The Libertarian Party presidential nominee crossed the 1 million vote threshold for the third straight election, this time without a prominent Republican defector on the ticket, suggesting the party may have become the default third option for disaffected voters.
Libertarian Jo Jorgensen and her running mate, Spike Cohen, have received over 1.6 million votes nationwide as of Wednesday evening. While this puts them in a distant third place behind Democrats Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and the Republican ticket of President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, it is nearly 1.3 million more votes than was received by the next strongest third-party candidate, the Green Party’s Howie Hawkins.
It is also the second-best showing by a Libertarian presidential candidate in history, surpassing former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson’s first bid in 2012. Jorgensen’s 1.1% of the popular vote also ties Ed Clark’s in 1980 for the second-highest of any Libertarian. Clark, who had David Koch of the Koch brothers fame as his running mate, held the record for 36 years until Johnson, who chose another former GOP governor in William Weld as his 2016 running mate, broke it.
Some have even called Jorgensen a spoiler. “If it holds, @LPNational candidate got 38,000 votes in Wisconsin and margin between @JoeBiden and @realDonaldTrump is less than 21,000 votes,” tweeted Scott Walker, the former Republican governor.
Usually, it is the Greens facing such accusations from Democrats, such as Ralph Nader during the 2000 defeat of Al Gore and Jill Stein in the 2016 loss of Hillary Clinton. The GOP has been known to blame the Libertarians for failed Senate races.
“Ultimately, I’ll be surprised if either Trump or Biden is actually cost a state by virtue of Jojo,” said Liz Mair, a communications strategist who has advised Republican candidates. “Did Biden end up in a tighter race than he expected because some small-l libertarians couldn’t quite get there between him being more restrictionist on pot than Hillary Clinton and things like court-packing and picking a VP nominee who was far, far to the left of him? We’ll never know for sure, but I think it’s quite possible.”
Johnson’s 4,489,233 raw votes and 3.3% of the national total four years ago remain the peak Libertarian performance. But this is by far the best a relatively unknown Libertarian candidate has ever done. Jorgensen has already easily bested Bob Barr’s 523,713 votes in 2008 and Ron Paul’s 431,750 in 1988. Paul subsequently returned to the Republican Party, then Congress, and then increased small-l libertarian influence through two more popular GOP presidential campaigns.
The standard vote range for a typical Libertarian presidential nominee is between 250,000 and 500,000 votes nationally. The last obscure Libertarian nominee, Michael Badnarik in 2004, won 397,265 votes. Harry Browne received 485,759 votes with Jorgensen as his running mate in 1996.
In addition to Jorgensen, Libertarian Ricky Harrington was the sole opponent running against Sen. Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican. Harrington drew 33.3% of the vote, with 97% reporting. Libertarians are also a very distant third behind Democrats and Republicans in the 32 states that allow voter registration by party, according to Richard Winger of Ballot Access News, at 652,261. This is well ahead of the Greens and the Constitution Party.
“I think the fact that Jojo was a way purer libertarian than Gary Johnson and achieved those vote totals gives you a sense that there are a lot of people who are deeply aggrieved with the two-party system in this country,” Mair said. “Not enough people to scrap it, but we’ve now had three elections in a row where it seems to me that despite the fact that populism of the leftist and rightist varieties seem very, well, popular, Libertarian showings have given the major parties a reason to find ways to cater to these voters — but they haven’t really been doing it.”
Libertarian-leaning Republicans had some successes, with Cynthia Lummis winning a Senate seat in Wyoming and Nancy Mace beating an incumbent House Democrat in South Carolina. Marijuana legalization ballot initiatives also did well in red states Trump won easily.
“Since Tuesday night, we’ve brought home 110 wins in state legislative races across the country through our grassroots program, Operation Win at the Door. This means that we’ve now secured an all-time total of 166 wins since we launched the program in 2018,” said Cliff Maloney, president of Young Americans for Liberty. “Make no mistake: This serves as a powerful testament to the hard work of our activists and staff over the last two years. To date, our teams have knocked an astronomical 2,934,550 doors. I couldn’t be more proud to be a part of this extraordinary effort to restore the republic.”
