Libertarian Party

Brian Doherty | 7.11.2024 4:31 PM

In May, the Libertarian Party (L.P.) nominated Chase Oliver and Mike ter Maat as its presidential and vice presidential candidates. Oliver is most famous for his presence on the ballot as a Libertarian Senate candidate in Georgia, where he earned more than 2 percent of the vote and sent the 2022 Senate race to a runoff that the Democrats won. Ter Maat, unusual for a libertarian, is a former cop.

Before the end of June, two state affiliate parties vowed they would not submit Oliver and ter Maat's names to appear on their state ballots. One state, Colorado, announced in early July that it would instead nominate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

This week the secretary of the Libertarian National Committee (LNC), Caryn Ann Harlos, used her legal authority as national secretary to submit the Oliver/ter Maat ticket to Colorado's secretary of state office anyway. The LNC is the governing body of the national party. Harlos is herself a member of the Colorado L.P. but strongly objected to the Kennedy nomination. The Oliver campaign also this week submitted a necessary slate of electors to the state.

How this will play out in November is uncertain. The Colorado L.P. still intends to file to get Kennedy on the ballot as a Libertarian, though it is likely his campaign will submit enough signatures by the deadline today to achieve that without the L.P.'s help. Colorado secretary of state spokesperson Jack Todd told The Denver Post that dueling filings from the same party is something the state has never had to deal with before.

Montana's Libertarian Party also announced in early June that it would not put Oliver on its state's ballot and encouraged other states to follow suit. The Montana L.P. asked the national party to "consider suspending and replacing him." At publication time, Montana's party chair had not responded to an email asking if his party intended to submit a different name or leave Montanans no L.P. presidential ticket to vote for.

Another state L.P., Idaho, saw its secretary, Matt Loesby, publish an open letter in mid-June calling on the LNC to rescind Oliver's nomination, mostly because of his position on transgender care for minors. Idaho's official state party account retweeted Loesby, though according to an email from Loesby last week, the party has made no formal decision to keep the Oliver ticket off its ballot. (New Hampshire's L.P. also rejects Oliver, but he can get himself on that state's ballot without its cooperation.)

The Oliver campaign is in a peculiar position for a presidential nominee, fighting a two-front war against some state L.P.s, leading elements of the national party, and........

© Reason.com