Libertarian Party (United States)
The Libertarian Party is a political party in the United States. The world's first explicitly libertarian party, it was conceived in August 1971 at meetings in the home of David Nolan in Westminster, Colorado, and was officially formed on December 11, 1971, in Colorado Springs. The organizers of the party drew inspiration from the works and ideas of the prominent Austrian school economist Murray Rothbard. The founding of the party was prompted in part due to concerns about the Nixon administration's wage and price controls, the Vietnam War, conscription, and the introduction of fiat money. In February 2025, "unity" candidate Steven Nekhaila was elected as the party's Chair.
The party generally supports "personal liberty" and fiscal conservatism, non-interventionism, laissez-faire capitalism and limiting the size and scope of government. Gary Johnson, the party's presidential nominee in 2012 and 2016, said that the Libertarian Party is more socially liberal than Democrats, and more fiscally conservative than Republicans. [|Its fiscal policy positions] include lowering taxes and abolishing the Internal Revenue Service, decreasing the national debt, and phasing out Social Security and the welfare state in part by utilizing private charities. It supports ending the public school system and disbanding Medicare and Medicaid to return to a free-market healthcare system. Its social policy positions include ending the prohibition of illegal drugs, advocating criminal justice reform through the legalization of all victimless crimes, supporting same-sex marriage, ending capital punishment, and supporting the right to keep and bear arms.
it is the third-largest political party in the United States by voter registration.
History
The first Libertarian National Convention was held in June 1972. In 1978, Dick Randolph of Alaska became the first elected Libertarian state legislator. Following the 1980 federal elections, the Libertarian Party assumed the title of being the third-largest party for the first time after the American Independent Party and the Conservative Party of New York continued to decline. In 1994, over 40 Libertarians were elected or appointed, which was a record for the party at that time. 1995 saw a soaring membership and voter registration for the party. In 1996, the Libertarian Party became the first third party to earn ballot status in all 50 states two presidential elections in a row. By the end of 2009, 146 Libertarians were holding elected offices.Tonie Nathan, running as the Libertarian Party's vice presidential candidate in the 1972 presidential election with John Hospers as the presidential candidate, was the first female candidate in the United States to receive an electoral vote.
The 2012 election Libertarian Party presidential candidate, former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson, and his running mate, former judge Jim Gray, received the highest number of votes—more than 1.2 million—of any Libertarian presidential candidate at the time. He was renominated for president in 2016, this time choosing former Massachusetts Governor William “Bill” Weld as his running mate. Johnson/Weld shattered the Libertarian record for a presidential ticket, earning over 4.4 million votes. Both Johnson and Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein received significantly more news coverage in 2016 than third-party candidates usually get, with polls showing both candidates potentially increasing their support over the last election, especially among younger voters.
The Libertarian Party has had significant electoral success in the context of state legislatures and other local offices. Libertarians won four elections to the Alaska House of Representatives between 1978 and 1984 and another four to the New Hampshire General Court in 1992. Neil Randall, a Libertarian, won the election to the Vermont House of Representatives in 1998 running on both the Libertarian and Republican lines. In 2000, Steve Vaillancourt won election to the New Hampshire General Court running on the Libertarian ballot line. Rhode Island State Representative Daniel P. Gordon was expelled from the Republicans and joined the Libertarian Party in 2011.
In July 2016 and June 2017, the Libertarians tied their 1992 peak of four legislators when four state legislators from four different states left the Republican Party to join the Libertarian Party: Nevada Assemblyman John Moore in January, Nebraska Senator Laura Ebke and New Hampshire Representative Max Abramson in May and Utah Senator Mark B. Madsen in July. In the 2016 election cycle, Madsen and Abramson did not run for re-election to their respective offices while Moore lost his race after the Libertarian Party officially censured him over his support of taxpayer stadium funding. Ebke was not up for re-election in 2016. New Hampshire Representative Caleb Q. Dyer changed party affiliation to the Libertarian Party from the Republican Party in February 2017. New Hampshire Representative Joseph Stallcop changed party affiliation to the Libertarian Party from the Democratic Party in May 2017. New Hampshire State Legislator Brandon Phinney joined with the Libertarian Party from the Republican Party in June 2017, the third to do so in 2017 and matching their 1992 and 2016 peaks of sitting Libertarian state legislators.
In January 2018, sitting New Mexico Commissioner of Public Lands Aubrey Dunn Jr. changed party affiliation from Republican to the Libertarian Party, becoming the first Libertarian statewide officeholder in history.
In April 2020, Representative Justin Amash of Michigan became the first Libertarian member of Congress after leaving the Republican Party and spending time as an independent. In June 2020, Amash, with Ayanna Pressley of the Democratic Party, introduced the Ending Qualified Immunity Act in response to the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. The bill was the first to gain support of members from the Democratic, Republican and Libertarian parties in the history of the United States Congress.
Notable Libertarian local officeholders in the 2020s include Vermont Representative Jarrod E. Sammis, Mayor of Wichita Lily Wu, and Mayor of Cedar Falls Rob Green.
