Success For Libertarians Hinges On Local Races, Training, & Strategy

By Chris Kramer   —   December 28, 2022

Michael Heise is the founder and chair of the Libertarian Party Mises Caucus. Mr. Heise recently wrote about the outcomes of the 2022 elections. He also wrote about the potential of Libertarian candidates going forward. He outlined strategies for success in terms of Libertarian candidates winning races and gaining political influence in positions of consequence.

This is what Mr. Heise had to say:

In last month’s election, there were roughly 680 Libertarians who ran for office. Of that 680, roughly a quarter of them ran for local level office—yet ALL of the Libertarians who won came from that quarter. Of those local candidates, about 16 percent of them won—which I think is a higher percentage than one might expect to hear. Yet, I’m willing to bet that 16 percent is far from what we Libertarians can achieve. How many of these candidates are active in the community prior to running? How many are trained? How many have door-knockers and phone-bankers? How many have a campaign manager? How many of these candidates were recruited to target the most likely races where a Libertarian can win? So, what would happen if we went from 25 percent of candidates being local to 50 percent—or 75 percent? What if we create an environment where candidates being trained is the norm instead of the exception? What if we focus on a political strategy of targeting races that are the most winnable? What if we triple the number of candidates running locally and double our efficiency to a victory rate of more than 30 percent? I’ll tell you what would happen, and quickly: we Libertarians would immediately have more political influence in positions of consequence than ever before—as well as proof of concept for a political strategy that actually works, and from which we can scale up. We would have a footing from which to engage in asymmetrical political warfare against the state, using decentralization and nullification. The LPMC is building that foundation right now with Project Decentralized Revolution—check it out to see how it will unfold in 2023 and beyond! And if you’re already considering a run for office, let us know at RunAsLibertarian.com and our candidate support team will be in touch. We should all be proud of what we have achieved in the last few years, and especially what we did in 2022. But the real work begins next year, and I hope you’re on board.