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Now that we know former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson is going to be the Libertarian Party nominee after this weekend’s convention, much of the talk has centered around how Johnson could be a spoiler for Donald Trump against Hillary Clinton. Conventional wisdom would say that Libertarians and Republicans have a closer ideology than Libertarians and Democrats, and therefore, conservatives dissatisfied with Trump will vote for Johnson. The problem with this conventional wisdom is that 2016 isn’t conventional, and the candidates representing their parties don’t hold the usual ideologies of their parties. At this point, it appears there are more...

The Huffington Post has uncovered a fact that thousands of Biblical scholars and theologians have missed: Jesus was the first transgender man. To HuffPo writer Suzanne Dewitt Hall, “the current flap in conservative Christian circles about bathroom access is a bit baffling.” She claims that God created transgenders in Genesis, after all. […] “The Holy Spirit comes upon the second Eve, and the child takes flesh from her and is born… with XX chromosome pairing. Born genetically female, and yet trans-formed into man.” …

Earlier this evening, Gary Johnson was elected to be the Libertarian Party presidential nominee, achieving a 50% tally in the second ballot and securing his second straight LP nomination. Austin Petersen and John McAfee put up good fights, but weren’t able to attain enough votes necessary to win the nomination, coming in 2nd and 3rd respectively. McAfee neglected to endorse Gary Johnson, but Austin Petersen made it clear from the beginning of his campaign that he would endorse whichever candidate the LP elected. While Petersen and Gary often had testy moments with each other in the debates, Austin stood by...

America got the contested convention it desired this weekend … from the Libertarians, anyway. Gary Johnson and William Weld managed to eke out majorities of delegates this weekend to become the only national party ticket with two former two-term governors on it, and both of them Republicans for that matter. Now that the circus has packed up, though, can the Libertarians compete for the first time, with both of the major parties nominating candidates with record unpopularity with voters? Politico reports that they will at least compete on funding, if nothing else. One big boost will come from the super-PAC...

Orlando, Florida (CNN)Libertarians on Sunday selected a presidential ticket headed by former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, who lit into presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump on immigration and a range of other issues. At the party convention in Orlando, Florida, Johnson got his preferred running mate, former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld, in a weekend gathering that drew sharp contrasts with the major party candidates -- Trump and Hillary Clinton, the likely Democratic nominee. Johnson described the real estate mogul's immigration policies as "just racist," particularly the Republican's call to deport 11 million undocumented people currently in the country. Libertarian activists...

A candidate for the Libertarian Party’s chairman position stripped off his clothes and strutted his stuff on stage at the party’s national convention Sunday, instead of simply making a speech. He did not win the position. The lumberjack-looking candidate tried a laissez-faire approach to campaigning at the Orlando event: He cued a dance song, clapped, and then slowly removed his tie, shirt and suspenders, all for the live C-Span cameras.

Libertarians on Sunday selected former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson as their party's presidential nominee, at their party convention in Orlando, Florida. "At a minimum, I think we're in the presidential debates," Johnson said to cheers. Sarwark said the party had established a "back channel" to the Koch brothers, in the hopes the wealthy libertarian-leaning funders donate to the Libertarian Party. Sarwark also said he had been speaking to Matt Kibbe, former president of conservative advocacy group Freedomworks, about supporting the party's nominee. Johnson received almost 1 percent of the general election vote in 2012 A recent national poll had...

It’s been an unusual election year, and it’s far from over. This weekend, the Libertarian Party is holding its presidential nominating convention in Orlando, Florida, close to Disney World — or close to a Veterans Administration hospital . . . they’re so difficult to tell apart. Both have long lines. For eleven previous presidential contests, the Libertarian Party’s nominees — including the 1988 run by former GOP congressman and presidential aspirant Ron Paul — have only once broken one percent of the vote, in 1980, and only once topped a million votes, in 2012. Yet, this November, after all the...

Yikes. I’m probably as surprised as anyone else to hear myself saying it, but the producers might want to start cranking up the music and offer a subtle hint to Mitt Romney that it’s time to get off the stage. We’re busy getting ready for the convention in Cleveland and the pieces are pretty much set up on the board, yet it seems that the winner of the 2012 GOP primary can’t bring himself to step back and let somebody else get on message. This pattern of behavior was on display yet again this week when Mitt let everyone know...

Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson said Monday he "absolutely" stands by his preferred running mate's comment comparing Donald Trump's immigration plan to Nazi Germany. "Absolutely, absolutely. In New Mexico here, is my door going to be knocked down because I'm going to get checked for papers?" Johnson, who served as New Mexico's governor for two terms, when asked by CNN's Jake Tapper on "The Lead." Former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld -- who is expected to be picked alongside Johnson to run on the Libertarian Party ticket at a nominating convention this weekend -- told The New York Times on Thursday...

ORLANDO, Fla. — It was supposed to be a stroke of genius: Gary Johnson, the 2012 Libertarian nominee for president and the party’s leading contender in 2016, announced that William Weld, the two-term former Republican governor of Massachusetts, would serve as his running mate. The idea was clear and appealing. The pair would comprise a powerful two-governor ticket just as the leading Democratic and Republican contenders, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, rate as historically unpopular. The hope was they could emerge as a true third-party alternative. But here in the corridors of the Rosen Centre Hotel and Resort at the...

Gary Johnson, the likely Libertarian candidate for president, is blasting Donald Trump's policy on immigration as "insanity," and positioned himself as a helping hand to those who came here illegally. Johnson, a former two-term Republican governor of New Mexico, is expected to emerge this weekend as the Libertarian standard-bearer. "Is my door going to be knocked down because I'm going to get checked for papers?" Johnson said while praising undocumented immigrants who are leaders in their communities. "We're going to now come in and knock down doors and they're going to be deported? It'd be like putting them on the...

The assumption is that someone whose label is “Libertarian” has libertarian values and would promote them in office. In the case of Johnson, that notion is absurd. When Johnson took the tiller in New Mexico in 1995, the budget stood at $4.397 billion. When he left in 2003, it had grown to $7.721, an increase of 7.29 percent a year. Of the eleven governors who filed to run for president this year (two Democrats, Johnson, and eight Republicans), only one had a worse record on spending growth.... On civil liberties as with fiscal issues, Johnson’s record is less libertarian than...

Presidential Libertarian candidate, Austin Petersen appeared on Glenn Beck‘s show today, scoring major points with the host and his viewers. The show will be aired in its entirety later today on The Blaze, but according to a status update on Austin Petersen’s Facebook page, Glenn Beck has already given Petersen a glowing endorsement. Just after noon today, the post thanked Beck for his support.

Billionaire businessman and philanthropist David Koch has pledged “tens of millions of dollars” to help bankroll the campaign of Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson, according to a source within Johnson’s campaign. Koch’s money will be made available should Johnson, a former two-term Republican governor of New Mexico, secure his second consecutive Libertarian Party presidential nomination, the source said. The Libertarians will select their presidential ticket during the party’s national convention later this month in Orlando.

Billionaire David Koch will bankroll Libertarian candidate and former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson’s third party presidential run with tens of millions of dollars, according to a report. The eight-figure sum may help Johnson win the Libertarian Party nomination and break into the mainstream. Johnson also ran for president in 2012 as a third party candidate and won some 1.275 millon votes, 0.99 percent of the popular vote. Libertarian candidates may have cost the GOP several congressional race victories that year. (David Koch himself was the Libertarian Party’s vice presidential nominee in 1980 when he and Ed Clark set the...

David and Charles Koch, the wealthy brothers whose donor network has given hundreds of millions to Republican causes and candidates in the past, aren't going to pour cash into the third-party bid of Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson – and reportedly won't spend a dime on GOP candidates in 2016. A spokesman for the Kochs on Thursday contradicted a report by The Daily Caller – citing a source within the Johnson campaign – that they planned to spend "tens of millions of dollars" to support Johnson, who is all but assured to win the Libertarian presidential nomination.

Libertarian Party presidential candidate Gary Johnson has agreed to join forces with former Massachusetts Governor William Weld for the Libertarian Party's nomination. Weld will run for the party's vice presidential slot, possibly bolstering the third party's appeal to general election voters. Weld was a popular governor in the 1990s with crossover appeal and could boost the legitimacy of a third-party option for voters disgruntled by presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump and likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. "It brings an enormous amount of credibility to what it is I'm doing," Johnson, the former governor of New Mexico, said in a statement....

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If you're like me you're probably searching for a third party candidate in the wake of Donald Trump's clinching of the GOP nomination. For those of you considering the Libertarian Party (LP), I hope you'll reconsider. The party's current frontrunner, former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson, doesn't seem to understand this liberty thing. He thinks it means drugs and abortion but should you decide that you don't want to engage in a business transaction he wants the government to coerce you. The party's other candidates aren't quite as extreme in their statism though none of them will make an unqualified...