Libertarian Party names presidential nominee – as RFK Jr crashes out of race and Trump fails to qualify

The Libertarian Party has chosen Chase Oliver as their 2024 presidential nominee ahead of Robert F Kennedy Jr and Donald Trump, who failed to qualify.

The 38-year-old, who has run numerous times for Congress in Georgia, was elected after seven rounds of voting at the party’s convention in Washington DC, on Sunday, beating the likes of Michael Rectenwald and Mike ter Maat to the nod.

Mr Oliver told CNN after his victory that speaking to “as many people as possible” would be key to making an impact in a contest all but certain to be dominated by President Joe Biden and Mr Trump and pledged to be “a fly in the ointment of the two-party system”.

He added that he believed securing 2 per cent of the national vote in November was a realistic goal, commenting: “I got 2.1 per cent of the vote when I ran for the Senate in Georgia. I think that’s a definite doable thing, and certainly, we can improve upon that with a hard-run campaign that wakes people up.”

Mr Oliver has called for expanded work visas, a smoother pathway to citizenship for immigrants to the United States, the “decriminalisation” of abortion and denounced American involvement in foreign wars.

He was also vocal in his condemnation of Mr Trump, saying it had been a “mistake” to invite him to the Libertarians’ convention and telling the Republican: “You are not a libertarian… You’re a war criminal and you deserve to be shamed by everyone in this hall.”

Embarrassingly, Mr Kennedy – who is effectively running a spoiler campaign as an independent against the Democratic and Republican nominees and addressed the convention on Friday – was rejected for the nomination in the first round of voting, picking up just 2.07 per cent of the vote from 19 delegates.

That came after he