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When voters turn up to the polls in November's presidential election, they may find themselves faced with an unfamiliar choice: Chase Oliver.
Oliver is this year's presidential nominee for the Libertarian Party, a political party that typically gets about 1% of the national vote and is known for promoting civil rights and small government.
At 38 years old (just three years over the constitutional age limit for presidential candidacy), Oliver is by far the youngest of this year's candidates.
He is also the only openly gay candidate, and says he hopes that will set an example for LGBT aspiring politicians.
The former Georgia congressional candidate has become a third-party presidential candidate in an election that is giving voters a sense of déjà vu: Former President Donald Trump has won the Republican nomination and President Joe Biden is fighting for a second term as the incumbent Democrat, setting the stage for a rematch between the two candidates.
On Saturday, Trump spoke at the Libertarian Party National Convention in Washington, D.C., asking for support. He was booed loudly.
This came as no surprise to Oliver, who ultimately won the party's presidential nomination after seven rounds of voting the following day.
“He's here to win the support of voters,” Oliver told the BBC's Americaist podcast on Thursday. “He's had exactly the libertarian reception that a person like him deserves.”
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Oliver said Trump represents a “war nation around the world” and criticized him for expanding the US national debt and implementing coronavirus lockdowns during his four years in office.
In the end, the Libertarian Caucus chairman ruled that Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, was ineligible to be the Libertarian Party's nominee.
The former Republican president was not the only outsider to speak at the convention: Robert F. Kennedy, who is now preparing to run as an independent for the presidency, also spoke, but his reception was much warmer.
However, when it came time to vote, he received the support of only 2% of the delegates and was eliminated in the first round.
But Americans have polled Kennedy at a much higher level than any third-party or independent candidate in decades, peaking at about 15% support — well above the 3% support recorded by Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson in the 2016 election.
Oliver said he understood why Kennedy, the nephew of President John F. Kennedy, would do well, but told The Americanist that voters looking for an outsider would be better off with Kennedy's party, which is trying to build a lasting alternative to the two-party system.
He warns that Kennedy is a “one-off” option and will no longer exist after this election.
“Do we want to shout in a protest vote?” he asked. “Or do we want to build something lasting, to lay the foundations so that together we can defeat the ills of our nation?”
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Dan John, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, has been a Libertarian Party member since the 2000s and recently became the party's president ahead of this year's national convention.
John said he thinks Libertarian Party candidates could have a bigger impact in this year's election than in previous years.
“We each have one term [Biden and Trump] “And there are people who hate their life under both administrations,” the 39-year-old said. “That's why they're voting in protest.”
But if Kennedy slashes the Libertarian Party's vote share too much in November, the party could fall short of its target for automatic votes in many states in the next presidential election, dealing a devastating blow to the party's hopes of expanding its support even further.
Alana Legier, 32, attended the Libertarian Caucus and said she plans to vote for Oliver in November.
“I think the Libertarian candidate will be in direct competition with Kennedy and I think people are looking for something new, something outside the two-party system. I'm tired of Trump and Biden,” the Sussex County, New Jersey resident said.
At the heart of the libertarian cause is an aggressive effort to limit the reach of government by cutting spending and regulation and expanding individual freedoms. In practice, this includes decriminalizing most drugs and prostitution, expanding firearm ownership, significantly reducing U.S. military spending, and allowing free immigration.
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Some of the party's positions have limited public support and are contrary to current mainstream political debate.
“We need to educate the public that immigration is not something to be afraid of,” Oliver said. “It's actually a natural phenomenon that has been present on the North American continent for hundreds of years and that we want to continue to see.”
He added that one of his goals in the upcoming election campaign is to broaden the party's appeal to younger voters, who have expressed particular dissatisfaction with the state of politics in recent years.
“They want something better than Republicans and Democrats, and we need to give it to them,” he said. “We need to give them solutions to their causes and the problems they face.”
Erin Wood, 40, is a longtime Libertarian who doesn't think either Kennedy or Trump will win the party's support.
“We are a die-hard party,” she said.
The Montgomery County, Maryland, resident said she plans to vote for her party's candidate in November.
“There's no Plan B right now,” she said.
