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The 2024 Presidential race is a couple years away. It could be a pivotal election year for Libertarians the moment when we finally make a mark in politics. But, will we? Who are the 2024 Libertarian presidential candidates? Who else will run? Will Trump run again? And what about Joe Biden? Were all wondering what will happen in 2024, but one things for sure: 2024 is going to be an interesting presidential race.
Before I get into who our candidates are, let me explain what a Libertarian is. A lot of people have heard about Libertarians, but dont know what Libertarians believe. So, what is a Libertarian? That often depends on who you ask, but in my opinion, most people are libertarians or agree with much of the libertarian philosophy of live and let live. Libertarianism is a philosophy or belief system, not just a platform for a political party. You can be a libertarian without being in the Libertarian Party.
Libertarians believe in a small, fiscally conservative government. Libertarians are not anarchists (this is not to say that some arent). We believe in having laws and government, but that the scope and size of government should be limited. The role of the government should be limited to protecting people from harm and fraud not arbitrary rules or rules that enforce a groups cultural ideas.
Libertarians are generally conservative on fiscal issues and liberal on social issues. While you can be conservative in your own life, we dont believe in trying to enforce anyones lifestyle, morals, or choices on others. We love diversity and believe that no one group should try to control the choices of others through laws or government.
Theres no doubt the 2024 presidential race is one were all anticipating. But, will the Libertarians have a great candidate this time, or will we have a lack-luster, no-name, or not-so-libertarian candidate? I will be updating this post as time unfolds but these are the candidates that we think might run in 2024.
Right now the Libertarian Party only has two presidential candidates confirmed. There will be more candidates for sure, as this race is definitely one that Libertarians could do well in. So, whos running and who do we think our 2024 Libertarian presidential candidates will be?
Website: MiketerMaat.com
Mike ter Maat is a pro-reform police officer and an economics professor who graduated with a BS in Aeronautical Engineering and an MBA from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He later went on to get his MS and Ph.D. degrees in Economics from George Washington University.
In the 2021-22 election cycle, Mike ran as the Libertarian candidate in a special Congressional election in Floridas District 20. He served as a police officer in Broward County from 2010-2021. Mike has worked in finance, economics, and education for banks, the White House, and other organizations. He started his own consulting business in 2002 where he provided professional education to bank executives. He ran this business until 2009.
Mike pledges to a Gold New Deal. He commits to the decentralization of authority and the power of our government. He has created a plan that includes ending the federal reserve, limiting government spending, and allowing states to have a constitutional option to remain in the Union for purposes of defense only.
Website: https://donate.lars24.com/
Lars Mapstead is a lifetime member of the Libertarian Party and an active Libertarian. Lars grew up on a farm, without electricity or indoor plumbing. Despite these challenges, he was able to found several successful internet companies. Now he spends his time in the Libertarian Party advocating for limited government and taxation.
He supports ranked-choice voting, cutting regulations, and term limits. He has a detailed plan to win an electoral vote for the Libertarian Party. He believes there is no better way for Libertarians to gain power than to be the deciding factor in the presidential vote.
Website: VoteChaseOliver.com
Chase Oliver is the Libertarian candidate who disrupted the Georgia Senate race by forcing a run-off. Hes been called the most influential Libertarian in the US right now byRolling Stones, and hes just announced that hes exploring the possibility of running as the Libertarian Partys presidential nominee.
Ina videohe released on Friday, Oliver announced that he was forming an exploratory committee to seek the Libertarian presidential nomination. He is a likely contender for the Libertarian nomination because of his ability to garner positive publicity and connect with ordinary voters.
Unlike other potential candidates, Chase Oliver is adamantly pro-choice when it comes to bodily autonomy, not just for vaccines, but on the issue of abortion. This could become a deciding factor for many Libertarians and voters in 2024.
