The Libertarian Party of New Hampshire has publicly rejected Chase Oliver as the party’s presidential nominee, asserting he lacks the traits for a libertarian victory and stating the party will not formally support his campaign later this year.
In a statement put out on Friday by the Libertarian Party of New Hampshire via social media, the party stated that it would not support Oliver later this year. It contrasted several of Oliver’s views and past actions with the party’s principles, particularly regarding gender-affirming care for minors, drag show access for children, support of Critical Race Theory, and other instances where his views otherwise diverged from the party’s values.
“The nominee has taken many actions which prove that we cannot ultimately endorse him,” the statement read. “Whether he is foolish, lacking in courage, or intentionally subversive, it is clear that he does not possess the necessary traits for libertarian victory.”
Additionally, the party called out Oliver for his unwillingness to debate with “anyone who disagrees with his progressive ideology,” which likely references a recent invitation from podcaster Tim Pool to Oliver earlier this week that he ultimately turned down.
Despite the party’s decision to withhold formal support of Chase Oliver’s campaign, it is unable to remove him from the New Hampshire ballot. Oliver traveled to New Hampshire earlier Friday to file his intent to seek office in the state.
“Although New Hampshire ballot laws do not allow our party to prevent the nominee from appearing on the ballot – indeed, he received an entirely incidental benefit from being part of the same ballot-access petition drive as our chosen and endorsed gubernatorial candidate – we will offer him no formal support as a party, nor will the vast majority of our members,” the statement read.
The statement concluded with a pitch encouraging libertarians to join them in New Hampshire, which the party instead believes offers the best chance for achieving liberty.
Readers may be interested to learn that the Libertarian National Committee’s Ballot Access Committee is recommending a $5,000 allocation to the Libertarian Party of New Hampshire. Seeing that the party is not supporting the Oliver campaign (and having been approached by an Oliver petitioner yesterday afternoon, it’s clear he has his own supporters on the ground to some degree), I wanted to further investigate who the funds would actually support at this point.
Link: https://groups.google.com/g/lnc-business-list-public/c/C_IBDnEwplE
While the minutes indicate there were past discussions about potentially running candidates for congressional office or in the city of Manchester, the only formal endorsement I’ve found so far is from the recent May meeting, where the party voted to back Stephen Villee for the gubernatorial election.
“and find themselves in court suing each other over it”
Well hey, at least the lawyers win, even if nobody else does.
There’s no consensus over who or what is or isn’t a libertarian. They’re going to get themselves removed from more and more ballots, have multiple factions appear on ballots simultaneously, and find themselves in court suing each other over it and spending more and more of their time, money, and energy fighting about it in various ways, probably mostly from behind screens most of the time.
They’ve already removed themselves from my consideration for voting, membership, vote registration, donations, in kind support, or ever thinking of using that l word to describe myself. They’ll provide the same service for more and more people going forward.
Reality doesn’t care about good or bad, and I, Actually, don’t either.
Jim is not a libertarian. Pushing libel to cover up for totalitarian statism is not libertarian.
Jim must be physically removed for the good of all.
Rick is not a libertarian. Pushing dumb conspiracy theories and lying about the positions of libertarians is not libertarian.
Rick must be expelled from the party for the good of the party.
Chase Oliver is not a libertarian. Pushing masking and shots which have proven to not only be harmful but also supporting government control is not libertarian.
The LNC must reject Chase Oliver for the good of the party.
Debating Trump and Biden? Where, when and how will he do that? They’re not going to debate him, although he can debate them as much as he wants. Then again, so can I.
The advantage he has over me in having his debating of him in being noticed (by anyone other than neighbors who might call for a welfare checkup on me if they hear me screaming at broadcast facsimiles of leading potus candidates) is the presidential nomination of a party with ballot access.
But, if that party won’t do anything to compel its state affiliates to actually give him that ballot access, that advantages dissipates to the extent he can still manage to hold some ballot lines.
Thus, he still has to debate paleolibertarians, or whatever they are. At least if he wants the ballot lines they control. I don’t know off hand how many that is, but if it’s proportional to 7th ballot votes, 40% of their country won’t have him on the ballot.
It may be more than that, since 50 state ballots this year was a big reach for them even before the nominee was known – their ballot plan from months ago didn’t include NY, IL or DC. New York access at this point will only happen if they win in court.
A number of other states hinge on a combination of the state and national parties working together with donors the campaign finds independently all cooperating to get on the ballot. It’s not clear how many of those states will cooperate. It’s not even clear to what extent the national committee will get and stay on board with funding ballot access.
Then you have the states where they already have ballot access, and it’s not clear how many of those will put him on either at this point.
A party can’t simultaneously be at war with itself, trying to scramble to get on ballots, and claim to be up for potus against the big 2 or 3. It’s not clear if Oliver will be in the top five presidential candidates in terms of ballot access, either.
The “the vast majority” of LPNH members is something like 100 people out of a population of 1.4 million. Seriously, who cares? LPNH has proven themselves to be entirely irrelevant in the context of the successes of the Free State Project. For better or worse, virtually 100% of small-l libertarian successes in New Hampshire have been via those working inside the the GOP.
Also, the whole thing about Chase Oliver not debating Jeremy Kaufmann on Tim Pool is false equivocation. Kaufmann is well known as one of the biggest snowflakes (to use a term often applied to his detractors) in paleolibertarianism. He easily flips out, screams at, and degrades anyone who disagrees with him. He’s a bad faith bully with little control over his emotions (which is probably why he was fired from the FSP board) and should be left to his increasing irrelevance.
