Jacob Angeli-Chansley, more widely known as the “QAnon Shaman,” who gained notoriety for his involvement in the storming of the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021, has filed paperwork with the Arizona Secretary of State expressing his interest in running for Congress as a member of the Libertarian Party.
Jacob Angeli-Chansley made national news in 2021 when he and thousands of others breached the Capitol building during a joint session of Congress, where the electoral votes for the 2020 presidential election were being certified. Wearing a horned fur hat, face paint, and carrying a spear with an American flag, Angeli-Chansley quickly became a recognizable figure associated with the day’s events.
Angeli-Chansley was subsequently arrested and faced several charges, including unlawfully entering a restricted building with a dangerous weapon, disorderly conduct, and obstructing Congress’s work, among others. In November 2021, he pleaded guilty to a felony charge of obstructing the certification of the Electoral College results. Chansley was later sentenced to 41 months in prison but was released early earlier this year.
Now, local media outlet the Arizona Republic reports that Angeli-Chansley has expressed his interest in mounting a congressional campaign for Arizona’s 8th congressional district as a candidate associated with the Libertarian Party, reporting that he filed paperwork with the Secretary of State’s office last Thursday afternoon.
“You are hereby notified that I, the undersigned, hereby declare my interest to run as a candidate for the office of U.S. Representative in Congress – District No. 8, seeking the nomination of the LIBERTARIAN Party, at the 2024 General Election to be held on Tuesday, November 5, 2024,” the document states. Readers of Independent Political Report can view a copy of the document below:
The Libertarian Party of Arizona would presumably have no say in the matter of Angeli-Chansley’s candidacy, as earlier this year, the Arizona Secretary of State stated that No Labels, another emerging party organization in an unrelated situation, can’t block candidates from using its ballot line to run for office even if its leadership is personally opposed to them doing so.
According to the Arizona Secretary of State’s website, candidates seeking the nomination of a recognized political party for Congress must collect a minimum number of signatures. This requirement is set at half of 1% of the total qualified signers in the state as of January 4, 2024. Estimates by the online political encyclopedia Ballotpedia suggest that this figure is approximately 826 signatures for Libertarian candidates.
Arizona’s Eighth congressional district is presently represented by Republican Debbie Lesko, who has stated that she will not be seeking re-election. The most recent independent or emerging party challenger for the district was Green Party candidate Mark Salazar in 2016. Salazar ran against then-incumbent Republican Trent Franks and secured just over 93,000 votes, equivalent to 31.4% of the total.
George Phillies: Unfortunately, you are correct. I think only one or two candidates have run on the Libertarian line in Arizona since the Republicans in the legislature changed the law. Ironically, they are hurt by having so many members. New parties in Arizona, like the No Labels Party, when they petition to get on the ballot are good for two election cycles. Because new parties have so few members, due to a court case involving the Socialist Workers Party decades ago, Arizona law allows write-in candidates in new parties to win primaries with “a plurality” of the vote. I believe some candidates on the Green and the former Americans Elect party have won primaries with as few as one or two write-in votes and thus they can appear on the November ballot.
It is much harder to win a Republican, Democratic and Libertarian party primary as a write-in since the candidate would need to get as many write-in votes as they would have had to get as signatures by petitioning to get on the primary ballot.
If this individual wanted to assure himself of a place on the November 2024 ballot as a congressional candidate, he could register as a voter with the Arizona No Labels Party and run as a write-in candidate and win the primary by voting for himself, assuming there were no other candidates in a No Labels Party primary for that office.
(This is all pending a federal court case, No Labels Party v. Fontes, where the national organization is suing the Arizona Secretary of State to stop him from letting any of the No Labels voters from running in their primary. Although they are a party, they claim not to be a party, because if they are a party in Arizona — like the Libertarians, Republicans and Democrats — they would have to reveal who is contributing them, and for some reason the No Labels leaders are desperately trying to hide who their donors are.)
We are advised, indirectly, by Andy Jacobs: Regardless of whether or not this guy is really a libertarian, and of what his merits and demerits as a candidate are, he will have to contend with Arizona’s ballot access laws, which were made more difficult for the Libertarian Party several years ago. Since the LP of AZ has recognized party status via their number of registered voters, the LP of AZ gets a primary, and several years ago a law got passed in Arizona which increased the number of petition signatures needed for Libertarian Party candidates to get on a primary ballot by 5 or 6 times over what it had been. Only registered Libertarians and people registered to vote as non-partisans can sign the petition. Ever since this law passed Libertarians running for partisan offices in Arizona have had a very difficult time getting on the ballot, which has led to a decrease on the number of Libertarian Party candidates on the ballot there. Presidential candidates of qualified parties are exempt from this requirement.
Candidates of qualified parties can also proceed from primaries to general elections in Arizona without fulfilling the primary petition requirement if they get a specified number of write in votes. I am not sure how many write in votes in the primary this guy would need to be able to advance to the general election, but I think that it is a high enough threshold to be difficult.
Too bad no Monster Raving Loony Party in Arizona.
Which means that if they oppose his candidacy (which we don’t know yet), they will need to find another candidate and get signatures to force an election either in a primary or at their convention — I don’t know which their state law would require.