Jennifer Harper, the “Inside the Beltway” columnnist for the Washington Times, growth in voter registration, the upcoming national convention, the party’s growth in voter registration, and our 2018 ballot-access and campaign progress in her April 9 column. From the article, “New Libertarian motto: ‘Don’t tread on me’”:
The national Libertarian Party appears pretty cheerful these days. The organization is busy planning its four-day national convention in New Orleans in late June, where the event theme is “I’m that Libertarian!”
The speakers’ roster includes such notables as Zoltan Istvan, a “transhumanist Libertarian futurist” who is running for governor of California and Amaryllis Fox, a former CIA analyst and host of the History Channel’s “American Ripper,” a historic investigation of a serial killer. A record-breaking number of people have registered for the event, according to organizers.
Business is also picking up for the nation’s official third party.
Libertarian leadership has news for members, undecided voters, the news media and the major-party competitors. The number of U.S. voters registered as Libertarian has surged by 92 percent since 2008 according to Ballot Access News, which tracks such trends. Interest in the Republican and Democratic parties is down according to the same source — thus making Libertarians the “fastest growing” political party in the nation, their leaders reason.
Things are percolating. There are currently 619 Libertarian candidates on state and local ballots this year, and the party has attained all-important ballot access in 39 states. There are Libertarians who already hold elective office — 158 to be exact.
“The grassroots energy we are seeing in 2018 is amazing,” observes Libertarian National Committee Chairman Nicholas Sarwark, who is running for mayor of Phoenix himself and warns that both major political parties spend too much, and voters are anxious about the national debt, foreign civil wars and other issues.
“Democrats and Republicans are in denial that we have a problem. Libertarians recognize both the problems and the necessary solutions, and have the courage to ask the American people to let our candidates for public office help restore freedom and sanity,” says Mr. Sarwark.
Libertarians have also gone into feisty campaign mode, borrowing the “Don’t Tread on Me” motto from the tea party and splashing it across classy T-shirts, complete with signature snake graphic and “1776” front and center. Also telling: the party is offering their printed “Introduction to the Libertarian Party” brochure in Spanish, and at a reasonable price from the characteristically frugal-minded Libertarian family. It’s 10 cents.
The Libertarian national convention will be held from June 30 through July 3 at the Hyatt Regency in New Orleans. The convention theme of “I’m that Libertarian” is a tribute to the contribution of the late Mark Feldman, a 2016 Libertarian presidential candidate.
The Libertarian Party has set a target of running at least 2,000 candidates nationwide this year, the effort being spearheaded by candidate recruiting specialist Cara Schulz, herself an elected city council member in Burnsville, Minn.
Learn more about the 2018 national convention at LibertarianConvention.org.
To see the “Don’t Tread on Me” T-shirt, visit LPStore.org.
See our growing list of 2018 candidates at LP.org/2018-candidates.
