This Right-Wing Faction Is Waging Civil War Inside the Libertarian Party
As a third-party candidate, Joe Evans’ U.S. congressional chances were always slim. Cheerfully identifying as “bordering on anarchist,” Evans was a frequent Libertarian candidate for a reliably Republican seat in Idaho. Undeterred, Evans ran three campaigns before suddenly withdrawing his candidacy this summer.
It wasn’t Republicans who finally frustrated his efforts, he says—it was his own Libertarian party.
Across the country, aspiring Libertarian activists and entire state-level Libertarian parties are voluntarily quitting. On the same day in August, New Mexico’s Libertarian Party filed to disaffiliate from the national Libertarian Party (LP), and the Libertarian Party of Virginia filed to dissolve. Fed-up Libertarians have formed splinter groups in Pennsylvania and New Hampshire. And in Evans’ state of Idaho, a contentious set of legal battles have drawn an iron curtain through the local Libertarian party, leaving Evans and other longtime associates on the outs.
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