Libertarians voted on Sunday against selecting independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as the 2024 presidential nominee for the Libertarian Party, and ruled former President Donald Trump ineligible.
Despite urging from Trump for Libertarians to rally behind him, and RFK Jr.’s bid to be selected as the party’s nominee, Libertarians selected Chase Oliver, a former Georgia Senate hopeful whose candidacy helped push the contentious 2022 Georgia Senate election to a runoff, POLITICO reported. The Libertarian Party vote came after Trump spoke at the party’s convention on Saturday, asking Libertarians to support his bid for a second term in the White House.
The presumptive Republican nominee was booed when he told those at the Libertarian Party convention to “combine” with his campaign. He also pledged to place a Libertarian in his cabinet and senior posts. Trump received just six write-in votes in the first round of voting, and the Libertarian Party chair said the former president was ineligible to be the party’s nominee.
“We cannot give Crooked Joe Biden four more years,” Trump said, adding that the party should join forces with his campaign.
“Only do that if you want to win. If you want to lose, don’t do that. Keep getting your three percent every four years,” Trump said.
Trump just bodied the nerds booing him at the libertarian convention lmao
“Maybe you don’t want to win … keep getting your 3 percent every four years”
pic.twitter.com/16J6GsMQRd— johnny maga (@_johnnymaga) May 26, 2024
Trump posted on Truth Social on Sunday afternoon that even if he were selected as the Libertarian Party’s nominee, he couldn’t accept it since he is set to be nominated by the Republican Party in July.
“Regardless, I believe I will get a Majority of the Libertarian Votes,” he added. “‘Junior’ Kennedy is a Radical Left Democrat, who’s destroyed everything he’s touched, especially in New York and New England, and in particular, as it relates to the Cost and Practicality of Energy. He’s not a Libertarian. Only a FOOL would vote for him!”
Kennedy, who dropped out of the Democratic primary to run as an independent, also spoke at the Libertarian Party convention and was on the ballot for the nomination. He was eliminated in the first round of voting on Sunday after receiving just 2% of the vote from the delegates, The Hill reported. The independent candidate’s loss at the Libertarian Party convention comes as he seeks to gain access to ballots across the country before the 2024 election.
Oliver won the nomination after seven rounds of voting, clearing the required 50% threshold over his final opponent being “none of the above,” Fox News reported. Past social media posts from Oliver show that he opposes Republican legislation that stops boys from competing in girls’ sports. Oliver has also said that he supports an “open border” and has called to “abolish ICE.”
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The Libertarian nominee won 2% of the vote in the 2022 Georgia Senate election between Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican candidate Herschel Walker, which pushed the election to a runoff that Warnock ultimately won.
“I will continue to bring a hopeful and positive message of liberty to both those who consider themselves libertarian and those who don’t know they are libertarian yet,” Oliver said in his Sunday victory speech.
Libertarian candidates usually receive around 1% of the vote in presidential elections. Gary Johnson received an unusually high number of votes in 2016 when he took 3% of the national vote.
