Breaking News - Gary Johnson Wins Libertarian Nomination For President

ABC News

Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson has won the Libertarian nomination for president.

Hoping to emerge as a viable contender against the two major parties' nominees in the general election, Johnson says he aims to tap into voters' broad reluctance to fall in line behind Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.

But Johnson needed to fend off challengers from more extreme wings of his party, originally falling five votes short of winning the 463 delegates needed for the nomination on the first ballot. Delegates voted a second time, giving Johnson the majority he needed (55.8 percent).

Johnson defeated five hopefuls to secure his place on top of the Libertarian ticket, which will likely be the only third party on the ballot in all 50 states.

Delegates have yet to vote on Johnson's hand-picked vice presidential pick, former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld. Many Libertarians here are wary of Weld, who joined the party less than two weeks ago and endorsed Ohio Gov. John Kasich in the Republican primary earlier this election cycle.

Unlike the primary and caucus system used by the Republican and Democratic parties, Libertarian presidential candidates have spent much of the past week debating and wooing delegates, who were free to vote for whomever they choose at the party's national convention.

The Libertarian Party faces an uphill climb to become viable in the general election. A recent Fox News poll shows Johnson at 10 percent in a race against Trump and Clinton, although polling tends to overstate the support of third party candidates.

Johnson was also the party's nominee in 2012, when he received 1 percent of the popular vote - topping 1 million votes for the first time in the party's history.

Via Memeorandum

Morning Consult Poll 5/24/16 - Gary Johnson at 10% vs Trump/Clinton

With little to no press, Gary Johnson keeps plugging along and has nowhere to go but up. The more polls he is included in, the more publicity and name recognition he will get. Also once Donald and Hillary really start slinging the mud, the electorate will be so turned off theat they will have no choice but to give Gov Johnson a look.

Voters were also asked to make their pick between Clinton, Trump and a potential third-party nominee, Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson. In that matchup, Clinton takes 38 percent of the vote, followed by Trump at 35 percent and Johnson at 10 percent. Seventeen percent of voters remained undecided.

The 10 percent support for Johnson is about twice as high as most tracking polls from 2012, when he also ran for president against Obama and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

The Morning Consult survey polled 2,001 registered voters from May 19-23 for a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.

Morning Consult

FiveThirtyEight - Pay Attention To Libertarian Gary Johnson; He’s Pulling 10 Percent vs. Trump And Clinton

It's going to be an interesting summer.

Gary Johnson might be on the verge of becoming a household name.

At the moment, he’s probably most often confused with that plumber who fixed your running toilet last month or your spouse’s weird friend from work who keeps calling the landline, but he’s neither — he’s the former governor of New Mexico, likely Libertarian candidate for president, and he’s polling at 10 percent in two recently released national polls against Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

A Morning Consult survey published Tuesday and found Clinton getting 38 percent of the vote, Trump 35 and Johnson 10, with 17 percent undecided. A Fox News poll conducted from May 14-17 showed Trump leading over Clinton, 42 percent to 39 percent, but Johnson at 10 percent as well. Lest you think this is some fluky May development, a Monmouth University survey conducted in mid-March — while the political universe was still busy wringing its hands over the Republican nomination — found that in a three-way race, Clinton would get 42 percent, Trump 34 percent and Johnson 11 percent.

Read the rest at FiveThirtyEight.com

Via Memeorandum

Thursday Rumor Mill - David Koch to Bankroll Gary Johnson Campaign

Somebody who knows someone overhead some guy telling that dude. Or not.

Billionaire businessman and philanthropist David Koch has pledged “tens of millions of dollars” to help bankroll the campaign of Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson, according to a source within Johnson’s campaign.

Koch’s money will be made available should Johnson, a former two-term Republican governor of New Mexico, secure his second consecutive Libertarian Party presidential nomination, the source said.

The Libertarians will select their presidential ticket during the party’s national convention later this month in Orlando.

When asked about Koch’s eight-figure pledge to support Johnson, a source close to David Koch did not deny that such an agreement is in place.

But after publication, the spokesman told TheDC: “Reports that David Koch has pledged his support to Gary Johnson – or any candidate running for president for that matter – are untrue."

Read the rest from DailyCaller.com

Via Memeorandum

Fox News National Poll 5-18-16 Has Gary Johnson at 10%

10% with almost no press. Nuf ced

What about former Republican governor of New Mexico, Gary Johnson, who is favored to top the Libertarian Party ticket? He ran in 2012 and received almost one percent of the vote nationally.

