Libertarians Nominate Johnson-Weld Ticket for President

Johnson received 1.3 million votes in 2012.

Four years after receiving more votes on the Libertarian Party line than any other presidential candidate before, former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson was re-nominated as the party's 2016 nominee on Sunday afternoon.  

With large swathes of Democrats and Republicans unhappy with their nominees (presumed in the Democrats case), Johnson's third party bid has received substantial media coverage as his campaign has polled in the double digits in a three-way race against Clinton and Trump. 

Claiming the nomination on the second ballot with 55% of delegates in support, Johnson told the party faithful, "I will work as hard as I can to represent everybody in this room." He would later add, "I tell the truth. I'm not a liar." 

Johnson's biggest headache on Sunday might have been overcoming the formidable challenge from the assembled delegates in attendance to his preferred running-mate: former Massachusetts Governor William Weld.

Opposed for some of his more non-Libertarian policies while serving as the chief executive of Massachusetts in the nineties, Weld faced a barrage of criticism throughout the weekend from party members. Johnson opponent Austin Peterson would go so far as to call Weld a "horrible statist" at one point. 

Johnson and Weld address a press conference after
their ticket was nominated by national Libertarians

Still, despite a strong anti-Weld push at the end, Johnson got his man through with only 50.57% of delegates in support. This marks the first time that the Libertarian Party's national ticket has consisted of only governors. 

Thanks to the party's growing membership nationwide, the Libertarians Johnson-Weld ticket will be on the ballot in all fifty states. Shortly after Weld was narrowly nominated as his running-mate, Johnson tweeted out, "Time to get to work."

For national Libertarians seeking to exploit the negatives of the two major party's candidates, the first task has to be overcoming the draconian Commission on Presidential Debates 15% polling threshold for this fall's nationally televised debates.