Gary Johnson for U.S. Senate in 2018?

by W. E. Messamore

In a recent interview for IVN, Gary Johnson consultant Ron Nielson said Johnson “would be a fantastic senator” if he chose to run in 2018 against New Mexico’s Democratic junior senator, Martin Heinrich. When pressed on whether Johnson would consider making a bid for the U.S. Senate next year, Nielson had no comment, saying: “Well you’d have to ask Gary. I have no idea. No doubt that Gary would be a fantastic senator. He would do an amazing job and be great at that task. I have no idea if that would be of interest to him.”...His high name recognition and approval rating as a popular two-term governor in New Mexico would give him a great local advantage as well. He won his last statewide race in New Mexico by 9 percentage points. Martin Heinrich won his by less than 6 points that he had to fight hard for, and with far less money than Johnson would have to spend. Republican candidates winning one special election after another in 2017 (even the Republican candidate body slamming a reporter the night before the election can’t seem to get a Democrat elected this year) might portend a tough midterm for Democrats in 2018. If Gary Johnson were to pull off a U.S. Senate win for the Libertarian Party in his home state, he would make history for third party candidacies in the United States. He would also gain access to a vast amount of earned media air time as a senator to talk about the problems in Washington that other politicians won’t talk about, and that a growing number of voters are eager to hear. In the meantime, the only thing that’s sure is that Gary Johnson will be returning to the helm of his political non-profit, Our America Initiative, to mobilize “the largest grassroots army of liberty activists in the nation.”...more