The poll finds Johnson garners 10 percent in this hypothetical three-way matchup. But that wouldn’t change the race, as Trump still holds the edge over Clinton: 42-39 percent.

The Fox News poll is based on landline and cellphone interviews with 1,021 randomly chosen registered voters nationwide and was conducted under the joint direction of Anderson Robbins Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R) from May 14-17, 2016. The poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points for all registered voters.

FoxNews.com

Via Memeorandum

Gary Johnson Taps Former MA Governor William Weld As VP Choice

Talk about experience and electability. 2 former two-term Goverors that won in convincing fashion while running as Republicans in heavily Democratic states. This would also be the most Executive experience of any ticket in the last century.

AP

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Seizing new fuel for his appeal to Donald Trump's critics, former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson has joined forces with another former Republican governor to strengthen his Libertarian presidential bid.

William Weld, who served two terms as the Republican governor of Massachusetts in the 1990s, will announce plans Thursday to seek the Libertarian Party's vice presidential nomination, Johnson confirmed in a Wednesday interview with the Associated Press. The pair met privately in Las Vegas over the weekend when Weld agreed to run as Johnson's running mate in the party's upcoming nominating convention and into the general election.

"We got together and shook hands on it," Johnson told the AP in an interview in Salt Lake City, where his underdog presidential campaign is based. "It brings an enormous amount of credibility to what it is I'm doing. I'm unbelievably flattered by this and humbled."

Johnson is casting himself as the best — and perhaps only — alternative to Trump, as the New York billionaire's Republican critics struggle to identify another third-party candidate.

Johnson earned just 1 percent of the national vote during his 2012 presidential run, but reminds reluctant conservatives that he'll likely be the only third-party candidate on the ballot in all 50 states this fall.

Weld, a well-respected former governor in the Northeast, offers Johnson some credibility and badly needed fundraising prowess. The 70-year-old will announce his vice presidential bid in New York on Thursday, Johnson said.

Gary Johnson At 6% In PPP Arizona Poll 5-17-16

Not a bad showing at all by Gary. What's even more encouraging is that he stronger with Independents and moderates while being consistent at 5-7% across age, sex and gender lines.

The Presidential election is pretty competitive in Arizona at this point. Donald Trump leads Hillary Clinton just 40-38, with Gary Johnson at 6% and Jill Stein at 2%. There's a significant 'Never Trump' contingent among Arizona Republicans. While Clinton gets 80% of the Democratic vote, Trump is only getting 68% of the GOP vote at this stage. That number tracks with our finding that just 65% of Republicans say they're comfortable with Trump as their nominee to 22% who say they aren't. When you narrow the field to just Clinton and Trump though, Trump's lead goes up to 45/41 because his share of the GOP vote increases to 77%. 15% of Republicans are undecided compared to 8% of Democrats, so if the party really unites around Trump eventually he'll get close to being up by the kind of margins Republicans are accustomed to in the state but for now it's tight.

View the complete poll results here

Via Memeorandum

NM Political Report Poll 5-16-16: Former Governer Gary Johnson At 14%

A poll conducted for NM Political Report by Public Policy Polling shows that Hillary Clinton would lead a general election match-up against presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump and possible Libertarian Party nominee Gary Johnson.

Clinton is the likely Democratic Party nominee.

The poll, conducted this weekend, found that Clinton leads in a three-way race with 41 percent of the support of likely New Mexico voters. Trump would come in second with 33 percent and Johnson would receive 14 percent of support. Johnson is a former two-term New Mexico governor.

One reason Johnson receives so much support for a third party candidate may be the low favorable ratings for Clinton and Trump, who are both well underwater.

Clinton and Trump hold large leads among their parties, but not at levels normally seen among nominees. Clinton receives the support of 67 percent of Democrats to Trump’s 11 percent and Johnson’s 10 percent. Trump, meanwhile, receives the support of 62 percent of Republicans to Johnson’s 16 percent and Clinton’s 14 percent.

Clinton narrowly leads among independents, with 31 percent to Trump’s 25 percent and Johnson’s 19 percent.

Johnson was a Republican when he served as governor.

Another area where Clinton holds a large advantage is among Hispanic voters, perhaps because of Trump’s history of inflammatory rhetoric against Mexicans and others.

Clinton receives the support of 56 percent of Hispanic voters to Trump’s 19 percent and Johnson’s 19 percent. Trump leads with white voters at 47 percent to Clinton’s 29 percent and Johnson’s 14 percent. In ethnicities listed as “other,” Clinton leads 41 percent to Trump’s 23 percent and Johnson’s 21 percent.

