Gary Johnson is making a run for president one more time. The former New Mexico governor and self-made millionaire made an official public statement on Wednesday, stating he was hoping to secure a nomination on the Libertarian ticket.
“I am announcing my candidacy right now for the Libertarian nomination,” Johnson said on Fox Business’ “Coast to Coast” with Neil Cavuto on Wednesday. “I do believe that crony capitalism is alive and well. Its Democrats and Republicans that contribute to that. I’d like to be that choice that is not going to succumb to that.”
Johnson, who is pro-marijuana and a self-made millionaire, received 1,275,923 votes in the 2012 election, the most ever in the history of his party. The former New Mexico governor knows that his campaign for the presidency, which he announced Wednesday on the Fox Business Network, won’t end with him in the White House.
“I have no delusions of grandeur here,” Johnson told me shortly after his announcement, in his characteristic frankness. “I know what happened last time.”’I want to take this opportunity to announce my candidacy for president. I am hoping to get the Libertarian nomination for president in 2016,’ Johnson said appearing on Fox Business Wednesday afternoon.
He later said of his reasoning; ‘On my deathbed, I’m hoping that I look back and believe that I was the voice of reason in all this, regardless of how many votes I end up garnering.’
Johnson also gave an interview to the Washington Post later in the day, speaking about the last election and what he was hoping for in this election.
In an interview with POLITICO, Johnson vowed to run a completely different campaign than he did in 2012, when he received just 1,275,971 votes, or 0.99 percent of the total electorate. In 2012, he started his campaign with a splashy event that he said cost thousands; this time, he did it for free on Fox Business, he noted.
“My voice has not been heard, and speaking with a broad brush stroke, that is someone who is fiscally conservative and socially liberal,” Johnson said. “At the end of the day, on my deathbed I know that I’m going to reflect on life and believe that I was the voice of reason in all this. Will that result in any better showing than last [election cycle]? Will that result in even being the nominee? Who is to say?”
Johnson resigned from his position as director and CEO of Cannabis Sativa, Inc, a marijuana marketing and packaging company, earlier this week, according to Reason.
He told POLITICO that he would support a ban on burqas because he believes they are forced under sharia law, not a symbol of religious freedom.
“We need to understand the difference between freedom of religion — which is absolutely guaranteed and I would fervently defend,” Johnson said. “Sharia law is politics, it’s not religion. If you say that a woman is voluntarily going to be of lesser value than a man, which is in sharia law, can we allow that?”
Be the first to comment on "Gary Johnson, 2012 Libertarian presidential candidate, will run in 2016"