He is charismatic, energetic, and speaks in a way that voters resonate with. With a small budget, he was able to garner 2 percent of the vote in Georgia. He was one of the most successful candidates during the 2022 election cycle, which earned him a lot of media attention. Could his appeal translate into the party nomination? Many of his fans think so.
Learn more about Chase Oliver by visiting his website,VoteChaseOliver.com. You can also follow him onTwitterto learn more about him.
There are many potential candidates for the Libertarian nomination in 2024. Several Libertarian candidates have expressed interest in running, and many within the party would like to see them run. However, if they do decide to run they will need support from within the party to win the nomination. These are the three most talked about Libertarians. They hold a lot of promise in leading us to victory in 2024 if they decide to run.
Also Read: Chase Oliver, the Libertarian Who Forced a Run-Off in Georgia, Is Considering Presidential Run
Justin Amash, former congressman from Michigan, is one of the most popular Libertarians in the Libertarian party. In 2020, he formed an exploratory committee to seek the Libertarian Party presidential nomination. However, he decided shortly after launching the committee that 2020 wasnt the right time for him to run. Though many Libertarians want him to run, Amash has repeatedly told party members and the media that this isnt on his radar right now.
In spite of this, many Libertarians are still hopeful he will run in 2024, myself included. I believe he would consider running in the 2024 election if the timing made sense and he was in a position to run in a viable race. He expressed this sentiment to media outlets like USA Today saying, I want to do what I can to work from the outside to change things because Ive tried the inside and right now I cant get much traction.
I dont know if Justin Amash will run in 2024, but he is my ideal candidate. He has a strong sense of integrity and the ability to appeal to all types of people, including Democrats, Republicans, and Libertarians. With strong delegate and financial support from the Libertarian Party, I think he would be their best candidate.
Amash does not have a campaign website. He is not officially running, but he hosts a podcast where you get to know him better. You can listen to The Justin Amash Podcast here or follow him on Twitter to learn more about him.
Also read: Will Justin Amash Run for President in 2024?
Dave Smith is a New York stand-up comedian and libertarian commentator. He has appeared on Fox News, CNN, and many other popular media outlets. Hes known for his thought-provoking comedy and says he represents a new generation of pundits. He is a well-liked member of the Mises Caucus and a rising star in the Libertarian Party.
Smith has name recognition that is on par with Amash and is a first choice for many Mises Caucus members. Like many other Mises Caucus members, he became a Libertarian because of the Ron Paul movement. He likes Ron Paul because he challenged him to think differently about the government. He inspired him to read and learn more about liberty through authors like Rothbard, Mises, and Friedman.
He believes the Libertarian Party must fight harder against the tyranny of big tech monopolies which limit free speech and promote political correctness. Hes called overregulation of misinformation the biggest threat to liberty. He has also been an outspoken critic of Covid lockdowns and mask mandates.
Smith is appealing for a few reasons. One of them is that he attracts millennials with his charisma and humor. The millennial voter block may prove to be the deciding factor in the 2024 election. Although he has not stated publicly that he will seek the Libertarian nomination, he has said that its a possibility. To learn more about Dave Smith, you can follow his podcast Part of the Problem, where he discusses current events, government and foreign policy.
Also read: Dave Smith 2024 Will He Be the Next Libertarian Presidential Candidate?
Spike Cohen is a Libertarian activist and entrepreneur. In 2020, Spike Cohen was the running mate of Jo Jorgensen. He has a large social media following and is enthusiastically supported by nearly all Libertarians. He has not expressed an interest in running for president yet, but many in the party believe he would be the best choice.
There is a strong case for Spike Cohen as the Libertarian presidential candidate if he chooses to run. He is well-liked. He has an active presence in the media and can commit to campaigning full-time. He also has a background in web design and marketing.
Cohen started his web design company when he was still a teenager and retired from it in 2017. He now travels the country training Libertarians on how to run their campaigns and promotes a positive and principled message of libertarianism on social media, YouTube, and media appearances. He is what we Libertarians call a home-grown Libertarian, without the baggage of coming from the Republican or Democrat party.
