Libertarian Party Snubs RFK Jr. And Trump, Picks Chase Oliver As Presidential Nominee
In a stunning turn of events at the Libertarian National Convention, the party rejected the advances of both Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Donald Trump, instead choosing former Georgia Senate candidate Chase Oliver as their presidential nominee for the 2024 election.
Kennedy, who had been meeting with Libertarian Party officials since last summer in hopes of securing their nomination and riding their ballot access coattails, was swiftly eliminated in the first round of voting on Sunday. The 70-year-old anti-vaccine activist and environmental lawyer managed to garner support from a measly 19 delegates, or just 2.07% of the total vote.
The announcement of Kennedy’s nomination from the convention floor was met with a chorus of boos from the crowd, foreshadowing his humiliating defeat. This comes despite recent polls showing Kennedy with a surprisingly strong profile among centrists.
Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, also faced boos from lolbertarians as he tried to convince them that he would be advancing their goals much more than a losing candidate could. The former president, who spoke before the raucous delegates on Saturday, endured a mix of boos and “We want Trump” chants as he brazenly urged the crowd to nominate him, saying, “Only if you want to win. Maybe you don’t want to win.”
Libertarian Party Chair Angela McArdle quickly extinguished any hope of a Trump nomination, declaring him ineligible due to his failure to submit the necessary nominating papers.
In the end, it was Chase Oliver, a Libertarian aligned with the Classical Liberal Caucus, who emerged victorious after a grueling 8-hour, seven-round voting process. Oliver, best known for his role in forcing a runoff in the 2022 Georgia Senate race, defeated a hard-line Mises Caucus candidate by less than 1% in the penultimate round before delegates were asked to choose between him and no candidate at all.