MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The surge in non-affiliated voter registrations and the performance of Libertarian candidates is encouraging for the state party leader.
Between March of 2022 and March of this year, unaffiliated voters registered, having increased by more than 45,000.
State Chairman for the Libertarian Party, Taylor Richmond, felt some of that movement in his race for the State Senate seat in District 13. Richmond battled against two political veterans in Republican Mike Oliverio and Democrat John Williams.
Williams won the race with a little more than 15,000 votes while Richmond managed to pick up 1,009. In State Senate District 16, Libertarian Travis Bost picked up more than 11,000 votes in his loss to Republican incumbent Jason Barrett, and in House of Delegates District 15, Tye Ward picked up more than 1,100 votes in his loss to Erica Moore.
“In a race that was as competitive as ours, where you had two really strong candidates from the left and right fighting each other, 1,000 people actually went out and decided they wanted something different in Charleston,” Richmond said. “That is a great takeaway and something to look forward to and build on moving forward.”
The Republicans spend a lot of time pledging they are the party of small government, according to Richmond. During the next legislative session, Richmond hopes more Libertarians and unaffiliated voters will come to Charleston to make sure lawmakers are serving the needs of the people and not those of special interests.
“The Libertarian party is the principled party of actually getting government in Charleston out of your wallet, out of your life, and out of your way,” Richmond said. “We’re going to down there and fight for those principals and not get bought off by the chamber of commerce or special interest groups.”
In the run up to the election in 2028, Libertarians will use this extra energy to recruit additional candidates up and down the ballot. Richmond said the actions of the Libertarians on the ballot in the next election will match their campaigns, unlike major party candidates in many cases.
“They sound very libertarian on the campaign trail, but they get down to Charleston and govern like Democrats,” Richmond said. “We’re going to put a strong candidate that will contrast that but also one that is willing to protect civil liberties and individual freedoms.”
The Libertarians would make cuts in state government and use the savings to address other problems that have been neglected by the major parties. Richmond has consistently said public education can be rehabilitated by cutting the number of districts across the state and redirecting the savings in overhead costs to actual learning in the classroom.
“We need to across the board make a one- to three-percent cut in state government so we actually have room in our state budget to make sure we can do things like eliminating the state income tax or the Business and Inventory Tax.”
This election demonstrated voters are not just tired of the status quo, but they are now demanding action from lawmakers. In coming elections voters will see a growing contingent of libertarian and other unaffiliated options on the ballot.
“We want something different; we want someone who is going to stand on principles,” Richmond said. “We want to send someone to Charleston that is going to make a change from the red and the blue standing on opposite sides of the House chamber yelling at each other.”