The time for debating paleolibertarians was in the primary. Chase Oliver has now rightly moved on to challenging Trump and Biden. I’m sure he’d welcome the chance to speak to Joe Rogan or any other objective alternative media outlet, but only a fool would walk right into an obvious trap, and Chase is clearly no fool.
So, NHLP is joining the disaffiliate us campaign, huh? Good.
“Donald Trump is the Libertarian National Committee’s nominee”
It is more nuanced than that. Within both the LNC and within the Mises Caucus, there seems to be a lot of disagreement.
You have Angela McArdle endorsing Trump in red states, Oliver in blue states – presumably to take votes from Biden to the advantage of Trump – but for some reason nobody in swing states(?)
Meanwhile, Caryn Ann Harlos is going full in on Oliver, and Hannah Goodman is going full in on Trump. I don’t see Mark Rutherford or Bill Redpath endorsing Trump any time soon. Michael Heise quit politics and I don’t think he or Todd Hagopian have endorsed anyone.
Similarly, as far as I know, while Montana and New Hampshire have made it clear that they are not supporting Oliver, they also haven’t expressed support for anyone else (yet). Which is also true of Colorado if you view their chair’s endorsement as distinct from the party’s.
Personally, I like the stance that Spike Cohen has taken the most: 1) he’s not going to endorse anyone running in this election, 2) neither Trump nor Oliver are good for liberty, 3) people should vote with their own conscience instead of listening to endorsements.
These people are all Republicans who support things like eminent domain and don’t do anything to hide it, while claiming to be “the real Libertarians.” I know there is a lot of inside politics and backstory I’m not really aware of that went down when their boy Dave decided not to run, but if they wanted to back a “pure Libertarian” or whatever they claim they could have supported someone like Hornberger. Instead they backed and continue to support MAGA Republicans and right-wing positions. it’s funny reading the “tweets” of the right-wing grifters and z-list MMA dudes and has-been metal singers recruited as “celebrities.” They seem obsessed with whether the candidate has ever performed fellatio, but I wonder how they even manage to sing or speak on a podcast with Dear Leader Trump’s tiny todger shoved so far down their throats. I don’t care what someone sucks on in private, but these so-called libertarian statists should be embarrassed about their public state-sucking and bootlicking. And, Chase may have some questionable positions, but these idiots actually call him ”a gay commie” and nonsense for his MOST basic libertarian beliefs. Jeremy Kauffman, who is about the least-imposing beta male (since these z-list edgelords profess to be so masculine and “alpha”) dude I’ve ever seen, admitted this is all about a rightwing culture war movement to them and has nothing to do with principled libertarianism. Build the wall, protectionism, eminent domain, unleash the police, big government MAGA love. There’s a nice welcoming place for all that, it shouldnt be the LP.
I wonder which Presidential candidate the New Hampshire Libertarians will be voting for instead of Chase Oliver and why?
Come on New Hampshire! I have attended LP events in the state and I know some of these people. Not wanting Chase to be on the ballot regardless of your level of support is insane. Just look at what he is actively campaigning on in 2024. I’ll bet you’ve voted for candidates with less fortitude and likely endorsed a muddle of notions counter to preserving liberty in the past. Chase Oliver would not have been my first choice for some of the reasons cited but he is a great spokesperson for our cause and will shepherd a new generation into the tent with all of our help. Please don’t throw away this opportunity because you didn’t get everything you hoped for out of the national convention.
There is a lot of irony in LPNH calling anyone else foolish and subversive.
I’ve heard mixed reports on if LPNH actually put down that money or if it’s just Justin O’Donnell doing it on his own and raised that much. If there is an independent petition drive for Chase Oliver, from the campaign or whoever, they have until September and it only takes 3,000 signatures, so that should be relatively easy though not trivial. LPNH has no party status currently, so they can’t stop him from using the Libertarian ballot label, too.
In any event, the fact that the LNC will do nothing about CO MT (which both do have ballot access) and now NH going rogue against the presidential ticket, shows how absurd it is to pretend Oliver is actually the LNC’s nominee. No doubt more states to come, with a wink and a nudge from McArdle.
Donald Trump is the Libertarian National Committee’s nominee, regardless of what the Libertarian National Convention might have said.
Not quite as eloquent as the LPCO’s statement – it could have done with a proofreading, but we’ve all been there – nonetheless another very good explicit enumeration of valid issues with the farce of having someone like Chase Oliver representing a nominally “Libertarian” Party:
– “While the nominee was having a masked and distanced Thanksgiving dinner in 2020, Free Staters in New Hampshire hosted PorcFest with thousands of attendees.”
– “While the nominee defends the chemical castration of children and drag shows for kids, we are teaching our children the values of reason, freedom, and family.”
– “While the nominee refuses to debate or engage with anyone who disagrees with his progressive ideology and instead just calls them racists or bigots, New Hampshire libertarians will engage with anyone, anytime, anywhere.”
– “While the nominee cheers on critical race theory and other divisive ideologies, libertarians in New Hampshire have removed such topics from government schools and implemented the most radical school choice program in the country.”
– “While the nominee supported restrictions on speech, our party and our members have faced job losses, harassment, and deplatforming for advancing the values of liberty.”
Hopefully many more states will follow.
Part of their tweet should be reworded from:
While the nominee was having a masked and distanced Thanksgiving dinner in 2020, Free Staters in New Hampshire hosted PorcFest with thousands of attendees.
To:
While the nominee was taking responsibility for his health in 2020, Free Staters in New Hampshire hosted a super-spreader event with thousands of attendees who don’t believe viruses are real.
Amusingly, LPNH is putting down $7000 toward the ballot access drive that will put on the ballot the LP candidates for Governor, President, and Vice President, so they gave Oliver the most important single piece of support available to them.