Libertarian National Convention, 2016
 Date: November 8, 2016 |
Winner: Donald Trump (R) Hillary Clinton (D) • Jill Stein (G) • Gary Johnson (L) • Vice presidential candidates |
Important dates • Nominating process • Ballotpedia's 2016 Battleground Poll • Polls • Debates • Presidential election by state • Ratings and scorecards |
2028 • 2024 • 2020 • 2016 Have you subscribed yet?
Join the hundreds of thousands of readers trusting Ballotpedia to keep them up to date with the latest political news. Sign up for the Daily Brew.
|
The Libertarian National Convention was held May 26-30, 2016, at the Rosen Centre Hotel & Resort in Orlando, Florida. This was the 24th Libertarian convention.[1] The first national convention was held in June 1972, in Denver, Colorado.[2]
Convention agenda
The convention featured seminars, forums, activist training sessions, speeches, debates, group discussions and exhibits. Libertarian Party delegates elected nominees for president and vice president, considered proposed amendments to the party's platform and bylaws and elected national party leaders.[3] Guest speakers included talk show host and activist Adam Kokesh, author and former Colorado state senate candidate Michele Poague, entrepreneur and radio show host Joe McKenzie and political blogger Tylor Slinger.[3]
Party platform
- During the 2016 Libertarian National Convention, party members voted to retain abortion as a platform plank. The plank "leave[s] the question to each person," and states a desire to keep government out of the process.[4][5]
- On May 27, 2016, delegates voted against adding an amendment to the Energy & Resources plank that would have opposed the use of military power to secure crude oil from foreign countries.[5]
Recognized presidential candidates
The Libertarian Party recognized 2016 presidential candidates who met certain criteria. Each recognized candidate must have had a campaign website, have paid Libertarian Party membership dues, met all U.S. Constitutional requirements to serve as president and sought only the nomination of the Libertarian Party. The party does not endorse a candidate until the nominee is selected by delegates at the national convention.[6]
Recognized vice presidential candidates
- Four Libertarian Party vice presidential candidates qualified for a debate that took place on the evening of May 27, 2016: William Weld, Larry Sharpe, Alicia Dearn, and Will Coley. In terms of support, they received 126, 125, 89, and 51 tokens, respectively.[5]
Convention coverage
Day one
Day one of the Libertarian National Convention in Orlando, Florida, featured spirited debates on both party platform planks and between four candidates vying for the vice presidential nomination. There were just under 800 credentialed delegates in attendance with Libertarian National Chair Nick Sarwark presiding over the meetings.
Day two
Six candidates garnered enough tokens, another name for secret ballots, to be eligible for nomination by the delegation. Of those, five reached the vote threshold for participating in the debate, moderated by Larry Elder and televised on CSPAN. Gary Johnson, Daryl W. Perry, Austin Petersen, John McAfee, and Marc Allan Feldman took the stage to try to earn supporters for Sunday morning's election. Introduced and brought on stage one at a time, Johnson and Petersen received the most applause, though each had a significant amount of support.
Day three
Although it took nearly eight hours from the time the first ballots for president were distributed to state delegation chairs, the Libertarian Party ended up with the odds-on favorites Gary Johnson and William Weld winning the ticket as expected. A total of 997 credentialed delegates and alternates were on hand to cast their vote. The meeting was chaired by Nicholas Sarwark, who won re-election as National Chair later in the afternoon.
Pre-convention debates
- A Libertarian Party presidential primary debate was filmed on March 29, 2016, and Part 1 aired on the Fox Business Network on April 1, 2016, at 9 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. Part 2 of the debate aired at 9 p.m. on April 8, 2016. The debate was moderated by John Stossel and aired on the Stossel show. Word of the debate first appeared on Gary Johnson’s official campaign Tumblr page on February 16, 2016. Political commentator Austin Petersen, Gary Johnson, and John McAfee participated.[7][8]
- In an interview with The New York Times that ran on March 22, 2016, Gary Johnson discussed the Commission on Presidential Debates' 15 percent polling requirement for third party candidate participation. Johnson said, “There is no way that a third party wins the presidency without being in the presidential debate. The contention is on our part that if you’re on the ballot in enough states to mathematically be elected, then you should be included in the presidential debate.”[9]
Ballotpedia Battleground Poll (June 10-22, 2016)
- See also: Ballotpedia's battleground poll, 2016
Ballotpedia partnered with Evolving Strategies and surveyed voters across seven states (June 10 – 22) regarding their vote preferences. We tested six election scenarios. In one set, we matched Hillary Clinton (D) in a series of two-way contests with Donald Trump (R), Ohio Governor John Kasich (R), and House Speaker Paul Ryan (R). In the second set, we matched these same candidates in a series of three-way contests that also included former governor Gary Johnson.
In all seven states, Clinton polled higher than Trump. The tightest battleground race between the two frontrunners was in Iowa, where Clinton led Trump by a weighted 4 percentage points. Clinton saw the largest lead in Michigan, where she led Trump by a weighted 17 percentage points. Comparatively, John Kasich polled ahead of Clinton in five of the seven states, and Paul Ryan polled ahead of Clinton in three states.
Evolving Strategies and Ballotpedia surveyed 4,242 registered voters, with a margin of error of +/-4.0%.
Recent news
This section links to a Google news search for the term Libertarian + National + Convention + 2016
See also
- Presidential election, 2016
- Democratic National Convention, 2016
- Republican National Convention, 2016
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 2016 Libertarian National Convention, "24th Libertarian Party National Convention," accessed May 26, 2015
- ↑ Libertarian Party, "Our History," accessed February 23, 2016
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Libertarian National Committee, "Welcome," accessed February 23, 2016
- ↑ Libertarian Party Platform, "Statement of Principles," accessed May 27, 2016
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Joel Williams, "Live updates from the 2016 Libertarian National Convention," May 27, 2016
- ↑ Libertarian National Committee, "2016 Presidential Candidates," accessed February 23, 2016
- ↑ Independent Voter Network, "Gary Johnson Confirms Fox Business Will Host Libertarian Presidential Debate," February 18, 2016
- ↑ Libertarian Party Press Release, "Libertarian presidential debate to air on Stossel Show in April," March 3, 2016
- ↑ The New York Times, “Live Free or Trump,” March 22, 2016
| ||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||
