Author Archive | Staff

2012 was the first election year in which the LP had full ballot access in Arkansas. So when Libertarian Frank Gilbert won his race for Constable of Kalb Township on November 6, he became the first Libertarian in the state elected to a partisan office. Gilbert is the former mayor of Tull, Arkansas.

"The GOP is most successful when it embraces limited government and individual responsibility. It fails when it is merely a slightly more cost-efficient version of the Democrat party.

23 Libertarian Party candidates who ran for office in 2012 received over 100,000 votes: Mark Bennett (TX) Judge, Court of Criminal Appeals 1,326,539 votes William Bryan Strange (TX) Judge, Court of Criminal Appeals 1,313,763 votes Robert Koelsch (TX) Justice, Supreme Court 1,280,900 votes Gary Johnson US President 1,242,471 votes Jamie O. Perez (TX) Railroad Commissioner […]

Libertarian Dan Fishman won 16,668 votes, over four times more than the 3,650 votes that separated Republican Richard Tisei (175,953 votes) and incumbent Democrat John Tierney (179,603 votes). Republicans reacted with a firestorm of attacks against the Libertarian, claiming he shouldn’t have run, he "stole" the election, and other sharp criticisms – while refusing to […]

One man’s "problem" is another man’s liberty. From the Washington Post: The GOP’s growing Libertarian problem  

"…None of these involved the typical 1 or maybe 2 percent you ordinarily expect a Lib to garner: Looking at the three-way vote, all but one were over 3 percent, and three took 6 percent or more, with a high of 6.5 percent in the Montana Senate race. These definitely seem like unusually high figures. […]

John Inks and Brian Holtz were reelected to office in California on Tuesday. John Inks was reelected to the Mountain View, CA City Council with 18,807 votes and 18.9%. He finished first in a 6-way race, and will be serving another 4-year term. Brian Holtz was reelected to the Purissima Hills, CA Water District for […]

Several Libertarian campaigns for U.S. House had a high impact this election. Dan Fishman in the Massachusetts Sixth Congressional District won 16,668 votes, over four times more than the 3,650-vote margin of victory between Republican Richard Tisei (175,953 votes) and Democrat incumbent John Tierney (179,603 votes). When asked by popular Boston radio host, Howie Carr, […]

7 Libertarian candidates received one million votes or more in the 2012 General Election: Gov. Gary Johnson for President – with Judge Jim Gray for VP: 1,191,420 votes Mark W. Bennett (TX) Court of Criminal Appeals: 1,326,526 votes William Bryan Strange (TX) Court of Criminal Appeals: 1,313,746 votes RS Roberto Koelsch (TX) Texas Supreme Court: […]

Below are the Libertarian Party’s top-vote getters in races for the US House of Representatives: 2-way race with a Democrat or Republican candidate: Joel Balam KS-3 31.4% 90,391 votes Randall Lord LA-4 24.7% 61,587 Ben Easton TX-17 20.0% 35,902 Joe Cobb AZ-7 19.2% 19,346 Chip Peterson TX-19 15.0% 28,359

Below are the General Election results for the 2012 Libertarian US Senate candidates. In light of the overwhelming volume of free media granted the Democrats and Republicans in these races, coupled with the media and others excluding Libertarian candidates from some or all of the debates, these are exceptionally good results: Dan Cox (MT) 31,476 […]

Hate Mail from Republican Partisans Floods Libertarian Inbox As this Washington Post article predicted, Libertarian Andrew Horning was the "Nader" of the 2012 U.S.