Libertarian Party chooses Chase Oliver as presidential nominee

The Libertarian Party on Sunday named Chase Oliver its 2024 presidential candidate after a drawn-out nomination vote, solidifying its hold on a potentially disruptive base of voters in November’s election.

Oliver was a key disruptive candidate in the 2022 Georgia Senate elections, forcing a runoff election and helping Senator Raphael Warnock (Democrat) win the election, and is a member of the traditional wing of the Libertarian Party.

After more than eight hours of voting, he beat the hardline Mises Caucus candidate by less than one percentage point, and in the final round he faced a “none of these” candidate, but ultimately secured a majority of the delegates to be nominated.

Oliver won about 60 percent of the final vote, but the protest vote “none of these” supported by staunch Mises supporters won about 36 percent of the delegate vote. If “none of these” had won, each state’s Libertarian party would have nominated its own candidate.

The packed Libertarian Convention in Washington was also attended by two other presidential candidates this weekend, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and former President Donald Trump, who competed for their party’s nomination but neither garnered much support and were booed when they addressed the crowd.

Some party members believe that Kennedy running as an independent could deal a major blow to the Libertarian Party, as his candidacy could result in the party receiving very low voter turnout in some states, causing the party to lose voting power and fundraising resources.

Libertarian candidates typically receive between 1 and 3 percent of the vote in a general election, but it’s unclear how Kennedy will affect those numbers.

Oliver He told Politico Trump announced his plans to campaign nationally on Sunday, saying he has already campaigned in all 50 states during the primaries.

“I wanted to show our delegates and our voters that we have the drive and the energy to put ourselves out there and to grow our party’s base in every state,” he said.

He also wants to focus on growing the party, positioning young people as its main demographic target.

“We looked at who are the demographics that are most likely to be ready to move away from the two-party system and we identified young people, particularly those who are outraged by the war going on in Gaza, the migrant crisis and the cost of living,” Oliver said. “Those are the young people we’re going to target.”

In addition to Oliver, vice presidential candidate Mike Ter Mert will also be running.