by: Evan McMahon
Running for office means asking people to trust you. Running as a Libertarian also means defending the proposition that voters deserve more choices. Before you can discuss housing or taxes or civil liberties, you might have to explain why you belong on the ballot at all. Our candidates accepted that burden and made their case admirably.
I want you all to know your work matters to me. So does the support of the families who made room for a campaign and the volunteers who kept it moving. The final numbers don’t fully encapsulate the sum of those efforts, but they do show us where campaigns created opportunities for the people who follow them.
By that measure, we had a good night. We were watching ten races that would decide whether the Libertarian Party keeps or regains its ballot line. Seven have been called our way — Arkansas, Ohio, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Wyoming, and Oklahoma. None has been called against us.
Colt Shelby finished well above the Arkansas threshold. Don Kissick and James Mills cleared Ohio’s in the governor’s race. Massachusetts cleared its own. In Indiana, we have a nail biter with Lauri Shillings, whose Secretary of State race will likely come down to the final certified results.
While none of these candidates won the offices they sought, they all ran campaigns that deserve recognition. Preserving ballot access lets future candidates spend more time talking to voters and less of it overcoming entry requirements.
Some of them I want to thank by name.
Jeremy Todd, in Kentucky’s fourth district, left his job to run because his employer made him choose between the paycheck and the campaign. He chose the campaign, he ran it with a seriousness that would embarrass most people who have never had to make that trade, and his district gave him one of the strongest congressional results we recorded anywhere in the country. Jeremy, I am proud of you, and working to help you get on the ballot is a memory I will hold dear.
Don Kissick carried Ohio in a race with consequences well past this cycle, treated by the press, not as a footnote, but as one of the premier candidates. Jeff Wadlin stood on an Arkansas PBS debate stage and made his case while the sitting senator declined to show up. Bill Redpath ran Ohio’s Senate race with the same patience he has brought to this party for decades. Lauri Shillings took on a demanding statewide campaign knowing an entire state party’s ballot status rested on her number, and made a policy-based case for why voters should support her.
Lydia Christensen gave Michigan voters a real Senate choice and earned a full interview on statewide public radio alongside the major-party nominee. Ken Krawchuk carried Pennsylvania again, as he has before. Kasie Whitener debated for a full hour on South Carolina public television, on the economy and surveillance and war, making the case for libertarian policies with eloquence and poise, even as the other two descended into negativity and name calling.
Joe Hannoush continued work he has been doing for years to put Libertarians on ballots and keep them there. And Olivia Hayse ran her own race in Kansas while chairing our Candidate Support Committee — which is to say she spent this year helping hundreds of other people run their campaigns while running one of her own. Olivia and Joe, thank you. The candidates on this list had a better year because of the work you did behind it.
I also want to recognize Colorado, Michigan, Indiana, and North Carolina, which all had more than 30 Libertarian candidates on the ballot, more than any other states. This is what a top-tier state party does.
And a special shout out to all the podcasters, writers, and media in the liberty movement who dedicated time and space to promoting our candidates and helping spread their message.
We will keep reviewing local returns as they are confirmed. Candidates in races that drew little national attention deserve the same care as those at the top of the ballot. Local government decides questions about people’s property, schools, and daily lives, and we need Libertarians willing to serve there.
For those of you disappointed this morning, I will not pretend losing feels good. But my gratitude does not depend on a check mark beside your name. You stepped forward when it would have been easier to stay home.
The larger parties have work to do, beginning with listening. To me, Tuesday was a warning against governing as though public patience were unlimited. Vote totals cannot tell us every voter’s motive, but officials should recognize the dissatisfaction with policies that leave Americans paying more while controlling less of their own lives.
Never-ending war asks families to accept costs that last generations, and officials should have to explain why military action is necessary before Americans bear its consequences. Tariffs deserve the same scrutiny; a household buying an appliance and a business buying materials both suffer from anti-free-trade decisions. Mass surveillance treats everyone’s private life as information officials may collect first and explain later, and changing the party in power doesn’t instantly fix this. Nor should Americans accept masked agents grabbing people off the street while bystanders cannot tell who holds authority. Officers should be identifiable and accountable for their conduct.
To Democrats elected Tuesday: implement freedom-based policies that give people a better chance to prosper. Remove obstacles to building housing and opening businesses. Defend civil liberties even when it inconveniences an administration you support. Use oversight to require accountability. Support peaceful trade and take the burdens on households seriously.
Telling Americans the other guys are worse is not an election strategy. It asks people to lower their expectations instead of giving them a reason to believe their lives will improve. Even when fear of the alternative produces votes, officials still owe voters an answer about what comes next.
We should make that answer clear in our own work, and we do that by building on last night’s successes, and learning from where we fell short. A candidate who has just finished a difficult race deserves more than a thank-you followed by silence until the next filing deadline.
Finally, thank you to the voters who chose our candidates under pressure to settle for someone else. Your vote was your voice, and you used it to loudly defend liberty.
Here is what I keep coming back to this morning. Seven ballot lines held or won. None lost. Candidates were on debate stages that would have shut the door on us two years ago. People like Jeremy and Olivia and Kasie who did not wait for permission or for better odds. Every one of those is a door propped open for whomever comes next — and somebody will come next — to be there earlier, better prepared, and standing on what you built this year.
Rest this week. Then come find me. The best this party has to offer is still ahead of it, and I am grateful beyond measure for the honor of serving as your chair while you go prove it.
Evan McMahon is the Chair of the Libertarian National Committee