Dear Libertarian,
The election may be over, but we’re still hard at work gathering information and preparing for new challenges ahead. Our live blog on election night tallied some of the important Libertarian Party results at the ballot box, but there’s only so much information we can collect that early in the electoral process. We now have an updated election results page for statewide races with vote totals split into three groups, for U.S. House, U.S. Senate, and gubernatorial races.
We’ll keep the updates coming, especially as we confirm all the smaller local races that take much longer for official results to roll in. I’d like to offer three cheers for Candidate Support Manager Bob Johnston and Candidate Recruiting Specialist Cara Schulz, who have been working long hours trying to track down all this info. It is more labor-intensive than one might think.
The best news out of the election, of course, is that 26 Libertarian Party candidates were voted into office. We also had vote totals high enough to secure future ballot access in Indiana, Massachusetts, New York, Oklahoma, Wyoming, and the District of Columbia. That in and of itself goes a long, long way to helping us conserve resources that might otherwise be spent on cost-intensive petitioning, and focus instead on mounting successful campaigns.
Libertarian causes also won out in ballot initiatives that legalized both medical and recreational marijuana, restored voter rights for nonviolent felons, and defeated destructive regulations like rent and price controls. The Libertarian Party’s decades of leading-edge advocacy on issues like these continue to pay dividends as they are adopted by the public.
This post-election season is also a transitional time for LP national staff, as Executive Director Wes Benedict is leaving to pursue new adventures back in Texas. We want to thank Wes for his many years of service, during which he oversaw a stable period of growth, added significant new staff capacity, led our move to a new office space owned by the Libertarian National Committee, and achieved success in a wide variety of ballot access campaigns and other important administrative goals. If you’d like to thank Wes for his many years of service or would like to simply stay in touch with him, he can be reached here: wesliberty@aol.com.
Starting next week, I will be serving as Interim Executive Director until the LNC hires someone more permanently. I’ll do my best to continue Wes’ proud legacy. You can reach me any time at lauren.daugherty@lp.org.
As we wind down 2018, we’re also busy preparing for 2019. We have many challenges ahead, including new ballot access goals, recruiting new candidates, fighting unfair laws, and growing our membership base at both he national and state levels. In order to achieve these goals, we’d like to ask you to contribute whatever you can to our 2019 Money Bomb. Raising funds is crucial to our success as a party, and every little bit helps. Together, we can move mountains.
Thank you all for all your hard work, campaigning, contributions, and other support this year. Please rally with us as we prepare for 2019 and beyond.
In liberty,
Lauren Daugherty
Development Director
