| This article is part of a series on |
| Libertarianism in the United States |
|---|
 |
In American politics, a Libertarian Republican is a politician or Republican Party member who has advocated Libertarian policies while typically voting for and being involved with the Republican Party.
The Republican Party has historically been divided into factions. In 2012, the libertarian branch of the party was described as smaller than other branches, including Tea Party voters (the "populist, Pro-limited government Tea Party wing" of the party), pragmatic "Main Street" Republicans, and evangelical Christian conservatives. [1] According to a 2012 New York Times analysis, libertarian Republicans have a variety of motivating issues. On economic and domestic policy, they favor deregulation and tax cuts, repeal of the Affordable Care Act, and protecting gun rights. [1] On social issues, they favor privacy and oppose the USA Patriot Act and oppose the War on Drugs. [1] On foreign and defense policy, libertarian Republicans are non-interventionists. [1] Some libertarians favor abortion rights, while other libertarian Republicans oppose almost all abortions. [1] Two-thirds of libertarian Republicans are males. [1]
In a 2014 Pew Research Center survey on political typology and polarization, 12% of Republicans described themselves as libertarian. [2] In a 2023 New York Times poll of the Republican coalition, 14% of Republicans consider themselves Libertarian conservatives. As of August 2023, 38% support providing additional support to Ukraine, 34% support cutting corporate taxes over raising tariffs, 19% consider themselves very conservative, 45% believe abortion should be mostly or always legal, 51% are against comprehensive immigration reform, 73% say they favor the "protection of individual freedom over traditional values", and 13% want a candidate who would "fight corporations that promote woke left ideology." In the 2024 Republican Party presidential primaries, 43% would vote for Donald Trump and 12% would vote for Ron DeSantis. [3]
The Republican Liberty Caucus, which describes itself as "the oldest continuously operating organization in the Liberty Republican movement with state charters nationwide," was founded in 1991. [4] In the 1990s the group's chairs included Chuck Muth, Roger MacBride, and Congressman Ron Paul; in the 2000s, the group's chairs included Dave Nalle. [4] The group's statement of principles affirms "the principle that individual rights and liberties are unlimited" and calls for free trade; the "privatization of all government assets"; the abolition of many federal agencies; the repeal of most current federal taxes in favor of a single flat income tax or national sales tax; and the phase-out of "compulsory government retirement, disability, and health programs." [5]
The House Liberty Caucus is a congressional caucus formed by Libertarian Representative Justin Amash of Michigan, at the time a Republican. In 2014, the group "consisted of about 30 libertarian-inclined Republicans (and occasional Democratic visitors like Jared Polis)." [6] In February 2019, Politico reported that the House Liberty Caucus had eight members. [7] The list of congressional member organizations (CMOs) for the 118th Congress indicates that Warren Davidson is the leader of the Congressional Liberty Caucus. [8]
The Libertarian Party (LP) is a political party in the United States that promotes civil liberties, non-interventionism, laissez-faire capitalism, and limiting the size and scope of government. The party was conceived in August 1971 at meetings in the home of David F. Nolan in Westminster, Colorado, and was officially formed on December 11, 1971, in Colorado Springs. The organizers of the party drew inspiration from the works and ideas of the prominent Austrian school economist, Murray Rothbard. The founding of the party was prompted in part due to concerns about the Nixon administration, the Vietnam War, conscription, and the introduction of fiat money.
Paleolibertarianism is a libertarian political activism strategy aimed at uniting libertarians and paleoconservatives. It was developed by American anarcho-capitalist theorists Murray Rothbard and Lew Rockwell in the American political context after the end of the Cold War. From 1989 to 1995, they sought to communicate libertarian notions of opposition to government intervention by using messages accessible to the working class and middle-class people of the time. They combined libertarian free market views with the cultural conservatism of Paleoconservatism, while also opposing protectionism. The strategy also embraced the paleoconservative reverence for tradition and religion. This approach, usually identified as right-wing populism, was intended to radicalize citizens against the state. The name they chose for this style of activism evoked the roots of modern libertarianism, hence the prefix paleo. That founding movement was American classical liberalism, which shared the anti-war and anti-New Deal sentiments of the Old Right in the first half of the 20th century. Paleolibertarianism is generally seen as a right-wing ideology.
The Republican Liberty Caucus (RLC) is a political action organization dedicated to promoting the ideals of individual liberty, limited government and free market economics within the Republican Party in the United States. It is part of the libertarian wing of the Republican Party. It also operates a political action committee, the RLC-USA PAC.
The Republican Party in the United States includes several factions, or wings. During the 19th century, Republican factions included the Half-Breeds, who supported civil service reform; the Radical Republicans, who advocated the immediate and total abolition of slavery, and later advocated civil rights for freed slaves during the Reconstruction era; and the Stalwarts, who supported machine politics.