Although its not clear if Cohen would even consider the nomination, he would be supported by most Libertarians if he was selected. Spike currently co-owns a news and entertainment company called Muddied Waters Media. You can also find him on YouTube at You Are the Power. Like most Libertarians, Spike is committed to working towards the partys goal of a world set free in our lifetime.
Larry Sharpe is a former marine and popular Libertarian from New York. He has not publicly stated any intention to run as a Libertarian presidential candidate in 2024. However, he has a lot of supporters in the Libertarian community who would support him if he decided to run as our Libertarian presidential nominee.
Sharpe is a successful entrepreneur who started and sold a trucking and distribution business. Hes also been a leadership coach who has helped other entrepreneurs, executives, and companies to develop stronger leadership and team-building skills. Hes been a guest instructor at universities including Yale and Columbia University.
He is highly respected in the Libertarian community for his grassroots campaigning and activism. As a Libertarian,he ran for governor of New York in 2018 and 2022. He was also a candidate for the Libertarian Vice Presidential nomination in 2022.
At this point, he hasnt mentioned anything about running as a presidential candidate in 2024. While it seems unlikely to me that he is interested in this role right now, I think anything is possible between now and our 2024 convention.
You can learn more about Larry Sharpe atLarrySharpe.com.
Former Democrat Tulsi Gabbard appears to be preparing for a run for president. She hasnt announced anything, but her recent departure from the Democrat party and subsequentcampaigning for MAGA Republicanscertainly hinted at a presidential run in 2024.
Shes also launched her own YouTube channel,The Tulsi Gabbard Show, which already has thousands of subscribers. As I mentioned in my video about her, YouTube is the largest social media platform for young voters.
I think she is keenly aware of the demographics she needs to win an election. This is also why I believe shes targeted MAGA Republicans. She and Trump may both appeal to the same group of voters voters who are fed up with politics as usual. Even with Trump announcing his own run for president, aligning with his base may help her if she decides to run herself.
She is well-liked by many Libertarians. On her show, she spoke with Ron Paul, a prominent figure in the Libertarian community. The two discussed civil liberties and how they are under attack in the U.S. She also changed her views on the second amendment. It looks like she is realigning her political views to attract a wider base of voters, including Libertarians.
At this point, it is unlikely that she will run as a Libertarian. It appears she is trying to win over Republican voters. Still, she isnt a Republican and has views that dont fit into any of the major parties. This is why some think she will run as an independent or third-party candidate and possibly as a Libertarian.
Historically, the Libertarian Party has not performed well in presidential races. In 2016, the party had its best showing ever with candidate Gary Johnson. Although he only received 3.3 percent of the vote nationally, this was a record-setting campaign for the party.
In the United States, many people are unhappy with the two-party system. Pew reports that almost half of younger adults wish they had more parties to choose from. This is most felt by millennials, who will have the biggest impact on the next election. With many young adults unhappy with how Biden has handled the economy, this could be the right time for a strong Libertarian presidential candidate to enter the race as an alternative.
We know that many in the U.S. are dissatisfied with the two-party system. Pew Research reports that nearly half of younger adults wish they had more parties to choose from. This discontent is most felt by millennials, who will have the biggest impact on the next election. With many young adults unhappy with how Biden is handling the economy, this could be the right time for a third party to shake up the presidential race.
Libertarians have reason to be optimistic in 2024. But, with the events currently taking place in the Libertarian Party, its hard to say if any candidate will have the funding or ballot access needed to win. It is now more important than ever for Libertarians to be engaged and active in their state parties.
In 2024, Libertarians will hold a convention to select the presidential and vice presidential candidates. The convention will be held in Washington, DC. To serve as a delegate at the national convention, you must be selected by your state party to represent your state as a delegate at National.
