Election 2024

Joe Lancaster | 10.18.2024 11:10 AM

In Nevada's 3rd Congressional District, a libertarian is running as a Republican to not only unseat a Democrat in Congress, but to help shape the party's post-Donald-Trump future. Will it work?

Drew Johnson grew up in Nashville but moved to the Las Vegas area in 2015. His libertarian bona fides go way back: He was raised in poverty by a single mother, who he says lied about their address so that he would be zoned into a better school district. He calls it his family's personal version of school choice, a subject he remains passionate about.

At age 24, he founded the Tennessee Center for Policy Research, a free market think tank now known as the Beacon Center of Tennessee. His first claim to fame came in 2007, when he discovered, through open records requests, that former Vice President Al Gore's Tennessee home used 20 times more electricity than the national average, despite Gore's rhetoric about the importance of environmental stewardship.

Johnson has held fellowships at the Taxpayer Protection Alliance and the R Street Institute. He also served as the opinion editor for the Chattanooga Times Free Press, and under his tenure, the paper endorsed Gary Johnson for president in 2012—which he tells Reason was "one of my prouder journalistic........

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