Gary Johnson 2016 presidential campaign
The 2016 presidential campaign of Gary Johnson, the 29th Governor of New Mexico, was announced on January 6, 2016, for the nomination of the Libertarian Party (or LP) for President of the United States. He officially won the nomination on May 29, 2016, at the Libertarian National Convention in Orlando, Florida, receiving 56% of the vote on the second ballot. Former Massachusetts Governor William Weld was endorsed by Johnson for the Libertarian vice-presidential nomination, which he also received on May 29, 2016.
Gary Johnson 2016
Gary Johnson
Former Governor of New Mexico (1995–2003)
William Weld
Former Governor of Massachusetts (1991–97)
Announced: January 6, 2016
Nominated: May 29, 2016
Lost election: November 8, 2016
William Weld
(Running mate)
Ron Nielson (campaign manager)
Mike McCauley (treasurer)
US$12,193,984 (12−31−16)[1]
Our Best America Yet
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#TeamGov
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Johnson and Weld formed the first ticket of any party to feature two governors since the 1948 presidential election.[2] They received 3.3% of the vote, totaling nearly 4.5 million, dwarfing Johnson's 2012 popular vote total and marking the Libertarians' most successful presidential run to date and the most successful third-party candidacy since Ross Perot in 1996.
Background[edit]
Johnson ran as the Libertarian presidential nominee in the 2012 election. In that race, he finished with the third highest popular vote total, nearly 1.3 million votes, and garnered nearly 1% of the popular vote.[3] Johnson's vote total was the highest received by any LP candidate – for any office – in the party's history.[4][5] Shortly after the election, Johnson began to express interest in running for the Libertarian nomination again in the 2016 election.[6][7][8]
The "spoiler" controversy[edit]
Prior to the election[edit]
Johnson himself accepted being called a spoiler at one point at the election. He said: "I hope I'm a spoiler, because I believe you go from being irrelevant to being a spoiler to being a factor"[122] and "I'm really proud of the fact that I'm offering up that principled vote".[123] Some media outlets also compared Johnson's potential role in the 2016 election to Ralph Nader's in the 2000 election.[124][125][126][127]
Conservative magazine National Review stated that "if the presidential debates wind up convincing many voters that both Trump and Hillary are unacceptable, then Johnson's support could stabilize or even rise. If that happens, any increase in his support is likely to hurt Hillary more."[128]
The Washington Post editorial board wrote in an article named "Do Gary Johnson supporters really want to help Trump win?":
