The Libertarian Party nominated political activist Chase Oliver as its presidential candidate at its convention on Sunday, rejecting the unlikely bids of former President Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for the party’s nomination.
Oliver placed second on the first five ballots, but won the nomination on the seventh ballot. He received nearly 60% of the votes on the final ballot, just clearing the 50% threshold needed to win. The final choice was “none of these.”
The final candidate to challenge Oliver was professor-turned-podcaster Michael Rectenwald, who led in each of the first five rounds before losing in the sixth. Oliver beat Rectenwald in the final two rounds after Mike Ter Mert lost in the fifth round, endorsing Oliver in exchange for the vice presidential nomination.
“I will continue to bring a hopeful and positive message of freedom to both those who consider themselves libertarians and those who don’t yet realize they are,” Oliver said in his victory speech.
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The Libertarian Party nominated political activist Chase Oliver as its presidential candidate at its convention Sunday night. (Associated Press)
According to the party’s platform, Libertarians value small government and individual liberty. They tend to oppose war, funding other countries’ wars, the war on drugs, the death penalty, spying on Americans, taxes, a growing federal deficit, and pandemic lockdowns, but support gun rights, LGBTQ+ rights, freedom of expression, and other freedoms that do not infringe on the rights of others.
Republican presidential nominee Trump spoke at the Libertarian Party Convention in Washington, DC, on Saturday night but was repeatedly booed by some in attendance.
Former President Trump was booed by the audience while speaking at the Libertarian National Convention in Washington, DC on Saturday. (Associated Press)
The former president did not meet the qualifications for the Libertarian Party’s nomination and received very few votes on Sunday, just six in the first round.
“We don’t want to have war criminals on this stage,” Oliver said after Trump’s speech at the convention on Saturday.
Kennedy, an independent presidential candidate seeking the Libertarian Party nomination, received more favorable reviews when he spoke at the party’s convention on Friday and criticized President Trump and President Biden’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. He declared his support for the Libertarian Party, saying his support would have helped speed up the process of gaining voting rights in all 50 states.
The independent White House candidate received just 19 votes in the first round of voting at the party’s convention on Sunday.
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Oliver, an activist candidate from Atlanta, Georgia, calls for deep cuts to the federal budget with the goals of balancing the budget, abolishing the death penalty, closing overseas military bases and ending military aid to both Israel and Ukraine, who are at war with each other.
He also said he would pardon WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, and anonymous marketplace site Ross Ulbricht, who were all indicted by the Trump administration.
Chase Oliver, an activist from Atlanta, won the Libertarian Party’s nomination on the seventh ballot at the convention. (Ben Hendren/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Oliver forced a runoff election in Georgia’s 2022 Senate race between Democrat Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker, a former football player who has also previously run for the U.S. House of Representatives.
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His victory Sunday night was a blow to the right-wing Mises Caucus, which took control of the Libertarian Party at the convention two years ago and endorsed Rectenwald and had been working to get Trump to attend the convention.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
