presidential nominee on Sunday evening, capping a grueling day of elimination voting and a rollicking four-day event that included both Donald J. Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. tried in vain to bring the party to justice. support.
The nominee, Chase Oliver — an openly gay former Democrat who forced a 2022 runoff in the race for a U.S. Senate seat in Georgia — defeated nine other candidates at the party's national convention in Washington, including Mr. Kennedy.
Mr. Kennedy, who was added to the official list of potential nominees late Sunday morning, was eliminated in the first round of voting on Sunday afternoon with 19 votes — just 2 percent of the total. Mr. Trump, who was not an official candidate, received six write-in votes in the first round.
The Libertarian Party is among the better-established smaller parties, with name recognition and placement on the majority of state ballots in November. The Libertarian candidate is guaranteed to be on the ballot in at least 37 states in November, a number that party leaders say they expect to grow in the coming months.
With its emphasis on unfettered individual freedoms and limited government, the party attracts supporters from across the political spectrum. Libertarian Party believers are calling for the dismantling of the regulatory state — including, for some, the abolition of the Internal Revenue Service and the FBI — as well as the legalization of drugs and sex work. Broadly, the party has embraced cryptocurrency, opposed tariffs and foreign military spending, and called for the release of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is being held in Britain and accused of espionage in the US.
A theme of the party convention, proudly displayed on badges and signs at the convention, was: “Become ungovernable.”
On Sunday it was almost time. It took the party more than seven hours and seven rounds of elimination voting to find a presidential candidate – and even then the party almost ran out of any candidate, as more than a third of the final voters cast their ballots for 'none of the candidates'. Above.”
If the party had failed to nominate a candidate, it would likely have lost access to ballots in many states.
“I guess everyone understands what it means when you literally don't have a candidate,” party chair Angela McArdle told delegates after the penultimate round of voting failed to identify an outright majority winner.
In his acceptance speech late Sunday evening, 38-year-old Oliver – who has described himself as “armed and homosexual” – pledged to unite the party according to its common principles and expand its reach in the US. our lives,” he said, adding that he would help end the “genocide in Gaza,” abolish the Federal Reserve and stop “the stealing” of taxes.
“Here's the elevator pitch, guys,” Mr. Oliver said, adding, “If you live your life in peace,” then your life “is your life, your body is your body, your business is your business. ”
He also took a shot at Mr. Kennedy, saying, “Rule No. 1: If you want to elect a true political outsider, don't elect someone with the last name Kennedy.” And referring to President Biden, 81, and Mr. Trump, 77, Mr. Oliver made an explicit pitch to younger voters who “don't want octogenarians running their lives.”
The eventual selection of a de facto member of the Libertarian Party came as no surprise to other de facto members of the Libertarian Party. Many of them had greeted Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Trump with deep skepticism, saying their presence at the convention was an unwanted distraction.
Mr. Kennedy's candidacy and the general dissatisfaction shown in national polls for both Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden have led to increased attention on third parties this year. Last weekend's Libertarian Party convention, held at the Washington Hilton hotel, was a reminder of the internal squabbles and organizational frustrations often inherent in small parties — especially one that prides itself on freedom of speech.
Sunday's events were broadcast live on C-SPAN, where viewers were treated to regular, unbleeped profanity, a marriage proposal, a man wearing something like a loincloth onesie, and heated debates over the rules of parliamentary debate and voting procedures .
Mr. Kennedy, who left the Democratic Party last year to run independently for president, had spent the past year in discussions with Libertarian leaders about pursuing their nomination.
However, in recent weeks he had said he would not do that. During the convention, several party delegates noted that while there was support for Mr. Kennedy, he took many positions that were fundamentally at odds with the party, particularly his calls for greater environmental regulation.
When Mr. Kennedy addressed the group On Friday afternoon, he spoke to a generally supportive audience on shared points of agreement, including a desire to sharply limit foreign military entanglements and support for gun control. He did not explicitly request the nomination.
But on Sunday morning, delegates introduced him as a potential candidate, and he accepted in a video played on the convention floor.
After he was eliminated, Mr. Kennedy wrote on X: “What an unexpected honor to wake up this morning to a groundswell in the Libertarian Party trying to nominate me. I would have accepted the nomination if it was offered because independents and third parties must now unite to reclaim our country from the corrupt two-party system.”
Mr. Trump was received with much less enthusiasm when he spoke at the event on Saturday night, in front of a crowd that booed him before he even took the stage. He told party delegates that they should nominate him, or at least consider voting for him in the fall, and was repeatedly booed.
His speech was notable not only for the hostility with which he was greeted, but also for the specter of the presumptive nominee of a major political party giving a prime-time speech at another party's convention.
Mr. Trump, in a post on social media said Sunday afternoon that he did not seek the nomination because he was already the presumptive Republican nominee — even though he had asked Liberals to nominate him in his speech the night before. He criticized Mr. Kennedy as “not a libertarian” and repeated his previous attempts to portray Mr. Kennedy, whose political views are ideologically diverse, as a “radical left Democrat.”
Mr. Trump also insisted that he “absolutely” would have gotten the Libertarian nomination “if I wanted it (as everyone could see from the enthusiasm of the crowd last night!),” a statement that is at odds with the frequent bickering he has experienced during his speech. .
Mr. Trump was among a colorful collection of write-in candidates in the first round of voting on Sunday. Others included Afroman (an artist best known for his 2000 hit “Because I Got High” who met with Trump backstage on Saturday), Sean Ono Lennon and adult film star Stormy Daniels, who is at the center of the show. The criminal trial against Trump for hush money payments to her. They each got one vote.
The sixth round of voting was expected to be the last, with Mr. Oliver running against Michael Rectenwald, a former New York University professor who left the school in 2019 after several controversies. He had invited right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos as a guest speaker to his class and sued colleagues and the university for defamation. Mr. Rectenwald is a member of the party's radical Mises Caucus.
But neither Mr. Oliver nor Mr. Rectenwald achieved a majority in that vote: Mr. Oliver received 49.53 percent of the vote, and Mr. Rectenwald, who had led every previous vote, received 44.73 percent. Just over 5 percent voted for “None of the above.” (Former Miami Dolphins quarterback Dan Marino received one vote, as did singer Courtney Love.)
Mr Rectenwald was dropped from the ballot as the worst-performing official candidate and the party was faced with the prospect of having to support Mr Oliver or no one at all. The final votes came in just after 10 p.m.