Free Republic

DES MOINES — Democratic presidential candidates descended on Iowa in a flurry of activity this weekend, attending the annual Wing Ding dinner and speaking at the Iowa State Fair, meeting as many voters as they could and kicking off the primary season in earnest. Top-tier candidates like Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders attracted huge crowds who followed their every move as they ate corn dogs and looked at the cow made of butter. And then, more quietly, there was Bill Weld. Weld, the former governor of Massachusetts, arrived at the fair Sunday morning as a drizzly rain started to...

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...

Libertarian vice presidential candidate Bill Weld isn't counting Donald Trump out of the running in the aftermath of last week's revelation that he made lewd comments about women in 2005. “I wouldn’t say I am confident that he is out of it," said Weld. "You can’t discount the possibility that there are a lot of people out there that don’t want to tell the pollsters that they are voting for Donald J. Trump.” When asked by ABC News Political Director Rick Klein and ABC’s Brad Mielke on ABC’s Powerhouse Politics Podcast Wednesday whether vice-presidential candidate Mike Pence would distance himself...

Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson said he is comfortable with his decision to run even if he turns out to take votes from Democrat Hillary Clinton — securing a victory for Republican Donald Trump. Yahoo Global News Anchor Katie Couric asked the former New Mexico governor to address a concern among some voters that most third-party candidates hear on the campaign trail: the possibility that his presence on the ballot would result in a spoiler effect. “If, in fact, your candidacy helps Donald Trump become president of the United States, are you comfortable with that?” Couric asked....

BOSTON — Libertarian vice presidential candidate William Weld says he plans to focus exclusively on denying Republican Donald Trump the presidency with the hope of helping rebuild the GOP after November. The former Republican governor of Massachusetts told The Boston Globe Tuesday he still supports Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson, but his top priority is defeating Trump. Weld has called Trump a "huckster."(continued)

"What is Aleppo?" It is many things, but let's hope among them that it is the turning point in a presidential campaign that has until now been dangerously dismissive of the crucial decisions the next US president will face the second they step into the Oval Office. In a campaign season where shocking moments have come all too frequently, the Aleppo question was another stunner. It happened Thursday morning, on MSNBC's "Morning Joe." It was a shocking exchange between the Libertarian presidential candidate, Gov. Gary Johnson, and one of the show's panelists, Mike Barnicle. Barnicle: "What would you do if...

Donald Trump could attract more support from third party and undecided voters if he plays his cards right. Voters are getting more acquainted with Gary Johnson and Jill Stein, and many would like to see them debate. And the presidential race is looking closer in Wisconsin. This is HuffPollster for Thursday, September 1, 2016. TRUMP NARROWS LEAD, COULD HAVE OPPORTUNITY TO ATTRACT THIRD PARTY VOTERS - Dana Blanton: “The race for the White House has narrowed. A new Fox News Poll finds Donald Trump gaining ground in the head-to-head matchup, despite improvements from Hillary Clinton on top issues….The poll finds...

epublican Donald Trump rebounded last week against Democrat Hillary Clinton, while support for Libertarian Gov. Gary Johnson hit a new high and Dr. Jill Stein collapsed. The People’s Pundit Daily U.S. Presidential Election Daily Tracking Poll finds Mrs. Clinton holds a slight 1.3 percentage point lead over Mr. Trump, 42.1% to 40.8%, with Gov. Johnson at 10.6% and Dr. Stein at 2.6%. This marks the highest level of support ever measured for Gov. Johnson by the PPD Presidential Election Daily Tracking Poll and, though it’s not the lowest ever measured for Dr. Stein, the Green Party candidate hasn’t fallen below...

There’s always been this notion the Libertarian Party is just full of Republicans who want to smoke pot. It’s one of the dumbest stereotypes out there because there’s so much more to libertarianism than people realize. Libertarians believe in a much smaller federal government than the GOP does, focusing on free trade vs. endless wars, and letting consenting adults do what they want to do in the bedroom. This isn’t stopping Republicans from pushing the entire, “A vote for Gary Johnson is a vote for Hillary Clinton,” claim. Even Larry O’Connor (who is a smart guy, and has a great...

