Libertarians have crowned former Georgia Senate hopeful Chase Oliver as their 2024 presidential nominee after a grueling eight hours of voting at their convention over the weekend.
Oliver, 38, who managed to fend off outside attempts to usurp the Libertarian Pary endorsement, now joins the likes of independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Green Party candidate Jill Stein, and independent Cornel West as a third-party force in the 2024 arena.
“We did it! I am officially the presidential nominee,” Oliver posted on X after clinching the party nod.
Oliver now appears to be the first millennial to clinch a significant third-party presidential nomination.
During the Libertarian Convention over the weekend in the Washington Hilton, former President Donald Trump and Kennedy delivered entreaties to the liberty-loving party, seeking to join forces.
Trump sought to woo libertarians with a promise to pardon Ross Ulbricht, a darknet black market operator who was arrested in 2013 and is serving out a life sentence. The 45th president also said that he would put a libertarian in his cabinet.
Ultimately, Trump’s vows fell flat and he was forced to power through a chorus of boos at times during his speech Sunday.
“If you want to lose, do that. Keep getting your 3% every four years,” Trump chided to the raucous crowd at one point.
Libertarians drew their largest share of the presidential vote in 2016 when they nabbed 3.3% support nationally. Oliver suggested to CNN that amassing over 2% of the national vote is a reasonable objective.
Scores of libertarians have been keen on distinguishing themselves from the duopoly, despite some overlap on vaunted small government talk with conservatives.
During the voting process, Trump attained six write-in votes in the first round. Kennedy, who was nominated by a delegate, scored 19 votes and was eliminated in the first round.
Despite his defeat, Trump, 77, was adamant that he could’ve won the Libertarian nod if he actually wanted it.
“The reason I didn’t file paperwork for the Libertarian Nomination, which I would have absolutely gotten if I wanted it (as everyone could tell by the enthusiasm of the Crowd last night!), was the fact that, as the Republican Nominee, I am not allowed to,” he wrote on Truth Social.
Oliver initially came in second place, behind Michael Rectenwald, who held the lead during the early rounds of voting.
But eventually, Oliver cut a deal with Mike ter Maat, who was among the top three, which helped propel him over the finish line during the seventh round of voting with about 60% of the vote.
Ter Maat later won the Libertarian Party’s vice presidential nod after two rounds of voting.
Here is what we know about Oliver, the Libertarian Party’s millennial nominee.
Oliver, who has been described as “armed and gay,” grew up in Nashville, Tenn. He was briefly a Democrat from roughly 2003 to 2009, before switching his party affiliation to Independent.
In 2020, he vied for Georgia’s 5th congressional district special, which was won by former Rep. Kwanza Hall (D-Ga.). Oliver then jockeyed for the 2022 Georgia Senate race.
That contest ultimately went to a runoff, something that some analysts blamed on him as he garnered over 2% support during the first round.
Now that Oliver is the party’s nominee, he is hoping to mount a campaign in all 50 states and is keen on trying to peel off younger voters.
“I wanted to demonstrate to the delegates and to the voters that we have the drive and energy to push ourselves everywhere to grow our party’s foundation in every state,” Oliver told Politico.
Like many libertarians, he has distanced himself from both Democrats and occasionally even Republicans on many economic issues. But he has also roiled conservatives on social issues.
After he clinched the nod, right-leaning accounts quickly slammed him for defending the right to host drag queen story hours.
They’ve also seethed at him for pushing back against GOP goals for shutting down the US-Mexico border.
Chase is also pro-abortion rights.
Polling has sparsely gauged libertarian influence in the 2024 presidential election given the lack of a nominee until now.
Nationally, Trump is up in front with 41.2%, followed by President Biden at 39.4%, Kennedy at 10.6%, Stein at 1.8%, and West at 1.8%, per the latest RealClearPolitics aggregate of polls.