Last week for ReasonTV, Libertarian National Committee Chair Angela McArdle sat down with Nick Gillespie and Zach Weissmueller to discuss the midterm elections and successes and failures in the Libertarian Party since the Reno convention. Joining ReasonTV for an hour and a half of conversation, the three discussed what happens next for the Libertarian Party, what strategies worked, and areas like Georgia where the Libertarian candidate has had dramatic consequences for the Republican and Democratic candidates.
For Angela McArdle and the Libertarian National Committee, which came to power at the LNC in Reno last May, the midterm elections served as the first demonstration of the new Libertarian National Committee’s electoral influence and overall strategic direction.
“I think it’s a mixed bag,” McArdle said in response to how she thought the Party performed last week. “We had some really exciting wins, we have made some gains with ballot access, we got some people elected at a local level, and most importantly, we are part of the national conversation in a way that’s incredibly profound and meaningful.”
McArdle additionally pointed to Kentucky and Virginia as examples of areas where a “cultural shift” has created a vacuum for Libertarians to fill potentially. Her next steps will be for the LNC to work on “really detailed and granular postmortems” to see the best tactics and approaches worth sharing with state affiliates.
McArdle also used her time to denounce what she saw as the failures of previous Libertarian National Committee administrations.
“I do not believe past administrations at the Libertarian Party on a national level have done the work to get a long-term strategy in place,” McArdle said. “If you want to be taken seriously at the state and federal level, you need to have political experience. You need a resume.”
“Many of us learned during the lockdowns […] that you have the opportunity to stand down and nullify tyrannical edicts that come at the state level.”
In Georgia, where Libertarian Chase Oliver denied incumbent Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker a majority of the vote and threw the election into a run-off, McArdle offered her take on what led to Oliver’s success.
“I believe Chase Oliver spent a lot of time walking his district and talking to people. The reality is that he was running against two terrible candidates.”
As for accusations of throwing the election, McArdle scoffed at the notion of Chase being a spoiler. “This whole spoiler talk in Georgia makes no sense.” she said, “they have a second bite at the apple. “What’s incredible about this is now they have to compete for Libertarian votes.”
When pushed by ReasonTV that Chase Oliver is critical of the dominant Mises Caucus and followed the proverbial script used by Gary Johnson while campaigning, McArdle agreed that it had broad appeal in Georgia before changing the topic to discuss Pennsylvania.
Regarding Arizona, where Libertarian Mark Victor dropped out and endorsed Republican Blake Masters in the final days, McArdle views it as a learning experience in communication between candidates and state affiliates. She contrasted Arizona to Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Alabama, where she said the candidate and affiliate relations were tighter.
When asked by Nick Gillespie if the LNC would require commitments from candidates not to drop out, McArdle said she would ask them about their plans beforehand. “I’m not going to be able to, nor do I desire to control what everyone does,” she stated.
McArdle also denied back-channeling pressure from people in the Party to endorse Masters from the Mises side. “I did not endorse Blake Masters,” she said before criticizing him for his positions on the border wall and the drug war. “I’m sure he’s better than a Democrat, but that’s not the standard that I personally hold myself to, and that’s not the standard of the Libertarian Party.”
Angela McArdle also discussed the current relationship between the Mises Caucus and the various factions in opposition to its control of the Libertarian National Committee. When asked about her thoughts on reconciliation between the various factions, McArdle said that the Party must use strategies tailored to different states and areas. She additionally denounced past Libertarian leadership for failing to apply that metric.
“I think that has been a failure of past administrations to not be open to the fact that different states require different tactics,” she said.
McArdle also criticized Libertarians who are more heavily invested in discussing Libertarianism but not putting in the labor. “I love all of our philosophical libertarians to death, but the reality is people who are very well-read and play the role of pundit are typically less politically engaged.” To McArdle, the reality is that candidates need to go and meet political engagement where it currently exists.
