As expected, former Gov. Johnson’s preparing to run as a Libertarian. If he gets the party’s nomination, he will be the second GOP politician in a row to run as the LP nominee. (Bob Barr was a former GOP Congressman who ran as a right-libertarian in ’08, and Johnson’s a former governor who’d run as a left-libertarian.)
It’s a good thing that the party’s able to attract former state or federal officeholders, and a sign that the LP (and not just libertarianism) is becoming more mainstream.
From POLITICO:
Gary Johnson will quit the Republican primaries and seek the Libertarian Party nomination instead, POLITICO has learned.
The former two-term New Mexico governor, whose campaign for the GOP nomination never caught fire, will make the announcement at a press conference in Santa Fe on Dec. 28. Johnson state directors will be informed of his plans on a campaign conference call Tuesday night, a Johnson campaign source told POLITICO.
The move has been expected for weeks — Johnson had run a New Hampshire-centric effort that never got him past a blip in the polls. He appeared at only two nationally televised debates, and only one in which other major candidates took part.