Washington Post - Who is Gary Johnson?

Great question that is being asked more and more these days; who is Gary Johnson?

All the attention is on the prospect of a Clinton-Trump race, but it is underreported that there may be a Libertarian entrant in this election: Gary Johnson. Who is Gary Johnson? Well, he served as the Republican governor of New Mexico from 1995 to 2003. He’s not a nut and he’s not manifestly dishonest, and that sets him apart from the field. He may not exactly hit the sweet spot as a third-party candidate, and I say he could never win the general election, but be on the lookout for the growing potential of the Johnson campaign after the Libertarian National Convention in Orlando in just more than two weeks. It wouldn’t take much for his candidacy to make a difference in a close race.

Washington Post

Video - What I CAN Do

HuffPo - Hey, What’s Up With Gary Johnson?

Wouldn't it be refreshing for the POTUS to be someoneone you'd want to kick back with and maybe go for a run?

Johnson has a lot of unimpeachably good qualities. He’s a really nice and decent guy. He’s a triathlete and an avid outdoorsman who has actually climbed Mount Everest. He met his wife, Kate Prusack, on a bike ride, which is pretty romantic. He built his own home, likes legal weed, humane immigration policies, and ticks off that “fiscal conservative/social liberal“ box many people say they like. I can’t recall him ever going out of his way to make anyone feel bad.

He was also the governor of New Mexico, and if you haven’t noticed, New Mexico still exists. He didn’t destroy it. Read about it here, courtesy of the New Mexico Political Report.

So, you know, not too shabby!

Huffpost Politics

Gary Johnson at 4% in new PPP poll 5-10-16

It's not quite the 11% that the Monmouth poll in March had Gary at but it's a start. It should be noted that the Monmouth poll was 36% I - 34% D - 30% R where PPP is 43% D - 36% R - 21% I.

PPP's new national poll finds that Republicans have quickly unified around Donald Trump, making the Presidential race more competitive than it has previously been perceived to be.

Hillary Clinton leads Trump 42-38, with Libertarian Gary Johnson at 4% and Green Party candidate Jill Stein at 2%. In a match up just between Clinton and Trump, her lead expands to 47-41. That's because supporters of Johnson and Stein would prefer her over Trump 36-18. Although there's been a lot of talk about third party candidates drawing support away from Trump, they're actually taking a little bit more from Clinton at this point.

View the complete poll results here

National Review - Is the Libertarian Party’s Gary Johnson a Plausible Alternative to Trump and Clinton?

National Review 5/7/2016

Good news, disgruntled Americans: As you ponder whether to vote for one of the two most-disliked, dishonest, and morally corrupt politicians ever to run for president — Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton — you just might have a third option. His name is Gary Johnson. He’s a popular two-term former governor of New Mexico. He’s the likely Libertarian party nominee. And he’s set to be on the ballot in the vast majority of states. Moreover, the short case for him is pretty compelling.

Johnson is a self-made man, starting a handyman business in college that grew into a 1,000-employee construction firm. He ran for governor as a fiscal conservative in a blue state, won handily, and can now boast that he cut taxes, vetoed hundreds of bills, presided over significant job growth, balanced the state budget, and created a substantial reserve fund. He won reelection in a rout.

Johnson is an extraordinarily strong gun-rights advocate, and he favors free trade, but he’s far too committed to relatively open borders — advocating a “simpler and more efficient” process for entering the country.

He calls himself pro-choice, but he’s well to the right of Hillary Clinton — supporting late-term abortion bans, parental-notification laws, and opposing public funding for abortion — and he’s indicated that he’d appoint judges “who will interpret the Constitution according to its original meaning.” He also believes Roe v. Wade was wrongly decided because it “expanded the reach of the Federal government into areas of society never envisioned in the Constitution.” In the past, Johnson has indicated that he’d rather leave abortion policy to the states.

Being generous, one could even call him a sort of peaceful Teddy Roosevelt: an adventurer politician. He’s run dozens of triathlons, he’s climbed the highest mountain on all seven continents (including Mount Everest), and he built his house with his own hands. So, on balance, Gary Johnson for president, right?

Read more at nationalreview.com

Video - CNN: Gary Johnson GOP Trump Alternative?

Michael Smerconish talks to Libertarian Candidate for President Gary Johnson, who will probably be on all 50 state ballots and is polling at 11% but is usually left off of polls

Video - Gary Johnson on ABC with George Stephanopoulos 5-8-16

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