If you are not involved in the Libertarian Party, I hope you will get involved. If you are new to politics, I strongly encourage you to join my Facebook group, Pattys American Integrity and Liberty Group. We are a group of friendly people from all over the country. My goal is to help you learn about libertarianism and connect with like-minded, principled, positive people.
Help me spread the message of liberty to more people. Take a second to support Patty for Liberty on Patreon!
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2024 Libertarian Presidential Candidates - Who's Running in 2024?
(Photo Illustration: Jack Forbes/Yahoo News; photos: Amir Levy/Getty Images, Iranian Leader Press Office/Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images, Getty Images (4))
WASHINGTON Escalating tensions between Iran and Israel have brought the two countries to the verge of war. While experts disagree on the probability of military conflict between the Jewish state and the Islamic Republic, they agree that the present moment is rife with potential pitfalls.
Iran could be approaching the capacity to manufacture a nuclear weapon; a top Pentagon official testified earlier this week that Tehran has made remarkable progress and could be within 12 days of enriching sufficient uranium for a nuclear weapon.
In response, Israel is preparing for military intervention to stop what it and many Western nations believe could be a disastrous development that should be prevented at all costs.
But war could be disastrous, too.
This is a very, very dangerous situation, said Bernard Avishai, a professor of government at Dartmouth, who has written extensively on Israel.
The question being asked in Washington and other world capitals is whether the danger today is truly greater than it has been in recent years, or whether the threat of war is being overstated for political ends.
Maybe there is truth to both views.
The posturing is part of the strategy, Avishai told Yahoo News. But he and others cautioned that the messaging has appeared to be growing more bellicoseas Tehran has continued to enrichuranium to ever greater levels and Israel has responded by signalingan increasing willingness to strike Iranian nuclear facilities at Fordow, Isfahan and Natanz. Those facilities are all heavily fortified; to effectively disrupt the work now taking place there, Israel would have to unleash immensely powerful weapons whose deployment could unleash global (not to mention regional) blowback.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, at a court hearing in Rishon Lezion, Israel, on Jan. 23. (Abir Sultan/AFP via Getty Images)
If Iran was finally able to manufacture enough weapons-grade uranium to place a nuclear warhead on a ballistic missile, itwould instantly represent a dramatically elevated threat to global peace.No country would feel that threat more deeply than Israel, a nation founded in the wake of the Holocaust.
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Speaking to a Jewish group in Los Angeles in 2006, Benjamin Netanyahu, who was Israeli prime minister at the time, explicitly tied the genocide that gave rise to Israel in the 20th century to the greatest threat Israel faced in the 21st. Its 1938, and Iran is Germany. And Iran is racing to arm itself with atomic bombs, he said.
The presidency of Barack Obama was geared towards restoring U.S. ties in the Middle East, North Africa and Europe that had been ruptured by George W. Bush and his anti-terrorism campaign. Obama and Netanyahu never got along; the question of how to best curb Tehrans push to enrich fissile material for a nuclear weapon emerged as an especially contentious issue between them.
During his address to the United Nations General Assembly in 2012, Netanyahu displayed a cartoon rendering of a bomb symbolizing Irans accelerating nuclear program. He drew a red line near the bombs narrowing stem, meant to represent uranium enriched to weapons-grade 90% purity, in order to make his point that everything had to be done to keep Iran from that achievement.
Red lines don't lead to war; red lines prevent war, Netanyahu told the world leaders gathered before him.
A man checks the damage from an Israeli missile attack inside the historic citadel in Damascus, Syria, on Feb. 20. (Ammar Safarjalani/Xinhua via Getty Images)
Today, Netanyahu is improbably once again Israels leader, having been ousted in 2021 amid a flurry of ethical charges, only to return earlier late last year as the head of a far-right nationalist coalition.
Once again, he and his administration are warning of a nuclear Iran.
If the United States does not establish a credible military threat immediately, either Israel will attack, or Iran will have a nuclear weapon, which we will not allow under any circumstance, Israel's defense minister Eli Cohen recently said.
