If the Associated Press’ call of Arizona for Joe Biden is accurate, the Democratic nominee needs just one state to become the next President of the United States. In Nevada, Biden currently enjoys a roughly 8,000-vote lead over Trump with 88 per cent of the state reporting.
Here, with over 11,000 votes, the vote share of Jo Jorgensen of the Libertarian Party alone could have tilted the race in either Trump or Biden’s favour. Not just in Nevada, but also in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Nevada: Votes for Jorgensen could have swung the election either way. This, despite the odds their candidate becoming President being virtually nil—prompting critics to view such votes as ‘wasted’.
But, the Libertarian Party is not interested in being held up as a model of ‘wasted’ votes. When former Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker tweeted about how Jorgensen’s 38,000 votes in Wisconsin could have crushed the margin between Trump and Biden (who went on to win the state), the LP Party Twitter handle had a sarcastic reply.
Want Libertarians to vote for you? Try nominating someone who doesn't add trillions to the national debt, will actually end our foreign wars and bring the troops home, and believes the rights of all people are to be protected.
— Libertarian Party (@LPNational) November 4, 2020
Until then - as always - your tears are delicious. https://t.co/9lo3BIiHHn
The party has a proudly independent streak. After all, the first electoral vote ever to be cast for a woman was for one of its candidates in 1972, when a ‘faithless’ Republican elector pledged to Nixon chose to vote instead for Theodora Nathan as Vice President. Incidentally, in 2016, the LP got its next electoral vote in 2016 when Bill Greene, pledged to vote for Donald Trump, instead cast his electoral vote for Ron Paul.
At around 1 per cent of the vote, the LP has become the definitive third party in America. What does this mean in America’s two-party race, that the majority of voter who don’t opt for the Democrats and Republicans choose the Libertarian Party?
Jorgensen, the party’s presidential nominee, made headlines when Hillary Clinton’s erstwhile Presidential bid phrase “I’m with her” trended after Jorgensen was announced as the LP’s candidate.
Her positions, like those of the LP, tend towards liberalism. The Libertarian Party’s website lists on their platform page their statement of principle, which includes the declaration, “We, the members of the Libertarian Party, challenge the cult of the omnipotent state and defend the rights of the individual.”
Politically and economically, Libertarians support freedom of choice for Americans, whether it is whether to pay taxes, support Social Security, choose education or in any personal matters. In addition, the LP supports the US taking a neutral foreign policy, abandoning interventions in conflicts around the world.
Jorgensen’s policies match that of the party’s, but the advent of COVID-19 brought about new situations for the party ideology. Jorgensen has termed the US response to COVID-19 as authoritarian and said she “rejects” the new normal. She has also rejected mask mandates, saying that too should be a personal choice.
This year, Jorgensen led the party to its second-best result ever. But with America so deeply divided down the middle, split between Trump and Biden, will it stand a chance to become more than the third party in US politics by 2024?
