Third-Party Challenge to the Two-Party Schism

In the 2020 election, the Libertarian Party will once again appear on the ballot in all 50 states. With that in mind, Joe Bishop-Henchman, the party’s national chairman, sat down with Luckbox to describe the party’s path forward.

By Jeff Joseph

Joe Bishop-Henchman

• Newly elected chair of the Libertarian Party • Vice president of tax policy and litigation at the National

Taxpayers Union Foundation • Scholar with a law degree from George Washington

University and bachelor’s in political science and public policy from the University of California, Berkeley

How would you summarize libertarian principals?

Joe Bishop-Henchman: One single sentence: “Don’t hurt people and don’t take their stuff.” That really summarizes our platform. I would also recommend the writings of Frederick Hayek and Ludvig von Mises, and books by Harry Brown, David Boaz and Ayn Rand. (See “Read Free or Die,” opposite page.)

In 2016, the libertarian party’s presidential candidate, Gary Johnson, received 4.4 million votes or about 3.28% of the popular vote and more than the difference between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Recently, Trump declared that he would have won the popular vote in 2016 had it not been for the Libertarian candidate. What can you tell us about Libertarian voter demographics in 2016?

I have two responses to that. We’re sometimes described as socially liberal and economically conservative. Some people think that’s a little overly simplistic or misleading, but generally that’s how we’re described. It stands to reason that we have a lot of liberals, those who really care about social issues and aren’t necessarily driven by economic issues. Similarly, we have a lot of conservatives who are primarily motivated by economic issues and aren’t really driven by the culture war issues.

Presidential elections have been designed to make people think they have only two choices.

From the survey data that I’ve seen, Gary Johnson pulled equally from both candidates. When asked whom they would vote for if the only choices were Clinton and Trump, Libertarians scattered three ways: some to Democrats, some to the Republicans and some who said they wouldn’t vote. So, I don’t think President Trump’s assumption is correct.

My second response is to Trump’s comments that he’s somewhat libertarian. He may need to check out our platform (at lp.org) because on his trade policies, and his immigration policies—and I can go on and on— he’s not very libertarian. He’s got some homework to do.

Why is it so difficult to put Libertarian presidential candidates on the ballot in all 50 states? Why must Libertarian candidates start over each election cycle while Democrats and Republicans are automatically placed on the ballot?

Our ballot access is not automatic. It varies by state because every state has different rules on what it takes to appear on the ballot. Some states are very lenient, and some states are very tough. In Tennessee, for example, if you want to be on the ballot as an independent presidential candidate you have to gather 275 valid signatures. If you want to be on the ballot in Tennessee as a party member, as a Libertarian presidential candidate, for example, you need 50,000 signatures. That’s just blatant discrimination against independent political parties. We see that so often in a lot of different states.

We’re going to be on the ballot in Wisconsin. We have a very strong party in Wisconsin—they were able to get the signatures very easily. Kanye West, who’s also running for president, will likely not be on the ballot in Wisconsin, despite universal name recognition and millions of dollars that he is spending to get on the ballot. There are actual barriers to getting on various state ballots.

The Libertarian Party has been around long enough and we’re strong enough to overcome these obstacles. But, at a cost. It takes a lot of our money, time and energy that we’d rather spend communicating our message and campaigning and talking about the solutions we want to offer to the American people. I’m excited that we’re going to be on the ballot in all 50 states. Only three presidential candidates will appear on every American’s ballot on Nov. 3: Jo Jorgensen and those other two people.

The 2016 Gary Johnson/William Weld ticket was arguably the most formidable presidential ballot for the Libertarian party in years. Johnson served as Republican governor of New Mexico for a couple of terms, and Weld was the former Republican governor of Massachusetts. On the other hand, this year’s Libertarian candidate, Jo Jorgensen, has nearly zero name recognition. How does this happen to a party that had four years to plan and that did so well four years ago?

Name recognition comes from the media coverage surrounding it. I’ve known who Jo Jorgensen was for 25 years. It’s incumbent upon us to talk about her experience as a psychology professor, teacher, therapist and somebody who’s been following national issues for years. Most Americans don’t think prior government experience is essential to be president. And I think polls constantly bear that out. Even in the Democratic primary you saw several candidates who didn’t have traditional government experience. So when you ask people why they vote for a candidate for president, a lot of it comes down to character and personality. I want to vote for the person I can see myself having a beer with.

