The Libertarian Party (LP) is a right-libertarian political party in the United States. The party promotes libertarianism, specifically fiscal conservatism and laissez-faire capitalism, civil libertarianism and cultural liberalism, foreign non-interventionism, and limiting the size and scope of government.
The world's first explicitly libertarian party, the party was officially formed on December 11, 1971. Party organizers opposed the Nixon administration's wage and price controls, the Vietnam War and conscription, and the end of the Gold Standard and introduction of fiat money. The organizers of the party drew inspiration from the works and ideas of the prominent Austrian school economist Murray Rothbard.
The Libertarians support economic right-libertarian positions, including disbanding Medicare and Medicaid in favor of free-market healthcare, eliminating social insurance such as Social Security and food stamps in favor of private charities, ending public funding for schools, abolishing the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and abolishing the Federal Reserve System in favor of free banking. The Libertarians support cultural liberal positions, including legalization of all drugs and victimless crimes, ending capital punishment, supporting same-sex marriage, and supporting the right to keep and bear arms. In 2013, Gary Johnson, the party's presidential nominee in 2012 and 2016, said the party is more socially liberal than Democrats and more fiscally conservative than Republicans. The Libertarian Party contains several major factions with competing visions.
As of 2026, the Libertarians are the 4th-largest political party in the United States by Presidential vote, behind the Green Party of the United States, and 3rd-largest by voter registration. The Libertarians have seen limited success in local elections, but almost no success in state or federal elections, behind the Working Families Party or Democratic Socialists of America.
Contents
History
The first Libertarian National Convention was held in June 1972. In 1978, Dick Randolph of Alaska became the first elected Libertarian state legislator. Following the 1980 federal elections, the Libertarian Party assumed the title of being the third-largest party for the first time after the American Independent Party and the Conservative Party of New York (the other largest minor parties at the time) continued to decline. In 1994, over 40 Libertarians were elected or appointed, which was a record for the party at that time. 1995 saw a soaring membership and voter registration for the party. In 1996, the Libertarian Party became the first third party to earn ballot status in all 50 states two presidential elections in a row.
In the 2012 Presidential election, Libertarian candidate and former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson received over 1.2 million votes, the highest for any Libertarian to date. He was renominated for president in 2016, this time choosing former Massachusetts Governor William “Bill” Weld as his running mate. Johnson/Weld shattered the Libertarian record for a presidential ticket, earning over 4.4 million votes. In the 2016 Presidential election, Gary Johnson won over 4.4 million votes (3.3% of the total), the highest for any Libertarian before or since. Johnson was particularly popular in Johnson's home state of New Mexico, earning 9.3% of the vote. Both Johnson and Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein received significantly more news coverage in 2016 than third-party candidates usually get, with polls showing both candidates potentially increasing their support over the last election, especially among younger voters.
In the 2020 Wyoming House election, Libertarian Marshall Burt won a seat in the Wyoming House of Representatives, the first state legislature win for the party since 2000. The first and only Libertarian in the United States Congress was Justin Amash, who joined the Libertarian Party in 2020 and left the U.S. House of Representatives in 2021 after choosing not to seek re-election.
The Libertarian Party contains several major factions with competing visions. In 2022, the paleolibertarian Mises Caucus (LPMC) won a majority on the Libertarian National Committee and shifted the party in a fiscal- and social-conservative direction. The change resulted in internal conflicts and significant policy changes. Several state chapters distanced or disavowed themselves of the National Committee and formed their own independent state-level parties. Other defectors formed the Classical Liberal Caucus and Liberal Party USA. In 2024, Mises won again. In 2025, "unity" candidate Steven Nekhaila was elected as party Chair. In 2026, anti-Mises candidates won. The new LNC disaffiliated the Mises-leaning Libertarian Party of New Hampshire, which had endorsed Donald Trump over Chase Oliver in 2024 and endorsed assassinating elected Democrats. LPNH leader Jeremy Kauffman appealed, which the LNC unanimously denied.
