Chase Oliver Could Be a Blessing for Donald Trump

Chase Oliver’s nomination as the Libertarian Party’s 2024 presidential candidate could be a blessing to Donald Trump compared to the man nominated in 2016, a prominent political scientist has told Newsweek.

Oliver is “unlikely to pick up the kind of Republican voters” that 2016 nominee Gary Johnson received, according to Mark Shanahan, an expert in American politics at the U.K.’s University of Surrey.

“With the likelihood of the Libertarian Party taking only around 1 percent of the vote nationally, it will take exceedingly close races for Oliver’s place on the ballot to matter,” he added.

In 2016, Johnson received 3.3 percent of the popular vote running as a Libertarian, putting him in third place behind Hillary Clinton on 48.2 percent, and Donald Trump on 46.1 percent, with the Republican candidate winning overall thanks to the Electoral College system.

On Sunday, 38-year-old former Democrat Oliver received over 60 percent of the vote at the Libertarian Party convention to be the party’s 2018 White House candidate, defeating Robert F. Kennedy Jr. who is currently running as an independent.

Oliver, who is openly gay, is widely regarded as on the left of the Libertarian Party and his platform includes encouraging states to “decriminalize” abortion. Previously Oliver has called for the process by which migrants get U.S. citizenship to be simplified and angered social conservatives by defending ‘Drag Queen Story Hour’ events for children.

Shanahan said: “Chase Oliver is a Georgian political activist who, unlike twice-elected Gary Johnson, has never held office. While he will win the votes of committed Libertarians, whose own Conference has shown its animosity toward Trump, he is unlikely to pick up the kind of Republican voters that Johnson garnered.

“With all eyes again on Georgia in this election, the GOP will be desperately wooing wavering Republicans, trying to win back votes for Trump rather than the semi-local Libertarian candidate.”

Shanahan also noted that after the Libertarian vote “peaked in 2016” it “declined by two thirds” in 2020 when the party ran activist Jo Jorgensen as its candidate, picking up 1.2 percent of the national vote.

Newsweek contacted representatives of the Donald Trump and Joe Biden presidential campaigns for comment by email.

On Saturday Trump addressed the Libertarian Party’s National Convention at the Washington Hilton in D.C., when he was booed at several points by audience members.

In response Trump mocked Libertarians over their electoral record commenting: “Maybe you don’t want to win. Keep getting your 3 to 4 percent [in the general election] every year.”

Trump received just six write-in votes from Libertarian Party members to be the party’s 2024 presidential nominee, though in a Truth Social post he insisted he could have secured this if he’d wanted to.

The presumptive Republican candidate wrote: “The reason I didn’t file paperwork for the Libertarian Nomination, which I would have absolutely gotten if I wanted it (as everyone could tell by the enthusiasm of the Crowd last night!), was the fact that, as the Republican Nominee, I am not allowed to have the Nomination of another Party. Regardless, I believe I will get a Majority of the Libertarian Votes.”