Read Free or Die: Books to read

Why Government Doesn’t Work

by Harry Browne (1995) The Libertarian Party’s presidential nominee in 1996 and 2000 argues that big government is ineffective and proposes a redefinition of government.

Atlas Shrugged

by Ayn Rand (1957) Larger-than-life heroes and villains grapple with towering questions of good and evil in Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand’s magnum opus. It’s an action thriller that explains the philosophical revolution of Objectivism.

The Libertarian Reader

by David Boaz (1997) An advocate of libertarian principles presents the ultimate collection of seminal writings by thinkers ranging from Lao-Tzu to Milton Friedman on freedom, selfdetermination and opposition to intrusive government.

Vermin Supreme—what’s his role in the party?

He is a very interesting guy. He’s a sane person who pretends to be crazy to get attention. That’s the opposite of most politicians nowadays, so that’s a little bit refreshing. He didn’t really come close to winning the nomination. I think it’s a testament to our party that he was welcomed and had an opportunity to run.

2020 marks the fifth time the Libertarian Party has succeeded in placing its presidential nominee on the ballot in all 50 states. In over 20 years, no other alternative party has achieved universal ballot access.

Supreme Irony

Vermin Love Supreme, 59, an American performance artist, politician and activist, serves on the Libertarian Party’s Judicial Committee. Supreme has campaigned for political office on a platform of zombie apocalypse awareness and time-travel research. If elected, he’s promised to provide a free pony to every American.

The 2014 documentary Who Is Vermin Supreme? An Outsider Odyssey follows his quixotic 2012 campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination and explores his life as an activist and political prankster. This election cycle, Supreme ran in the primaries for the Libertarian Party’s predidential nomination. He then placed third in the race for the nomination by winning the votes of 206 delegates to the party’s national convention in Orlando, Fla.

“Don’t hurt people and don’t take their stuff. That really summarizes our platform.”

The Commission for Presidential Debates stipulates a 15% popular vote threshold to qualify for representation in presidential debates. How do you view that requirement?

The Commission is a bipartisan group of Democrats and Republicans. It was founded by the chair of the Democratic National Committee and the chair of the Republican National Committee. They set it at a level that is designed to ensure that it’s only those two parties on the stage. I’m sure if we ever exceeded the threshold, they’d find a reason to raise it. There’s actually an obligation that if you agree to appear in the debates the commission puts on, you cannot participate in any other debates. It’s basically a little bit of a monopoly that they’ve created for themselves.

Short of winning the presidency, what milestone would you hope the party will achieve in 2020?

We’re going to elect quite a few people this year to local offices— city councils, mayor’s offices, school and county commissions— where they’re working to help pass criminal justice reform, reform pension programs, keep a lid on taxes and be a good watchdog of our government agencies. I think there’s a lot of attention on the presidential race, but we are building up a deep bench of elected officials that voters can see in action.

Is there a state where you’re most optimistic about the outcome for Jorgensen?

We’re paying quite a bit of attention to Wyoming. We have targeted the state because they’ve got smaller media markets and smaller districts and it is more libertarian in disposition. So, stay tuned.

Nearly 80% of our readers say they’re dissatisfied with the way things are going in the United States. How does the Libertarian Party respond?

What’s the approval rating of Congress? They’re lucky when they’re in the teens. Would you support having a third or fourth voice on the presidential debate stage? That answer usually gets an 80% “Yes” response. People want choices. Unfortunately, the debate commission only wants two choices. The presidential elections have been designed to make people think they have only two choices. The main thing we have to do is introduce ourselves to the American people and demonstrate that we’re serious that we can get elected and that we can do good things in office—and that’s what we’re out to do.

What’s the most common misconception about libertarians?

Probably that we’re not serious despite Libertarian-elected officials passing important reforms. We are the party that stood for criminal justice reform, legalization of marijuana, legalization of same-sex relationships—way before they became mainstream ideas. We’ve long been ahead of the curve.

Who are the most likely new Libertarian voters, and what’s your pitch to them?

I’d say young people. Your parents and grandparents have been engaged in this tribal political conflict between the D team and the R team, while the national debt has been run up, and we have American troops in over 100 countries all over the world. Now we have an economic crisis on top of a health crisis. There just doesn’t seem to be any serious leadership in this country to tackle fundamental long-term problems. We’re the party that can do that, and we’ve got a track record of 50 years of being serious about wanting to do that.