Ideology
The party favors minimally regulated markets, a less powerful federal government, strong civil liberties (including LGBT rights, with the party supporting same-sex marriage), the liberalization of drug laws, separation of church and state, open immigration, non-interventionism and neutrality in diplomatic relations, free trade and free movement to all foreign countries and a more representative republic.
The party's platform preamble outlines the party's goals: "As Libertarians, we seek a world of liberty; a world in which all individuals are sovereign over their own lives and no one is forced to sacrifice his or her values for the benefit of others." The platform emphasizes individual liberty in personal and economic affairs and avoidance of "foreign entanglements".
Political positions
The Libertarian Party supports laissez-faire capitalism and the abolition of the modern welfare state. It adopts pro-civil liberties and pro-cultural liberal approaches to cultural and social issues. Paul H. Rubin, professor of law and economics at Emory University, believes that while liberal Democrats generally seek to control economic activities and conservative Republicans generally seek to control consumption activities such as sexual behavior, abortion and so on, the Libertarian Party is the largest political party in the United States that advocates few or no regulations in what it deems "social" and "economic" issues.
Economic issues
The LP supports eliminating all social insurance and social spending, including food stamps, and says that private charity will "bridge the gap". The LP seeks to eliminate public funding for education, saying that children's education is "best provided by the free market". The LP supports free market health care by repeal of Medicare, Medicaid, and all other social health insurance programs. The LP seeks to phase out Social Security, in favor of private retirement savings and private charity.
The LP opposes any regulation of markets, and says the "only proper role of government in the economic realm is to protect property rights, adjudicate disputes, and provide a legal framework" for "voluntary trade". The LP strongly opposes minimum wage laws. The LP advocates the repeal of all laws restricting advertisement. The LP supports free-market environmentalism, saying that strong property rights would yield a clean, healthy environment, because private landowners of natural resources and other ecological services would seek to maintain their value.
The LP supports international free trade in capital and open borders for labor.
The LP supports seeks to abolish the Federal Reserve System and fiat money in favor of free banking, in which any bank may issue its own currency, as during the US "free banking" era.
Social issues
The LP supports freedom of speech and opposes all state censorship. The LP supports a right to privacy and opposes mass surveillance.
The LP supports an absolute right of self-defense, and supports the right to keep and bear arms without any registration or restriction on the ownership, manufacture, transfer, or sale of firearms or ammunition.
Libertarians have divided opinions on capital punishment. Since 2016, the LP opposes "administration of the death penalty by the state". The LP seeks to expand rights of the accused and abolish qualified immunity for police to reduce excessive force.
The LP opposes state marriage licensing, saying all consenting adults should be free to pursue any relationship they desire. The LP has always opposed sodomy laws against homosexuality and laws against polygamy. In 1996, the LP enacted a plank supporting same-sex marriage. Many queer Libertarians have run for office. The LP has had many LGBT caucuses, including the Outright Libertarians. Libertarians have divided opinions on non-discrimination laws protecting LGBT people. Some Libertarians support non-discrimination laws, while others reject them as violating freedom of association.
The Libertarian Party supports legalization of all victimless crimes, including all drugs and gambling. The LP opposes any regulation of obscenity or pornography as "an abridgment of liberty of expression". The LP supports decriminalization of sex work and legalization of prostitution. Many men and women with backgrounds in prostitution and activists for sex workers' rights, such as Norma Jean Almodovar and Starchild, have run for office on the Libertarian Party ticket or been active in the party.
Libertarians have divided opinions on abortion. Some, like Libertarians for Life, consider abortion to be an act of aggression against a child, therefore necessitating government intervention to prevent it. Others, like Pro-Choice Libertarians, consider denying a woman the right to choose abortion to be an act of aggression from the government against her. The party has nominated both anti-abortion and abortion rights candidates. Pro-choice presidential candidates include Gary Johnson in 2012 and 2016 and Jo Jorgensen in 2020. Pro-life presidential candidates include Ron Paul in 1988 and Bob Barr in 2008. The LP platform was pro-choice from 1972 until 2022, when the abortion plank was deleted.
