Libertarian Party Chairwoman Angela McArdle is outlining the party’s strategy going into the 2024 election, and it may have more to do with preventing a second Biden term than wholeheartedly supporting their candidate.
After Chase Oliver received the nomination from the Libertarian Party at the party convention last week, McArdle outlined the goals of Oliver’s campaign through her lens. She said she believes Oliver is the best chance at beating President Joe Biden.
“I endorse Chase Oliver as the best way to beat Joe Biden,” McArdle said during a livestream Monday. “Get in, loser. We are stopping Biden. That’s what I think. That’s what I think this campaign is about.”
Former President Donald Trump attended last week’s convention but was met with a mixed reaction, complete with boos and cheers. Still, McArdle said his attendance at the convention merited her endorsement of Oliver as a way to beat Biden in November.
“Donald Trump said he’s going to put a Libertarian in a Cabinet position. He came out and spoke to us; he said he’s a Libertarian,” McArdle said. “He has basically endorsed us.”
McArdle said “one of the best ways” to stop a second Biden term would be to “go hard in the paint for [Oliver] in blue states.”
“I am going to work very aggressively, especially in blue states, to make sure [Oliver] has the support he needs from the national party,” McArdle said.
She said the focus of this strategy was in blue states, where enough of the vote could be taken from Biden that Trump could potentially win the state.
“I encourage people to try to use the Chase Oliver campaign to try and pull protest votes from the Left,” She said.
The Washington Examiner reached out to the Biden campaign for comment.
Biden has faced a string of protest votes from the far Left during the primary season over his handling of the Israel-Hamas war. In Michigan, a key battleground state, more than 100,000 Democrats voted “uncommitted” in place of Biden as a protest in the primary.
Conversely, McArdle said red states could choose not to put Oliver on the ballot, and she would respect their decision one way or the other.
“Now those of you who are in red states and who want to support Chase, like really support him, you’re not begrudgingly putting him on the ticket, that’s entirely up to you. That is your choice as a state affiliate, but I’m not going to put my thumb on the scale,” she said.
Still, McArdle said some people in red states are frustrated by her strategy.
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“There are some red states who are very pissed off about it and they think that the branding of this campaign is really going to hurt them,” she said. “I’m going to leave that up to them to decide how they deal with it.”
The chairwoman also addressed those who may not completely agree with the mindset of propping up a candidate to take another one down. While putting on a clown nose, she remarked, “I know, I know — it’s a total clown show thing. Well, I’m 100% here for that clown show.”
