Chase Oliver knows he won’t win tonight. Instead, the 39-year-old Libertarian presidential candidate hopes to shake up the system.
“I wanted to show the voters they’re not limited to just two choices,” he said, taking a break to speak to me during a VIP cocktail hour before his Election Watch party at the Westin Dallas Park Central. “And hopefully in doing so, break up some of the polarization and division that we see in our country.”
Oliver has been polling at around 1 percent, although he is on 47 state ballots, more than any other third-party candidate. He’s an affable if somewhat serious guy, looking clean cut with his slicked hair and wearing a shiny dark green suit, topped off with a Statue of Liberty pin on his lapel.
“Victory for me is to see vote totals growing in states that need Libertarian votes for ballot access and party status,” he said.
The Tuesday night event was the second time the Libertarian Party of Texas has hosted a presidential party in Dallas (the first was Jo Jorgensen in 2020), which was chosen for its central location. Prior to a sit-down dinner, about 50 guests crowded into a hotel room with a sign on the door that read, “Blood of the Tyrants.” It’s a reference to the Thomas Jefferson quote, “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of tyrants,” but it’s also a beverage company, whose owners Kate Prather and Dan Behrman hosted the event.
A Libertarian party isn’t your typical political gathering. Although the dress code said “black-tie,” there were jeans and cowboy hats and flip-flops in the mix. Among the women in long sequined gowns were women in business casual and one in a long gauzy nightgown she refashioned into a dress, a pink biker jacket thrown over it.
“You see different religions and values, but what we have in common is that people want to be left alone as long as they’re not harming anyone else,” says Blood of the Tyrants owner Prather, sipping wine from a glass shaped like a skull. “That’s what makes our party so fun and accepting.”
It fits with Oliver’s position as an alternate to politics-as-usual. He is openly gay and a millennial, both rare in politics, and his platform is classically libertarian: pro-choice, pro-gun, anti-war, yes to free markets and no to government intervention.
Although third-party candidates like Oliver and Green Party candidate Jill Stein haven’t gotten much ink in this cycle, they could potentially have a spoiler affect in swing states where polls have shown tight margins. Oliver had such a disruptive effect two years ago, when he ran for the Senate in his home state of Georgia, where he got 2 percent of the vote, enough to force a runoff between Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) and Republican Herschel Walker, which Warnock eventually won.
“I do think there’s potential for us to beat the spread in many of the swing states and to show we have an impact there,” said Oliver. “That would speak to the importance of ranked-choice voting, so people who select me first could have the option to choose someone second, and that way we’d have a more conclusive election.”
Several Libertarian political candidates also attended the Election Night party, including Dallas-based Kevin Hale, running for U.S. House’s 32nd congressional district, the seat left open by Colin Allred, and Darren Hamilton from Little Elm, running for District 57 in the Texas House of Representatives.
“We are the political innovators,” said Hale, who was wearing a sticker on his lapel that read “Pork belongs in sandwiches not DC.” “We’ve been providing these solutions for 50 years. Cannabis, gay marriage, criminal justice reform. And we don’t want to wait another 40 years for the parties to catch on.”
“A centrist party can take the best ideas from the right and left sides and compile them into something that works for more people,” said Hamilton.
As the crowd moved up to the top floor of the hotel for a seated dinner, where the Election Watch night would unfold into speeches, guests reflected on what victory would mean for a party that is bound to lose.
“Our movement lives and dies on people being able to see us,” said Ken Moellman, who worked as state and then regional coordinator for Oliver’s campaign. The better Oliver does tonight, the more likely Libertarians can get ballot access in future elections.
As guests settled into their chairs, Oliver took the podium for a moment to address the crowd.
“As we see the votes rolling in, just remember this: We Libertarians are opposed to the two-party system, because it seeks to control us and our lives, and we reject it outright,” he told the crowd. “Let’s celebrate liberty.” And with that, everyone raised a glass.
In the end, the “watch party” didn’t include a lot of watching. Speakers took to a small stage to offer thoughts on the strength and purpose of the Libertarian party, but few mentioned the status of actual races. A screen near the center of the room had a projection of the New York Times electoral map, but as the red and blue columns filled on either side, most people seemed content to chat and dance in between the speeches. A DJ played old-school hits like Queen’s “Another One Bite the Dust” and Chic’s “Good Times,” whose undeniable beat got even the presidential candidate (ever so briefly) busting a move.
At one point, someone checked the Libertarian party’s race results. Hawk Dunlap had 2.3% in the Railroad Commissioner race, and J. David Roberson had 2.7% in the race for Texas Supreme Court Place 6, but then the projection flipped back to the U.S. map again, where states were either red, blue, or blank.
The results led Lars Mapstead, a tech entrepreneur from California who ran against Oliver for the Libertarian presidential nomination, to the stage.
“We are pushing liberty out of this room and out into America,” he told the audience. “It feels like we’re not, because we’re not getting the wins and we’re not getting the media attention, but what I’ve come to understand is that we are pushing the Overton window.”
Mike ter Maat, Oliver’s vice-presidential running mate, spoke through a prerecorded video message. “Chase, you’re better at this than people thought you would be,” he said. “Run for office again, and give as many people the chance to say, as I do, I’m a Chase Oliver Fan.”
The room didn’t quite snap to attention, though, until Oliver spoke at the end of the evening. He explained that his presidential campaign had started in Texas, when he came to an event in Abilene after his showing in the 2022 Senate race. It was the first time he realized the impact he’d had.
“Right now the Democratic and Republican parties do not excite young people,” he said. “We as a party need to focus ourselves on waking up young voters,” he said.
The room burst into applause.
“My fight is just getting started,” he said.
