Chase Oliver Is the Libertarian Party’s Presidential Pick
Two years ago, Chase Oliver burst onto the Libertarian political scene by forcing a runoff in the Georgia Senate election—a result that ultimately determined the majority in the U.S. Senate.
Now he can aim to leave an even bigger mark.
Oliver won the Libertarian Party’s presidential nomination in dramatic fashion Sunday night, prevailing on the seventh round of balloting after running second in each of the first five rounds. Oliver received 60.6 percent of the vote in the final round, finally clearing the 50 percent threshold for victory against “none of the above,” the only alternative that remained on the ballot after Oliver narrowly won a sixth-round showdown with professor-turned-podcaster Michael Rectenwald, who had led the count in each of the first five rounds.
“I am extending my hand. Take it, and be a partner with me in liberty,” Oliver said in his victory speech, making a pitch to his opponents within the Libertarian Party, which has been riven for the past two years by a deep divide over tactics and principles.
It was a fitting end to a tempestuous convention that saw Libertarian delegates loudly boo former President Donald Trump during an unorthodox appearance by the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.
Oliver, a 38-year-old gay man from the Atlanta suburbs, delivered a passionate response after Trump’s speech to the convention on Saturday—and now he will get to spend the next six months competing directly against Trump and President Joe Biden, two men more than twice his age. After winning on Sunday, Oliver promised to keep pressing a message that neither major-party candidate is likely to offer.
“I will continue to bring a hopeful and positive message of liberty to both those who consider themselves libertarian and those who don’t know they are libertarian yet,” Oliver promised in his victory speech.
“Chase is a hard worker, a gifted messenger, and very much not an octogenarian,” says Joseph Henchman, a former Libertarian Party chairman who was not a delegate to this year’s convention.
Oliver’s victory on Sunday night was a blow to the Mises Caucus, the right-leaning faction that took control of the Libertarian Party at the 2022 convention and that had orchestrated Trump’s appearance at the convention. That faction’s prefe
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