The Libertarian Party has chosen Chase Oliver as their 2024 presidential nominee ahead of Robert F Kennedy Jr and Donald Trump, who failed to qualify.
The 38-year-old, who has run numerous times for Congress in Georgia, was elected after seven rounds of voting at the party’s convention in Washington DC, on Sunday, beating the likes of Michael Rectenwald and Mike ter Maat to the nod.
Mr Oliver told CNN after his victory that speaking to “as many people as possible” would be key to making an impact in a contest all but certain to be dominated by President Joe Biden and Mr Trump and pledged to be “a fly in the ointment of the two-party system”.
He added that he believed securing 2 per cent of the national vote in November was a realistic goal, commenting: “I got 2.1 per cent of the vote when I ran for the Senate in Georgia. I think that’s a definite doable thing, and certainly, we can improve upon that with a hard-run campaign that wakes people up.”
Mr Oliver has called for expanded work visas, a smoother pathway to citizenship for immigrants to the United States, the “decriminalisation” of abortion and denounced American involvement in foreign wars.
He was also vocal in his condemnation of Mr Trump, saying it had been a “mistake” to invite him to the Libertarians’ convention and telling the Republican: “You are not a libertarian… You’re a war criminal and you deserve to be shamed by everyone in this hall.”
Embarrassingly, Mr Kennedy – who is effectively running a spoiler campaign as an independent against the Democratic and Republican nominees and addressed the convention on Friday – was rejected for the nomination in the first round of voting, picking up just 2.07 per cent of the vote from 19 delegates.
That came after he had rowed back his decision not to seek the Libertarian Party’s nomination, which would have granted him ballot access in 37 states, telling chair Angela McArdle that he would accept if chosen, only to find he had very little support in the room.
Mr Trump also had a pretty dire time of it in DC, failing to even qualify for voting and picking up just two write-in ballots (a third, a joke at his expense, nominated Stormy Daniels, the adult film star at the center of his ongoing hush money trial in New York), after his speech was resoundingly booed on Saturday night.
The Republican had told the crowd at the Washington Hilton that “the Libertarian Party should nominate Trump for president”, only for howls of derision to ring out.
“That’s nice,” he retaliated sarcastically, with a rictus grin.
“Maybe you don’t want to win. Only do that if you want to win. If you want to lose, don’t do that. Keep getting three per cent every four years.”
He was subsequently busy on Truth Social attempting to firefight the disaster after a clip of the booing went viral, insisting he could have won the Libertarian nomination if he really wanted to and attacking Mr Kennedy, declaring: “Only a FOOL would vote for him!”