It is election season in the United States, and for the next year, the headlines will be dominated by what is going on in the lead-up to the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election. Every year, it is the Republicans and Democrats going at each other while trying to convince the American people they have the best plan for the direction of the country. However, several other political parties have candidates running as well, but many Americans often overlook third-party candidates because they lack the support of the duopoly.
Chase Oliver is running for President of the United States on the Libertarian Party ticket, previously running as the party’s nominee in the 2020 election for Georgia’s fifth U.S. Congressional District and the 2022 U.S. Georgia Senate race. Oliver is running his campaign on optimism, freedom, and liberty and has already visited thirty-five states in hopes of winning the Libertarian nomination for President of the United States. On October 14th, Oliver visited Dean College making Massachusetts the thirty-fifth state he has visited on his campaign trail, and became the first-ever active Presidential candidate to visit the school.
Q: For those who don’t know, what is a Libertarian, and what made you join the party?
A: “A Libertarian is someone who wants to reduce the size and scope of the government in interactions you don’t want. If you aren’t committing force, fraud, or theft against any individual, it shouldn’t be the government’s business.”
“What made me a Libertarian is being anti-war. I grew up during the War on Terror and the Iraq War and I was an anti-war activist and when the Democratic Party stopped being the anti-war party, I started shopping for a new party. I discovered the Libertarian Party as one who has always stood for free markets over military solutions.”
Q: You have mentioned you became a Libertarian in 2010 by meeting other Libertarians at the Atlanta Pride Parade, but was there anyone else who influenced you to become a Libertarian?
A: “Ron Paul was one of the earlier people you see, while I wasn’t a Republican at the time I was a Democrat, and I certainly respected his anti-war positions. If you think about what made me a Libertarian, a lot of them are fiction. Trey Parker and Matt Stone, creators of South Park are some of my personal favorite content creators because their show skews everyone equally. Some other Libertarian influences on my life in fiction include Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut is a great one.”
“The Hunger Games is a great influence on the fight for liberty because at the end she realizes there are two forms of government, fascism and communism, and neither are desirable and at the end, she becomes very Libertarian. I really loved Milton Friedman's “free to choose” program back in the 80s but a lot of the stuff back then is still very relevant today. The X-Men has a lot of allegories between oppressed communities and the governments oppressing them.”
Q: What can Libertarians and other third parties do to get more support and win voters disillusioned with the Democrats and the Republicans, but still support what they view as the “lesser of two evils”?
A: “When affiliates ask what we can do to grow in our communities, I give them three things. First and foremost find your best speaker out of your affiliate and have them go to your city council or county commission meetings and have them say they represent their Libertarian Party. When you do that, people in the room will see that you are serious about it and usually you will get at least one person to talk to you about what you are supporting.”
“Secondly, single-issue coalitions. Find areas of agreement across the spectrum, I did this with the Stop Cop City movement in Atlanta and I worked with people across the political spectrum. Thirdly, find good to do in the community. The Atlanta Libertarian Party adopted a park that was being neglected by the city government and twice a month we would go and clean up garbage. We would talk to people using the park and tell them we are with the Libertarian Party and don’t believe the government is required to clean up the parks, we live and lead by example.”
Q: Under your campaign, what can you do to convince the American people you can make them freer?
A: “I believe in running a very positive-aspect campaign. If we (Libertarians) spent all of our time talking about how bad Joe Biden is then we’re no better than Donald Trump and vice versa. We have to provide a real alternative to what is going on in D.C. in a way that’s positive and aspirational because as a third party, you aren’t going to get people to vote for you if you’re just negative. You can’t just be anti-something you have to be pro-something.
“The policy and strategy of my campaign is to run with that in mind so the voters who haven’t heard of us yet come away with a positive name ID. That is our biggest issue as Libertarians because folks don’t know us and if they do, they might have a negative ID because of a stereotype or something they don’t quite understand about our philosophy. My job is to bring that ID up and make sure it's a positive one.”
Q: What would your pitch be to voters across the aisle, (Democrats and/or Republicans) who maybe would first only vote for Donald Trump or voted for Joe Biden in the last election. What would you say is your biggest plus, that neither Trump, Biden, or other two-party candidates have?
A: “If we are talking about disaffected Republicans and Democrats, people who are not excited for Trump or Biden but voted for one of them in the last election. My message to them is clear: the two-party system will never improve itself. The only way we are going to fix the continuous downslide of candidates in each election is to elect someone different or change the way we vote, be it Ranked-Choice voting or something else.”
“To those who say “I don’t want Joe Biden to win, so I’m going to vote for Donald Trump”, how many times more are you going to sacrifice your principles for the sake of stopping someone else from winning an election? Isn’t it about time you vote your principles to help someone win an election? That’s what I offer the voters, someone to feel good about voting for as opposed to voting for candidate x because candidate y is so terrible. I think if you are a disaffected Republican or Democrat at any level, you have to step outside of the two-party system. I believe my campaign would be the most attractive vehicle for that.”
Q: What would you say are your plans are to de-escalate the Culture War and the division in the country?
A: “I always like to say that Libertarians oppose all wars, like foreign wars, drug wars, and culture wars. I am somebody who calls for a cultural ceasefire. I don’t believe in culture wars I believe in a cultural exchange of ideas. We don’t need the government to facilitate that, often there is a blowback that we see and I would rather a culture move on its own progression via the will of the people. That being said, I am somebody who sincerely believes in something called “common grace”, common grace means that people who live differently than you, believe differently than you, and they’re doing in peace, you should have the common grace to let them do that, as they let you live the way you see fit.”
Q: Speaking of cultural splits, there seems to be an ongoing divide in the Libertarian Party, notably with the Classical Liberal Caucus and the Mises Caucus. What is your message to those affected by the divide to get behind you as the Libertarian nominee?
A: “I understand there is internal stuff going on and I hope that can all work itself out on the delegation floor. Ultimately I think all of us across the caucuses need to recognize that the commonalities are larger than our differences. There can be some deal-breaking differences but for the most part, we want to see more liberty in our lives and it is about how we communicate and strategize that. I would hope by the time we get to the nomination in 2024, that we can heal some of those wounds and build back those bridges, and for those who aren’t built, I will seek to build them. As a candidate for President, I will make this promise to the delegates. I will not be endorsing anyone for any internal party (no chair or vice chair endorsements). My focus is on the outward campaign, not the inward party and I will leave platform change to the delegates. I lament the division in other states, and I want us all to come together as one Libertarian party.”
Q: What is your single biggest/strength/draw as a candidate?
A: “I am pretty honest and transparent. You can ask me a question and I answer it, which is something a lot of politicians don’t do. I find that it’s a great skill for me as a candidate, when people come to me, even if they don’t like the answer that is going to come out of my mouth, I am going to say it because I feel that it is important, to be honest and forthright with folks. I think authenticity is what separates me from most politicians, as in you get what you get with me.”