United States: Chase Oliver was elected the presidential candidate of the Libertarian Party as result of seven ballotings on Sunday, during the Libertarian Party convention held in Washington, D.C.
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The 38-year-old, who has previously attempted to win a seat in the Congress for Georgia several times, sought to present the Libertarianism ideology in a way that would appeal to voters.
In an interview with CNN after his nomination, Oliver said that he has the following threshold goals for the November General Election: 2 percent of the National Vote.
According to him, “I got 2.1% of the vote when I ran for the Senate in Georgia. I think that’s a definite doable thing, and certainly we can improve upon that with a hard-run campaign that wakes people up,” as CNN Health reported.
On being asked how he is planning to fight the election with Joe Biden and presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump, as well as Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and expanding his vote share. He said that he planning on to speak “as many people as possible,” while also claiming to disrupt the balance of power coming from Democrats and Republicans.
He said, “I’m ready to continue to be a fly in the ointment of the two-party system,” s CNN reported.
What does Olived called for?
He has proposed the reduction of barriers that would cater to immigration to the state and has supported work visas more than ever, not to mention he opposes foreign wars. He said that the goal is to get the states to “decriminalize” abortion, whereas he also supports states advancing non-authoritative procedures, as CNN reported.
The win for Oliver in Sunday’s convention is a loss for the Mises Caucus, a libertarian branch who has seen ascension within the party over the last few years. Angela McArdle of Idaho, Libertarian Party chair who was, among others, reelected at the convention this weekend, was part of the caucus.
Oliver added, “While this last ballot’s been going on, I’ve heard from so many people concerned that I’m going to leave them out of this campaign,” and, “I urge you to understand that I want to unify this party around the common principles that we all respect.”
About the course of voting
Kennedy, for whom one state had placed his name in the nomination early Sunday, did not have sufficient votes during the first vote to make this cut.
Thus, Oliver finally clinched the nomination with the help of the final contender, Mike ter Maat, with whom he made a deal in the nominating process.
Ter Maat supported Oliver on the floor of the convention after the fifth round of voting by stating that he agreed to Oliver’s proposal to be his vice presidential candidate despite having questions about the Mises Caucus’ approach.
The Mises Caucus had officially endorsed Michael Rectenwald, who was leading in the initial rounds of the poll.
In the sixth row, again, no candidate crossed the 50 percent threshold to clinch the party nomination, but the two remaining candidates were Oliver and Rectenwald.
The last of the voting stages was between Oliver and “none of the above.”
McArdle said before the final voting that if “none of the above” were to be voted in the system, then the party would not have a candidate to run for president this year.
With 497 votes, Oliver clinched 60 percent of the votes, while 269 voters, or 36 percent, chose “none of the above. ”
Another delegate, Tom Markey of Rhode Island takes the same view about Oliver than Rectenwald whereby he said that Oliver has a better chance of getting support from the larger population than Rectenwald.