Meet Young Libertarian Presidential Candidate Chase Oliver

Some voters may see a less familiar option on the presidential ballot when they are at the polls this November: Chase Oliver.

Mr. Oliver is this year’s presidential candidate for the Libertarian Party, a party that typically gets about 1% of the national vote and is known for promoting civil liberties and small government.

At 38 years old (just three years above the constitutional threshold to become a presidential candidate), Mr. Oliver is by far the youngest contender in the field this year.

He also said he hopes this, the only openly gay candidate, will serve as an example for aspiring LGBT politicians.

A former candidate for the Georgia House of Representatives finds himself a third-party presidential candidate in an election that leaves voters feeling déjà vu. Former President Donald Trump was elected as the Republican candidate, and President Joe Biden is competing for a second term as the incumbent Democrat, setting the stage for a rematch between the two candidates.

President Trump spoke at the Libertarian National Convention in Washington, D.C. on Saturday and asked for support. He was openly booed.

This was no surprise to Mr Oliver, who was ultimately elected as the party’s presidential candidate after seven rounds of voting the next day.

“He’s here to woo our voters,” Mr Oliver said on the BBC’s Americast podcast on Thursday. “He received exactly the liberal welcome that someone like him deserves.”

Mr Oliver said President Trump represented “the warring states of the world” and criticized him for expanding the US national debt and imposing COVID-19 lockdowns during his four years in office.

Ultimately, the chairman of the Libertarian Party convention ruled that Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, was not eligible to be the Libertarian Party candidate.

The Republican former president wasn’t the only outsider to speak at the convention. Robert F. Kennedy, who is currently preparing to run for president as an independent, also spoke, and his response was much warmer.

However, when voting time came, it received the support of about 2% of delegates and was eliminated in the first round of voting.

However, in polls of the American public, President Kennedy fared better than any third-party or independent candidate in decades, reaching approval ratings of up to 15 percent. This figure is well above Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson’s highest vote share of 3% in the 2016 election results.

Mr Oliver said he understood why Mr Kennedy, the nephew of US President John F Kennedy, would do well. But he told Americast that voters seeking outsiders would be better served by his party, which is trying to build a lasting alternative to both men. -Party system.

He warned that a Kennedy presidency was a “one-time” option that would not exist after this election.

“Do you want to shout out with a protest vote?” he asked. “Or do you want to build something that will last a long time and lay the foundation for us to work together to tear down the evils of our country?”

Dan John, from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, has been a member of the Libertarian Party since the 2000s and recently became the leader of the Libertarian Party ahead of this year’s national convention.

Mr John said he thought the Liberal candidate could have a bigger impact in this year’s election cycle than in past years.

“We (Biden and Trump) each have one term and there are people in both terms who hate their lives,” the 39-year-old said. “We got a protest vote for that reason.”

But if Kennedy cuts too much of the Libertarian vote in November, the party could fall below the threshold in many states that would receive automatic voting in the upcoming presidential election. Such an outcome could be a huge blow to the Liberals’ hopes of further expanding the party’s support.

Alana Leguia, 32, attended the Libertarian Party convention and said she plans to vote for Oliver in November.

“I think the Libertarian candidate will be a direct competitor to Kennedy and I think people are ready for something new outside the duopoly. “Trump and Biden are done,” said the Sussex County, New Jersey, resident.

At the core of the libertarian argument is an aggressive effort to limit the scope of government by reducing spending and regulation and expanding individual freedoms. In practice, this includes decriminalizing most drugs and prostitution, expanding gun ownership rights, drastically cutting U.S. military spending, and allowing open immigration.

Some party positions limit public support and run counter to current mainstream political debate.

“We need to educate the public that immigration is not scary,” Mr. Oliver said. “It’s actually something that’s natural, something that we’ve seen on the North American continent for hundreds of years, and something that we’d like to continue to see in the future.”

He added that one of the goals of the upcoming campaign is to expand his party’s appeal to younger voters who have expressed particular dissatisfaction with the political status quo in recent years.

“They are demanding better than Republicans or Democrats, and we have to give them that,” he said. “We need to provide solutions to their causes and the problems they face.”

Erin Wood, 40, has been a libertarian for years and is not convinced that either Kennedy or Trump will win for her party.

“We are a die-hard party,” she said.

A Montgomery County, Maryland, resident said she plans to vote for her party’s candidate in November.

“There is no plan B at this time,” she said.