When asked about the role of the Party and its function, McArdle was clear that she saw the goal of the Party to elect candidates. However, she wanted Libertarians to ground themselves in reality. “We’re not a PAC, and it’s not a zero-sum game by any means necessary approach.”
“At a local level, please get elected. On a state and federal level, we need to operate within the framework of reality,” she said. “I’m so sorry to anyone who thinks we’re going to win the presidency in 2024.”
When pressed for examples of how the Mises Caucus-controlled Libertarian National Committee has performed since Reno, McArdle said that earned media has “quadrupled.” However, she did acknowledge that membership had a slight decline but anticipates a spurt following the midterms to restore that balance.
She continued to have strong words for previous administrations, who she says did not handle the membership growth well. “What it looks to me for the past six years, the only major driver of membership in the Party was to motivate people for a change in leadership,” she stated. “No one had the motivation or a plan to grow the movement.” When contrasted to the current Libertarian National Committee, McArdle said that the LNC has done a good job of managing recurring membership and that they see stability.
ReasonTV additionally questioned Angela McArdle on what she meant when she initially said, “we’re going to make this thing functional and not embarrassing for you” at the Reno convention. To McArdle, that means a lot of things, including not apologizing to “the regime” and building infrastructure for Libertarian candidates and affiliates. “I think it’s embarrassing the lack of resources that we have produced for our candidates and members,” she said before giving candidate training, fundraising, and educating advocates on how to hold campaign roles like treasurer as an example of something not being done.
“That hasn’t been there in the past. It just doesn’t exist.”
Not all of McArdle’s commentary was met without criticism, however. Following statements that the Libertarian Party did not offer candidate training until her tenure, former leaders and party activists took to social media to denounce her claims, several members providing photographic proof of past campaign training.
The original interview is viewable in its entirety here or can be found on ReasonTV.
To give a maybe controversial viewpoint here if you’re a Libertarian party member: who gives a shit about the national party?
We just did an election cycle in our state. We had by the standards of Libertarians strong finishes. We had new local affiliates running several candidates. No one mentioned anything going on with the national party once. It was not relevant to proceedings. It was not relevant politicking to voters. No one gave a damn about who Angela McArdle or Josh Smith or Caryn Ann Harlos were. You think I’d get a single vote talking about Robert’s Rules of Order?
The only election the national party ever does is one every 4 years for President. THAT’S IT! Everything else is…states. So your state party is where all your money, time, and attention should go. And this game as always has been one of numbers. You don’t like your state leadership, get more followers to your side that become members and you win the vote by having a majority. And know the rules. Politics is a game of persuasion. If you don’t persuade enough people, you’re ripe for entryism.
Actually, McArdle sounds like many past Libertarian officials. Focus on local elections. Build a resume. Don’t be weird. I’ve heard these themes since the 1990s from many factions that have come and gone: Pragmatarians, Reformers, Republican Lites, Lessertarians.
Based on these opinions, McArdle is no more or less qualified than most previous LP officials, state and national.
Going off on a rant:
McArdle is a loser. She has a loser mentality. “On a state and federal level, we need to operate within the framework of reality,” is what a loser says. Tell that to Jesse Ventura. Tell that to Angus King. Tell that to Bernie Sanders. On her own criteria, neither of them should have run for higher office. McArdle lacks vision and imagination. Reality is what you make it. Elections can be won, even complete unknowns with with weird ideas, but they have to want it and do the work. In her “framework of reality,” the LNC should be disband and she should go home, because we don’t need a national organization to run local candidates. She wants people to donate to the party, then give people a reason to give money, not a framework of reality. She wants people to vote Libertarian, give people a better option, not a framework of reality.
She can criticize Sarwark, Neale, Hinkle, etc., but at least they gave people a reason to be Libertarian. They gave people hope that the LP was something special, and that with hard they people can change the world. Hopefully, the LP will right itself. They just have to believe.