Dallas Accord
The Dallas Accord is an implicit agreement that was made at the 1974 Libertarian National Convention as a compromise between the party's larger minarchist and smaller anarcho-capitalist factions by adopting a platform that explicitly did not say whether it was desirable for the state to exist.The purpose of this agreement was to make the Libertarian Party a "big tent" that would welcome more ideologically diverse groups of people interested in reducing the size and scope of government. Consequently, the 1974 platform included a "Statement of Principles" which focused on statements arguing for getting government out of various activities, and used phrases such as "where governments exist they must not violate the rights of any individual." The previous version of the Statement of Principles adopted at the party's first convention in 1972, in contrast, affirmatively endorsed the minarchist perspective with statements such as "Since government has only one legitimate function, the protection of individual rights...." It was agreed that the topic of anarchism would not even be on the table for discussion until a limited government was achieved.
During the 2006 Libertarian National Convention, delegates deleted a large portion of the very detailed platform. The phrase "Government exists to protect the rights of every individual including life, liberty and property" was added. This development was described as the "Portland Massacre" by its opponents. Some took this as meaning the Dallas Accord was dead. Confusion resulted in the 2000s on whether the Dallas Accord remained in effect, and if so whether it should, or what limits it places on the party's public statements or candidates.
2020s
In the 2020 election, the Libertarians gained a state legislative seat in the Wyoming House of Representatives, the first such win for the party since 2000. The first and only Libertarian in the United States Congress was Justin Amash, who joined the Libertarian Party in 2020 and left the U.S. House of Representatives in 2021 after choosing not to seek re-election.In 2022, the Mises Caucus became the dominant faction on the Libertarian National Committee, leading to internal conflicts and significant policy changes, specifically regarding immigration and abortion. Some classical liberalism-minded dissidents split from the Libertarian Party to form the Liberal Party USA, while others formed the Classical Liberal Caucus.
At the 2022 Libertarian National Convention, members of the Mises Caucus, a paleolibertarian group affiliated with the beliefs of Ron Paul successfully staged a takeover of the Party, with over two-thirds of delegates becoming members of the Caucus, shifting the party in a right-ward direction. The caucus successfully swept leadership positions, including electing Angela McArdle as chairwomen and Joshua Smith as vice-chairman. The 2022 convention had an unusually high number of delegates, with the last recorded number for an off-election year convention in 2006 being just 300 delegates. The 2022 convention by contrast saw over 1,000 delegates. After the takeover, non-Mises affiliated members walked out, criticizing the group for lacking in libertarian orthodoxy, as well as condemning several racist statements that members of the Caucus had made in the past. More ardent members of the party started to splinter, with Pennsylvania's split resulting in the formation of the Keystone Party of Pennsylvania.
Following changes to the party's official core platform by new leadership, several other state-level affiliated parties disaffiliated from the national Party or dissolved themselves. The New Mexico Libertarian Party further argued the Mises Caucus sweep was illegal, citing bylaws which was later amended. After the Libertarian Party of Virginia reformed, the dissidents formed a splinter group, the Virginia Classical Liberal Party. A similar situation occurred regarding the Libertarian Party of Massachusetts. The Mises Caucus furthermore blocked the disaffiliation of the New Hampshire party.
The Association of Liberty State Parties was officially formed on December 3, 2022 as a national party committee between the Massachusetts, New Mexico, and New Mexico parties. The Association formally rebranded to Liberal Party USA in February 2024.
In late 2023, Party Chair Angela McArdle, after being contacted by former acting director of national intelligence Richard Grenell, met with Donald Trump to consult on how Trump could win over the Libertarian vote. McArdle suggested the pardon of Ross Ulbricht, who was sentenced to life in prison in 2015 for his role in the marketplace Silk Road, which was achieved after the inauguration of Donald Trump. Five months later, Donald Trump was invited to the Libertarian Party's 2024 National Convention by McArdle, where he promised to include a libertarian in the cabinet and stated that the Libertarians should make him the presidential nominee. Trump was booed and heckled, including cries of “Bullshit!” and “Fuck you!”. Subsequently, the convention nominated “armed and gay” former senate candidate Chase Oliver for president, who defeated paleolibertarian Michael Rectenwald. Oliver's nomination was denounced by the state affiliates in Montana, Colorado, New Hampshire, and Idaho.
Chair Angela McArdle, after claims of improper party fund spending directed at her partner, stepped down from her position as chair of the Libertarian Party National Committee in January 2025. Mises Caucus founder Michael Heise was defeated by Steven Nekhaila in a 9–6 vote, who promised commitments to a policy of emphasizing small local races. Six national committee members endorsed by the Mises Caucus defected to Nekhaila, cementing his victory. Classical Liberal Caucus member Paul Darr was elected as vice-chairman.
The Libertarian Party of New Hampshire was censured in September 2025 by the National Committee citing "despicable conduct", and was invited to disaffiliate and cease its use of the Libertarian Party name.