Democratic reform
The LP supports supports direct democracy through referendum and recall processes. The LP opposes restrictive ballot access laws and gerrymandering. The LP opposes publicly funded elections and supports repeal of all laws restricting election finance.
Foreign policy
The LP opposes US intervention abroad, seeking "peace with all nations, entangling alliances with none". The LP supports cutting all foreign aid and withdrawing all American troops. The LP supports US withdrawal from NATO.
Structure and composition
The Libertarian Party is democratically governed by its members, with state affiliate parties each holding annual or biennial conventions at which delegates are elected to attend the party's biennial national convention. National convention delegates vote on changes to the party's national platform and bylaws and elect officers and "at-large" representatives to the party's National Committee. The National Committee also has "regional representatives", some of whom are appointed by delegate caucuses at the national convention whereas others are appointed by the chairpersons of LP state affiliate chapters within a region.
National committees
The Libertarian National Committee (LNC) is a 27-member body including alternates, or 17 voting members. Since February 2, 2025, the chair is currently Steven Nekhaila of Florida, who was elected by the LNC in a special election.
Membership
Individuals can join the Libertarian Party by signing their agreement with the organization's non-aggression pledge. Therefore, some Libertarian Party donors are not necessarily "members", because the party has defined a "member" since its founding as someone who agrees with the party's membership statement. The Libertarian Party reported 138,815 signature members in December 2017.
Members can pay dues, currently at $25 per year or $1,500 for a lifetime. Most participation and voting rights are restricted to dues-paying and lifetime members. Dues to join the Committee to Form a Libertarian Party in 1971 were $2, which gradually increased to $15 for basic membership in the party in 1984. In 1991 dues were increased to $25, where they remain as of 2026. The Libertarian Party reported 14,445 dues-paying and life members in December 2017, and 9,348 in October 2025.
In 2006, national party membership was separated from state affiliate party membership, with each state maintaining its own membership rolls. Most state parties require dues payment, while some require voter registration as a Libertarian.
Registered voters
As of July 2026 the Libertarian Party has 695,779 (0.55%) registered voters, the 3rd-highest in the United States. California has the most registered Libertarians, at 231,107 (1.00%), while Kansas has the highest proportion, at 23,781 (1.18%).
Officeholders
In 2009, the Libertarian Party claimed 146 Libertarians in elected offices. In 2017, it claimed 168 Libertarians in elected offices, 58 partisan and 110 non-partisan. In addition, some party members were elected to public office on other party lines but explicitly retained their Libertarian Party membership. For example, US Representative Ron Paul has repeatedly stated that he remains a life member of the Libertarian Party.
The Libertarian Party has had limited electoral success at the state legislature and local level. Since the party's creation, 10 Libertarians have been elected to state legislatures and some other state legislators have switched parties after being originally elected as Republicans or Democrats. The Libertarian Party has never won a statewide or federal election.
Local offices
Notable Libertarian local officeholders in the 2020s include Vermont Representative Jarrod E. Sammis, Mayor of Wichita Lily Wu, and Mayor of Cedar Falls Rob Green.
In 2018, Jeff Hewitt, the mayor of Calimesa, California was elected to the Riverside County Board of Supervisors in a close race. Serving from 2019 to 2023, including 1-year stints as chair & vice-chair of the board from 2021 to 2023, Hewitt was considered the most powerful Libertarian elected official in California and in the United States during his tenure.
