Free Republic

Newly minted Libertarian Party presidential nominee Jo Jorgensen is touting that she’s the “freedom candidate." “The choice isn't one or the other but the one that gives you the most freedom! Make the decision that benefits the most people and not some 'lesser evil,'” the Clemson University professor tweeted on Monday, two days after she was nominated by the Libertarian Party as their presidential standard-bearer in November’s general election.

Former Vice President candidate Dr. Jo Jorgensen was named the Libertarian Party's 2020 presidential nominee during the party's nominating convention Saturday night. The convention was held online and included 12 hours of debate and four rounds of balloting. Jorgensen is also the party's first female Presidential nominee.

Rep. Justin Amash (L-Mich.) announced Saturday he will not run for president as a Libertarian, saying the circumstances do not “lend themselves” toward a successful third-party campaign. “I’ve spent nearly three weeks assessing the race, appearing in media, talking to delegates and donors, watching the Libertarian Party’s convention plan unfold, and gathering feedback from family, friends, and other advisers,” Amash tweeted. “After much reflection, I’ve concluded that circumstances don’t lend themselves to my success as a candidate for president this year, and therefore I will not be a candidate.” Amash maintained that a third party candidate could contribute a fresh...

Mainstream media journalists in Oregon including investigative reporter Rob Davis of the "Portland Oregonian/OregonLive" have been able to obtain detailed information about Covid-19 cases in the state including the race and ethnicity of those testing positive, the underlying conditions in reported deaths and details about reported cases at nursing homes and retirement communities.... President Trump issuing an executive order tonight to keep meat processing plants open in the United States..... Yesterday's ramming attack on two French police officers in a Paris suburb being investigated as a terrorist attack.... Rioting in northern Lebanon with one dead and dozens injured in the...

Lincoln Chafee, who served as Rhode Island's Republican Senator from 1999 to 2007 (after serving as a Republican mayor in the highly Democratic city of Warwick for the previous six years), served as governor of Rhode Island from 2011 to 2015 as an independent, and ran for president in the 2016 cycle as a Democrat, on Wednesday will formally announce his intention to seek the Libertarian presidential nomination at an event at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Chafee's campaign website says he intends to "Protect Our Freedoms" and "Tell The Truth" and promises that under a President Chafee...

Former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee has filed to run for President as a libertarian in what appears to be a new long-shot White House bid following his failed campaign for the Democratic nomination in 2016. Chafee filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission on Sunday to form the Lincoln Chafee for President campaign committee based in Wyoming. A website linked to Chafee's FEC filing states "Lincoln Leads with TRUTH" along with the phrase "Thirty Years, Zero Scandals." Chafee has spent most of his life as a Republican. He was nominated to his late father's Senate seat in 1999 and...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Two years ago, Augustus Sol Invictus walked from central Florida to the Mojave Desert and spent a week fasting and praying, at times thinking he wouldn't survive. In a pagan ritual to give thanks when he returned home, he killed a goat and drank its blood. Now that he's a candidate for U.S. Senate, the story is coming back to bite him. The chairman of the Libertarian Party of Florida has resigned to call attention to Invictus' candidacy in hopes that other party leaders will denounce him. Adrian Wyllie, who was the Libertarian candidate for governor...

A white nationalist who ran for the U.S. Senate in Florida and was a featured speaker during the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, was arrested on charges of kidnapping, domestic violence and possession of a firearm during a crime of violence. Augustus Sol Invictus, 36, was arrested Monday at a Florida mall by Brevard County Sheriff’s deputies on a warrant issued out of South Carolina, the Miami Herald reported. Jail records described him as an “out of state fugitive.” The Herald noted that news of the arrest was first reported on Twitter by the journalist Nick Martin,...

While incumbent Matt Bevin has not conceded the Kentucky governor's race, Democrat Andy Beshear declared ...

Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz may be able to avoid a 50-state scramble for presidential ballot access by seeking the Libertarian Party’s support. Members of the large national third party, which took more than 3 percent of the vote in 2016, are intrigued by Schultz and might be willing to give him the party nomination in 2020, meaning he would not have to gather hundreds of thousands of signatures as an independent. Schultz has branded himself a “centrist independent” as he teases a potential challenge to President Trump. But he has Libertarians swooning over his concern about the national debt...

