While some areas are still reporting absentee and early vote totals, it appears mathematically safe to declare that the Rick Stewart/Marco Battaglia top-of-the-ballot ticket received enough votes to clear the 2% threshold for party status in Iowa. This full-party status will allow Iowans to officially register as Libertarian and will be documented on future Sec. of State reports, and for the party to hold primary elections – allowing voters to become familiar with LPIA candidates earlier in the election cycle.
“The Libertarian Party of Iowa is proud and excited to regain major party status. A huge thank you to Rick Stewart for the tremendous amount of work, time, and money, he put into his campaign to accomplish this milestone and spread the word of liberty. The steady increase in voter support clearly demonstrates that Iowans are tired of candidates and parties that talk about protecting their rights, and choosing the lesser of two evils – now they will have an actual choice in Iowa.” – Jules Cutler, LPIA Chair
A record number of Iowans supported the LPIA gubernatorial ticket
With almost 29,000 votes, at 2.4% of the number of ballots cast, Rick Stewart’s campaign sets a new bar for Libertarian gubernatorial candidates in Iowa, continuing the upward trend over the past couple of election cycles. Iowa voters could start registering as Libertarians in 2008, even when the party was in non-party political organization status, and the numbers continue to climb, hitting 10,000 in 2016, and currently over 16,000 – making the LPIA one of the only parties to gain members in recent years.
The Libertarian Party of Iowa is committed to America’s heritage of freedom: individual liberty and personal responsibility, a free-market economy of abundance and prosperity, and a foreign policy of non-intervention, peace, and free trade. Find out more at https://www.lpia.org.