State legislatures
The Libertarian Party has had limited electoral success in state legislatures. Libertarians have been elected as state representatives without a major party cross-endorsement six times: Dick Randolph in Alaska in 1978, Ken Fanning and Randolph again in Alaska in 1980, Andre Marrou in Alaska in 1984, Steve Vaillancourt in New Hampshire in 2000, and in 2020, Marshall Burt received 54% of the vote in a two-way race in Wyoming's 39th House district in the Wyoming House of Representatives.
Several Libertarians have won election to state legislative offices on an electoral fusion line with a major party. For example, in 1992, Don Gorman and Andy Borsa won election to the New Hampshire House on a Libertarian-Republican fusion ballot. Similarly, in 1998, Neil Randall won election to the Vermont House of Representatives on a Libertarian-Republican fusion ballot. As of 2020, there have also been 67 candidates elected with a Libertarian and a major party cross endorsement: 37 in New Hampshire in 1992, 5 in New Hampshire in 1994, 4 in New Hampshire in 1996, 1 in Vermont in 1998, 5 in Oregon in 2014, 4 in Oregon in 2018, 4 in Oregon in 2020, and 7 in New York in 2020. There have been 14 candidates elected to state senate who had a Libertarian and major party cross endorsement: 1 in New Hampshire in 1992, 6 in New Hampshire in 1994, 3 in New Hampshire in 1996, 1 in Oregon in 2014, 1 in Oregon in 2018, 1 in New York in 2019, and 1 in New York in 2020.
Defections from other parties
In 1991, New Hampshire House members Calvin Warburton and Finlay Rothhaus resigned from the Republican Party and joined the Libertarian Party. Neither ran for re-election.
In 2011, Rhode Island House member Daniel P. Gordon was expelled from the Republican Party and joined the Libertarian Party.
After presidential candidate Donald Trump won Indiana's 2016 Republican primary, several Republican officeholders left the Party and changed their affiliation to the Libertarian Party. In January 2016, the first to do so was Nevada Assembly member John Moore switched to Libertarian Moore was censured by the Libertarian Party after he supported of taxpayer subsidies to build a stadium. Moore was defeated for re-election in 2016. In May 2016, nonpartisan Nebraska Legislature member Laura Ebke announced her displeasure with the Republican Party and announced she was registering as a Libertarian. Ebke ran for re-election and lost. In July, Utah State Senate member Mark B. Madsen switched to Libertarian. In the 2016 election cycle, Madsen Madsen did not seek re-election. In May 2016, New Hampshire House member Max Abramson switched from Republican to Libertarian before running as the party's gubernatorial candidate instead of seeking re-election.
From February to June 2017, three New Hampshire House of Representatives members left the Republican or Democratic party and joined the Libertarian Party. Caleb Q. Dyer switched from Republican to Libertarian in February 2017, Joseph Stallcop from Democratic in May 2017, and Brandon Phinney from Republican in June 2017. The 2016 and 2017 defection waves each brought the Libertarian Party to its highest number of state legislature officials since 1992.
In January 2018, New Mexico Commissioner of Public Lands Aubrey Dunn Jr. switched his party registration from Republican to Libertarian and subsequently announced he would run as the Libertarian nominee for the Senate election in New Mexico. Dunn was the first Libertarian in a partisan statewide office.
In April 2020, Representative Justin Amash of Michigan, who was first elected as a Republican, became the first and only Libertarian member of Congress after changing his party affiliation first to Independent, then to Libertarian.
Election results
Best major race results
Bold indicates race where Libertarian candidate was elected to office
Presidential elections
The first Libertarian presidential candidate, John Hospers, received one electoral vote in 1972 when Roger MacBride, a Virginia Republican faithless elector pledged to Richard Nixon, cast his ballot for the Libertarian ticket. His vote for Theodora ("Tonie") Nathan as vice president was the first electoral college vote ever to be cast for a woman in a United States presidential election. MacBride became the Libertarian presidential nominee himself in 1976. This was the last time that the Libertarian Party won an electoral vote until 44 years later, in the 2016 presidential election, when Texas Republican faithless elector Bill Greene, who was pledged to cast his vote for Donald Trump, instead cast his vote for former Libertarian presidential nominee, and former Republican representative Ron Paul for president.