New York requires a party to poll 50,000 votes for Governor in order to be a qualified party. The Libertarian Party and the Serve America Party both met this goal, so they both become qualified parties for the first time in New York. The Reform Party and the Women’s Equality Party both polled substantially fewer than 50,000 votes for Governor, so they will lose their qualified status.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Former Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson said in seeking to make history and capture a U.S. Senate seat in New Mexico he'll have to give up a few of his favorite activities: marathon biking rides, hanging out in his northern New Mexico "dream" home and tuning out news about President Donald Trump. But he can't promise he won't smoke an occasional joint. Johnson, who served two terms as New Mexico governor in the 1990s and gained national attention as one of the first mainstream politicians to call for the legalization of marijuana, announced Thursday that he's...

The Libertarian Party has decided to block Ron Paul and Judge Napolitano from speaking at their convention. An organizer from the Mises Institute had lined both to speak at the LNC in July, and paid the cost to have them speak, but the LP chair, Daniel Hayes is triggered by Paul's critique of the Party for its failings. So he's responded by rejecting to have either speak at the event.

Donald Trump gets elected and the Left protests by setting fires in the street: They form a “Resistance” and continue to riot for months, forming a “Resistance” whose members throw punches, attacking their “enemy” with their fists, sticks and bike locks stuffed in a sock. Celebrities who have joined the movement throw oil on the fire saying increasingly stupid things like they want to burn the White House down. And suddenly every Democrat pol is so angry they have seemingly lost the ability to control themselves and the air turns blue with their F-bombs.The Left forms “The Resistance” made up...

Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, the two-time Libertarian Party presidential candidate, says he’s lost faith in the electoral process and vowed never to run again. He will now focus all his efforts on legalizing marijuana. Govs. Johnson and Weld became the first ticket of any party to feature two governors since the 1948 presidential election and ended up receiving nearly 4.5 million votes nationally, far more than his 2012 popular vote total. While still not a viable electoral force, the 2016 presidential election marked the Libertarian Party’s most successful presidential run to date and the most successful third-party candidacy...

Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson on Tuesday defended his lack of knowledge of world affairs, suggesting on MSNBC that foreign policy expertise, or even an understanding of where international leaders are from, is what leads to military conflict. “You know what? The fact that somebody can dot the i’s and cross the t’s on a foreign leader’s geographic location then allows them to put our military in harm’s way,” Johnson told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell. The former New Mexico governor has been widely panned for a pair of foreign policy gaffes that have weighed down his long-shot candidacy. First, Johnson responded...

Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson said he’s glad “no one was hurt” in the string of attacks in three states Saturday, although dozens of people were injured. “Tell me your reaction to these news stories from the past 24 hours, what do you think the government needs to be doing on a day like today?” CNN’s Brian Stelter asked Johnson, referring to explicitly to the New York City bombing, the stabbing at a Minnesota mall and the bombs found near a charity run in New Jersey. “Well, first of all, just grateful nobody got hurt,” Johnson replied.

There had also been an eye-opening moment on the streets of Cleveland during the Republican National Convention, when [Johnson and I had] been walking behind a cigarette-wielding Ohioan. As the smoker’s exhaust wafted in our faces, I remarked offhand that—with the advent of e-cigarettes—I thought there was a good libertarian case for banning regular cigarettes. “I do too,” replied the health-obsessed triathlete, recounting his support for anti-smoking efforts in New Mexico.

Libertarian presidential nominee Gary Johnson and the Green Party’s Jill Stein will not be on the presidential debate stage for the first contest sponsored by the Commission on President Debates. Johnson and Stein both fell short of the 15 percent polling threshold required to participate, the commission said in a statement, adding that Trump and Clinton will face off on September 26 and their running mates, Tim Kaine and Mike Pence, will debate on October 4. Johnson in particular was pushing hard for inclusion in the debates, as he’d polled in the double digits across several national surveys, and previously...

Gary Johnson’s hopes of earning an invitation to the Sept. 26 debate are all but extinguished. The door is about to close on Gary Johnson. The nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates has set a “mid-September” deadline for Johnson and the other third-party candidates to meet three criteria to qualify for the first debate later this month: “evidence of constitutional eligibility,” “evidence of ballot access” and “indicators of electoral support.” Johnson clearly meets the first two qualifications: A two-term former governor of New Mexico, Johnson is a citizen and older than 35 years of age. And the Johnson campaign said Wednesday...