Via Red State, Romney already said he’d take a look at Johnson in an interview with CNN last month (excerpted in the clip below) but that was hypothetical and qualified by concerns over libertarian support for legal weed. Johnson and Weld are telling you now that things are in motion. Does Romney have anything to lose at this point by going the whole nine yards and endorsing a third-party candidate? He’s already gone eight yards in refusing to back Trump, and he saw what sort of reception Ted Cruz got for the lesser offense of politely avoiding an endorsement. Any...

Nativism is not an American value, Libertarian presidential nominee Gary Johnson declared Thursday, delivering a pointed rebuke to Donald Trump without mentioning his name while calling on an end to immigration quotas symptomatic of a broken system. “The overwhelming cause of illegal immigration and visa overstays is the fact that our legal immigration process simply doesn’t work, and that we impose absurd caps on various work visas,” Johnson said in a statement on Thursday with his remarks to the annual National Association of Latino Elected Officials conference in Washington. “Let the market, not bureaucrats and special interests, determine how many...

Gary Johnson, the Libertarian presidential candidate who is polling in the low double digits since winning his party’s nomination, offered two careful responses to the mass shooting in Orlando. In a Sunday afternoon tweet, Johnson called for “a time to mourn, be strong & be what makes America great.”(continued)

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has sunken to third place among independent voters, a new poll reveals. Clinton pulled just 22 per cent of the independent vote in the latest Fox News poll, finishing behind Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson. Trump led among independents, pulling 32 per cent of the vote, while Johnson, a former governor of New Mexico, got 23 per cent. 'This is very bad news for Hillary Clinton,' Republican strategist Susan Del Percio told the New York Post. 'She needs independents to win in November.' Clinton did, however, show a three-point...

When Libertarian candidate for president Gary Johnson was asked about his stance on polygamy, he said, “It is personal choice” and up to the states to decide their stance on the issue. Appearing on Fox News’s “Special Report” on Monday, Daily Caller Editor-In-Chief Tucker Carlson said to Johnson, “I’ve got to give you the libertarian test. Now you’ve said as a libertarian, you believe that people ought to be able to make personal decisions without interference from the state which is why you support gay marriage. And yet, there are many, many millions of people in this country whose religion...

Via the Free Beacon, this is the guy I’m stuck with this fall, huh? *ffffaaaarrrrtttt* Second look at NRO Contributor 2016? A few months ago I would have laughed at Johnson for pandering to a left-wing movement that’s purportedly all about economics by emphasizing his common ground with them on everything but economics. After reading this, I’m not so sure. There’s a convincing case out there that a good chunk of Berniemania is twentysomethings and independent white men who disdain the Democratic label, relish the spirit of Sanders’s movement, but … aren’t terribly invested in the ultra-left platform he’s running...

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...

Former Texas Republican Congressman and three-time presidential candidate Ron Paul confirmed in an interview with the Fox Business Network that he will not be supporting Donald Trump for United States president. He said in jest that he’s waiting for Trump to become a libertarian. When asked if there’s anything that Trump could say that would help change his mind, Paul replied that he wouldn’t know what to believe since “he’s all over the map.” The entire four-minute interview is embedded below: (VIDEO-AT-LINK) This is different from his son, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, who said he will support the GOP nominee,...

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...

Three-time candidate for president Ron Paul said Wednesday he does not like any of the remaining GOP candidates in the 2016 race, and would not support Donald Trump if he were to win the Republican nomination. Trump has been able to tap into the anger and fear of a large "minority" of voters, Paul told CNBC's "Squawk Box." He said the billionaire businessman acts like he has all the answers but "zero" realistic solutions to the problems facing the nation. "I hear the ability of politicians to capitalize on the worries," the libertarian Republican continued. "They're able to use the...

One of the under-reported stories leading up to Ted Cruz' win in the Iowa Republican Caucus was his ability to attract libertarian-leaning members of the GOP base. With Rand Paul in the race, it seemed unlikely he would be able to convince New Hampshire's decidedly more libertarian "liberty wing" to follow suit. Paul dropped out of the race last week, and this week seven of the Kentucky senator's biggest Granite State supporters announced they are backing Cruz now. State Rep. J.R. Hoell was among the first to switch. The mechanical engineer now in his third term serving New Hampshire House...