In the United States, libertarianism is a political philosophy promoting individual liberty. According to common meanings of conservatism and liberalism in the United States, libertarianism has been described as conservative on economic issues and liberal on personal freedom, often associated with a foreign policy of non-interventionism. Broadly, there are four principal traditions within libertarianism, namely the libertarianism that developed in the mid-20th century out of the revival tradition of classical liberalism in the United States after liberalism associated with the New Deal; the libertarianism developed in the 1950s by anarcho-capitalist author Murray Rothbard, who based it on the anti-New Deal Old Right and 19th-century libertarianism and American individualist anarchists such as Benjamin Tucker and Lysander Spooner while rejecting the labor theory of value in favor of Austrian School economics and the subjective theory of value; the libertarianism developed in the 1970s by Robert Nozick and founded in American and European classical liberal traditions; and the libertarianism associated with the Libertarian Party, which was founded in 1971, including politicians such as David Nolan and Ron Paul.
Libertarian conservatism, also referred to as conservative libertarianism and conservatarianism, is a political and social philosophy that combines conservatism and libertarianism, representing the libertarian wing of conservatism and vice versa.
In American politics, a libertarian Democrat is a member of the Democratic Party with political views that are relatively libertarian compared to the views of the national party.
The House Liberty Caucus is a congressional caucus consisting of conservative, libertarian, and libertarian conservative members of the United States House of Representatives.
Justin A. Amash is an American lawyer and politician who served as the U.S. representative for Michigan's 3rd congressional district from 2011 to 2021. He was the second Palestinian-American member of Congress. Originally a Republican, Amash left the GOP and became an independent on July 4, 2019. In April 2020, he joined the Libertarian Party, leaving Congress in January 2021 as the only Libertarian to serve in Congress.
Eduardo Jesus Lopez-Reyes best known as Ed Lopez is an American politician and activist for the Republican Party. He previously served as the vice chairman of the Republican Liberty Caucus. In 2022, Lopez unsuccessfully ran for Connecticut House of Representatives for the 150th District, which encompasses parts of Greenwich. He currently serves as the Chairman of the Greenwich Representative Town Meeting (RTM) for District 3 in Greenwich, Connecticut.
The 2016 United States Senate election in Florida was held November 8, 2016 to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the State of Florida, concurrently with the 2016 U.S. presidential election, as well as other elections to the United States Senate in other states and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections. The primary elections for both the Republicans and Democrats took place on August 30, 2016.
The 2016 presidential campaign of Rand Paul, the junior United States senator from Kentucky, was announced on April 7, 2015, at an event at the Galt House in Louisville, Kentucky. First elected to the U.S. Senate in the 2010 election, Paul's candidacy for the Republican nomination for President of the United States in 2016 had been widely speculated since early 2013.
The 2016 presidential campaign of Gary Johnson, the 29th Governor of New Mexico, was announced on January 6, 2016, for the nomination of the Libertarian Party for President of the United States. He officially won the nomination on May 29, 2016, at the Libertarian National Convention in Orlando, Florida, receiving 56% of the vote on the second ballot. Former Massachusetts Governor William Weld was endorsed by Johnson for the Libertarian vice-presidential nomination, which he also received on May 29, 2016.
Austin Wade Petersen is an American writer, political activist, commentator, and broadcaster. He is the host of the Wake Up America show daily newscast. He was the runner-up for the Libertarian Party's nomination for President of the United States in 2016, finishing second place to Gary Johnson with 21.9% of the vote.
The 2018 United States Senate election in New Mexico took place on November 6, 2018, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the state of New Mexico, concurrently with other elections to the United States Senate, elections to the United States House of Representatives, and various state and local elections.
The 2018 United States Senate election in Virginia took place on November 6, 2018, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the Commonwealth of Virginia, concurrently with other elections to the U.S. Senate, elections to the United States House of Representatives, and various state and local elections. Incumbent Democratic Senator Tim Kaine, who had been his party's nominee for vice president two years earlier, was re-elected to a second term in office, winning this seat by the largest margin since 1988. This was the first election since 1994 that anyone had been re-elected to this seat.
Presidential primaries and caucuses of the Republican Party took place in many U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and five U.S. territories from February 3 to August 11, 2020, to elect most of the 2,550 delegates to send to the Republican National Convention. Delegates to the national convention in other states were elected by the respective state party organizations. The delegates to the national convention voted on the first ballot to select Donald Trump as the Republican Party's nominee for president of the United States in the 2020 election, and selected Mike Pence as the vice-presidential nominee.
The 2022 United States Senate election in Arizona was held on November 8, 2022, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the state of Arizona.
Gaetz has a strong libertarian streak and (at times) has expressed support for legalized marijuana and LGBTQ rights
The libertarian-leaning Kerry Bentivolio secured his first elected position by running as an outsider...
Libertarians like Republican Sens. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming and Rand Paul of Kentucky signaled openness to descheduling marijuana under the Controlled Substances Act
A self-described "libertarian-leaning Republican," Ms. Lummis – whose last name rhymes with hummus – is the first woman to represent Wyoming in the Senate.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)Thiel ... [is] a prominent supporter of libertarian causes.
