Celebrating the 2020 Election

Libertarians have much to celebrate here in Kansas! Some ballots are still being counted and some results are yet to be official. But we have enough to examine how we did in Tuesday's elections.Jason Buckley, our Libertarian candidate for U.S. Senate, came in at 5% with over 64,000 votes! This easily exceeded the minimum 1% in a statewide election required to keep our Minor-Party status and thus maintain ballot access for another two years.James Doyle, one of our Jo Jorgensen campaign leaders and Coordinator for the Libertarian Party of Republic County, won a seat on the City Council of Belleville, Kansas! Earning 19% of the vote, James came in second in a seven-way race (with the top three winning offices). Though it is a non-partisan position, having an active member of the Libertarian Party of Kansas elected to local office is a major accomplishment. Congratulations James!Our Libertarian candidates had some impressive showings in their races for Kansas State House. In three-way races: Michael Kerner with 3% in the 17th District;  Matt Clark with 5% in the 23rd; Rick Parsons with 10% in the 33rd; and L.J. Hermreck with 7% in the 103rd. Also, Dante Javaheri, garnered 14% in a two-way race in the 46th.Our U.S. House candidates, Robert Garrard in the second district and Steve Hohe in the third, received 4% and 3% respectively. Roman VanNahmen ran as a Libertarian for District Magistrate 16-3 and achieved 21% of the vote in that race against a Republican candidate. And Ross Wahl represented the Libertarian Party on the ballot in Riley, Kansas.Thank you to ALL our candidates! Through your willingness and effort you are spreading our message and party awareness.As of today, Jo Jorgensen is due to come in at 1.1% of the total national vote, with close to 2 million votes once all mail-in ballots are counted. While we were all hoping for more, this is still a remarkable accomplishment. It is the second highest total for any Libertarian POTUS candidate. Higher then Gary Johnson's first run in 2012. Though, in 2016 Johnson ended up with just over four million, or about twice what Jorgensen will have received in her first run for President.Now it's time to brag about Kansas! Jorgensen received 2.2% of the vote in Kansas - TWICE the national total percentage. That makes us the sixth highest percentage-earner among other states. By comparison, we were in 12th place in 2016. Obviously we would have preferred an overall increase in the vote percentage for the Libertarian candidate nationally. But, according to LP bylaws, our ranking will earn Kansas more delegate seats for the next two upcoming national conventions! In addition to that, it gives the Kansas for Jorgensen campaign team something to brag about. I personally want to say to the Kansas Campaign Director Mary Gerlt and each every activist who helped with the effort to promote our candidate this year - Thank you! I am proud of you!Moving forward! We have a tremendous amount of momentum, new volunteers, and new county leaders. That's where I will be focusing my effort, helping county leaders create and promote local events and recruit local candidates.  Find your county affiliate group here. If there isn't one near you, email me at Chair@LPKS.org and we can talk about getting one started.

Let's celebrate. Learn what we can. And keep moving!