Some dismiss Netanyahus threats as tactical bluster. This time, however, his warnings come after years of diplomatic efforts that failed to stop Tehran from enriching uranium for military uses. At the same time, deepening Western anger at Irans support for Russias brutal invasion of Ukraine could present Israel with a rare opportunity to escape international condemnation, should it decide to attack.
Israels appetite for risk seems to have increased in the last several months, political scientist Dalia Dassa Kaye of the Burkle Center for International Relations at the University of California at Los Angeles wrote in a recent analysis for Foreign Policy.
In recent weeks, Netanyahu has held a series of secret high-level meetings with top military officials aimed at upping preparations for a possible confrontation with Iran, according to a report from the Israeli television network Keshet 12.
After CIA Director William J. Burns arrived in Jerusalem late last month, Israel launched a devastating drone attack on a military depot in the Iranian city of Isfahan, which also contains part of the Iranian nuclear weapons program.
Eyewitness footage shows what is said to be the moment of an explosion at a military industry factory in Isfahan, Iran, on Jan. 29, in this still image obtained from a video. (West Asia News Agency via Reuters)
Iran retaliated by attacking an Israeli tanker in the Arabian Sea with a kamikaze drone.
Israel then launched a deadly airstrike at a residential neighborhood in Damascus, Syria, where Iranian military experts were said to be conducting meetings.
Neither side is suicidal, says Iran expert Trita Parsi of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. But absent hard diplomatic constraints, he added, both sides are free to test each other. They dont know what the new red lines are. Theyre doing trial and error. And at some point, there will be an error, Parsi told Yahoo News.
After the attack on Isfahan, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps unveiled a new ballistic missile with Hebrew lettering on its side. Death to Israel, the message said.
The question in 2023 is whether reality is about to catch up to rhetoric, whether a situation that both countries say is intolerable will suddenly become unbearable and erupt into bloodshed.
Israel says the West needs to take a harder line with Iran to keep that from happening.
Diplomacy without the backbone of credible pressures, including a credible military threat, will not give the result that all of us want, an Israeli official told Yahoo News, speaking on the condition of strict anonymity.
Officials in both Europe and the United States are coming around to that view, even if they havent done so as quickly or thoroughly as Israeli leadership might have liked. While they have certainly not encouraged an Israeli strike on Iran, some European leaders and American legislators appear to accept that a full-blown clash could be coming.
Thousands of U.S. and Israeli service members recently participated in Juniper Oak 23.2, billed as the largest joint military exercise between the two countries. It included a total of 142 aircraft, a show of force clearly intended to send a message.
It would not surprise me if Iran sees the scale and the nature of these activities and understands what the two of us are capable of doing, an American defense official told NBC News ahead of the war game.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei speaks in Tehran on Feb. 8, as part of the 44th anniversary commemoration of the Iranian Revolution. (Iranian Leader Press Office/Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
At the same time, Iran is engaging in what National Security Council spokesman John Kirby described last week as unprecedented defense cooperation with Russia, whose invasion of Ukraine has left it few other allies. Kirby told reporters that Iran is seeking billions of dollars worth of military equipment from Russia, including fighter jets, in exchange for providing the Kremlin with Shahed-136 drones and Fateh-110 surface-to-surface missiles.
Certainly, its not good for the Middle East, Kirby said. Iran has foes other than Israel in the area, Saudi Arabia foremost among them. But the desire to rid the region of the worlds only Jewish state is less a policy goal for Tehran than an overarching commitment. In 2020, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the countrys top cleric, deemed Israel a cancerous tumor, echoing rhetoric that has changed little in its intensity since the founding of the Islamic Republic in 1979.
Inspectors with the International Atomic Energy Agency believe that Iran has enriched uranium to 84% purity, just short of the 90% mark needed to create a functioning nuclear weapon. Iran has denounced that finding as a conspiracy, but its progress in enriching uranium throughout the last several years has been well documented.