During the 2016 presidential election, Gary Johnson and vice presidential candidate Bill Weld received a record percentage of 3.3% of the popular vote (4,489,233 votes), getting 9.3% in New Mexico, where Johnson had previously been elected governor. In the 2012 presidential election, Johnson and running mate Jim Gray received 1,275,821 votes (1.0%).
Internal debates
As of 2024, notable caucuses within the party include the Mises Caucus (paleolibertarians), the Classical Liberal Caucus (classical liberals), and the Radical Caucus (anarcho-capitalists).
Anarchist-minarchist debate
A longstanding debate within the party is one referred to by libertarians as the anarchist–minarchist debate. In 1974, anarchists and minarchists within the party agreed to officially take no position on whether or not government should exist at all and to not advocate either particular view. This agreement has become known as the Dallas Accord, having taken place at the party's convention that year in Dallas, Texas.
Libertarian members often cite the departure of Ed Crane (of the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank) as a key turning point in the early party history. Crane (who in the 1970s had been the party's first executive director) and some of his allies resigned from the party in 1983 when their preferred candidates for national committee seats lost in the elections at the national convention. Others like Mary Ruwart say that despite this apparent victory of those favoring radicalism, the party has for decades been slowly moving away from those ideals.
In the mid-2000s, groups such as the Libertarian Party Reform Caucus generally advocated revising the party's platform, eliminating or altering the membership statement and focusing on a politics-oriented approach aimed at presenting libertarianism to voters in what they deemed a "less threatening" manner. LPRadicals emerged in response and was active at the 2008 and 2010 Libertarian National Conventions. In its most recent incarnation, the Libertarian Party Radical Caucus was founded with the stated goal to "support the re-radicalization of the LP."
At the 2016 Libertarian National Convention, the Radical Caucus endorsed Darryl W. Perry for President and Will Coley for Vice President, who respectively won 7% and 10% of the vote on the first ballot, both taking fourth place. Though not explicitly organized as such, most self-identified pragmatists or moderates supported the nomination of Gary Johnson for president and Bill Weld for vice president. Johnson and Weld were both nominated on the second ballot with a narrow majority after having both placed just shy of the required 50% on the first ballots. After the convention, the Libertarian Pragmatist Caucus ("LPC") was founded and organized with the goal "[t]o promote realistic, pragmatic, and practical libertarian candidates and solutions." LPC supported Nicholas Sarwark in his successful bid for re-election as chair of the party's national committee at the 2018 convention in New Orleans.
Free State Project versus Mises Caucus
Proponents of the Free State Project, a movement dedicated to concentrating libertarians in the state of New Hampshire, argue that the Libertarian Party strategy of a national victory has been proven ineffective in stark contrast to libertarian concentration and focus on local races in New Hampshire. The founder of the Free State movement, Jason Sorens, stated in the movement's announcement, "Partisan politics has clearly failed: Libertarian presidential candidates consistently fail to break the one per cent barrier, while no Libertarian candidate has ever won election to a federal office."
At Porcfest 2021, an annual libertarian festival held in New Hampshire, Executive Director of the Free State Project (Jeremy Kauffman) and chair of the Libertarian Party (Angela McArdle) debated which strategy is more effective. Kauffman argued that, "There are more people in this room that are elected members to the NH House of Representatives and former members of the Libertarian Party than there are Libertarian Party members nationwide." Meanwhile, Angela McArdle argued that while she wants to see the Free State Project succeed, she argues that the Free State Project could not have existed without the political infrastructure provided by the LP developed over the course of five decades.
State and territorial parties
Former affiliates
Libertarian Association of Massachusetts
Libertarian Party of New Hampshire
Libertarian Party of New Mexico