That progress was supposed to come to an end in 2015, when Iran agreed to what is known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA, or, colloquially, the Iran deal). Tehran would drop its ambitions to create a nuclear weapon; in exchange, the West would lessen crippling sanctions.
But less than two years later, newly elected President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the accord, thus weakening the deal to the point of uselessness. Netanyahu cheered the move, but other top Israeli officials did not, arguing that it made little sense to release Iran from the very oversight that was supposed to act as a brake.
Looking at the policy on Iran in the last decade, the main mistake was the withdrawal from the agreement, former Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon told the newspaper Haaretz in 2021.
Proponents of the JCPOA invested their hopes in President Biden, who had vowed to restore the deal. At first, he looked to be making good on his word. By August 2022, American and Iranian negotiators appeared to be reaching a new agreement.
Helicopters fly during a military exercise in Isfahan, Iran, in this handout image obtained on September 8, 2022. Iranian Army/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY.
Then, on Sept. 13, a Kurdish woman named Mahsa Amini was detained in Tehran by Irans morality police for refusing to wear a headscarf. The nation erupted in protests that recalled 2009s green revolution. Security forces killed hundreds of protests demanding greater freedoms. But the protests only continued, inspiring support from all over the world.
If a revived JCPOA had seemed like a real possibility only months before, the negotiations were all but over by early 2023.
Were not focused on the Iran deal right now, NSC spokesman Kirby acknowledged in January. Iran decided that they werent going to take the negotiation seriously and, instead, decided to brutalize their own people and to support Russias war in Ukraine.
Kirby reiterated that Biden has been clear that we are not going to allow Iran to achieve a nuclear weapons capability. Hes serious about that.
But the Israelis want to know just what that means. On the one hand, sources told Yahoo News, they have concluded that Irans ruling regime will not survive. At the same time, a confrontation with Israel could help Irans government shore up support at home at a precarious time.
"There are elements in the Iranian government who believe that some form of an attack by Israel at this point can be the kind of thing that would save them from their domestic legitimate crisis, Parsi of the Quincy Institute says.
An attack by the Israelis that might not be a bad thing in the view of some Iranian hardliners.
It is hardly a consensus that the two nations are headed toward war. For all their anti-Israel bluster, Iranian political and religious leaders recognize that the Israeli Defense Force is among the most powerful militaries in the world. And attacking Israel would almost certainly provoke a response from the United States, as the Juniper Oak exercises were plainly intended to demonstrate.
A protester punches his fist through an Israeli flag as Iranians burn flags during a rally marking the annual Quds Day, or Jerusalem Day, on the last Friday of the holy month of Ramadan in Tehran, Iran April 29, 2022. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. MANDATORY CREDIT TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
The Iranians are not stupid. They are not suicidal, said Daniel R. DePetris, an analyst with Defense Priorities, a Washington-based think tank that tends to be skeptical of Washingtons foreign policy consensus.
A full-blown conflict could prove just as disastrous to Israel, a small and already isolated nation with far more regional enemies than friends. I dont see a guy whos itching to launch a military operation against the Iranians, DePetris said of Netanyahu.
Still, the Israelis are clearly getting impatient with the status quo. They see both promise and peril in Irans instability. Netanyahu, meanwhile, is facing a growing protest movement of his own, prompted by his controversial anti-democratic judicial reforms and escalating violence in the West Bank. Just like his counterparts in Tehran, he may conclude that a foreign confrontation could help alleviate his domestic problems.
Only a shared recognition of the near-certain ravages of war may ultimately help to keep the peace, however tenuous and uneasy.
Theres a degree of pragmatism that underscores everybodys approach to this problem, said Aaron David Miller, a Middle East expert who worked as a State Department analyst and historian for more than two decades. Even though there are presently no prospects for diplomacy, Miller said, he was just as skeptical about an imminent outbreak of full-blown war.
Unless "somebody makes a serious mistake," Miller cautioned. "And that is certainly possible.
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