Formation | December 2009 |
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Type | 501(c)(4) |
Purpose | OUR America Initiative seeks to broaden the parameters of the public policy debate of current topics in the national arena. We look to enlighten the population about civil liberties, free enterprise, limited government, and traditional American values. It is our aim to increase the amount of discussion and involvement regarding all-important issues. |
Headquarters | Salt Lake City, Utah |
Location | |
Website | ouramericainitiative.com |
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Governor of New Mexico Presidential campaigns | ||
The Our America Initiative was a 501(c)(4) political advocacy committee formed by Gary Johnson, the former Republican politician who served as the 29th Governor of New Mexico from 1995 to 2003. [1] The 501(c)(4) committee was created in December 2009, when Johnson hired strategist Ron Nielson of NSON Opinion Strategy [2] to help organize a 501(c)(4) committee. [3] The two have worked together since 1993, when Nielson ran Johnson's successful gubernatorial campaign.
Johnson served as the Honorary Chairman for the Our America Initiative. The focus of the organization is to speak out on issues regarding topics such as government efficiency, lowering taxes, winning the war on drug abuse, protecting civil liberties, revitalizing the economy and promoting entrepreneurship and privatization.
The mission statement of the Our America Initiative: "OUR America Initiative seeks to broaden the parameters of the public policy debate of current topics in the national arena. We look to enlighten the population about civil liberties, free enterprise, limited government, and traditional American values. It is our aim to increase the amount of discussion and involvement regarding all-important issues." [4]
In 2016, Our America Initiative funded a lawsuit filed by the Libertarian Party and the Green Party (as well as Gary Johnson and Jill Stein, the eventual presidential nominees for the respective parties) against the Commission on Presidential Debates; the lawsuit advanced the position that "the exclusion of qualified candidates from the general election presidential debates by the commission violates federal antitrust laws." [5]
Judge Rosemary M. Collyer of the U.S. District Court for Washington, D.C. rejected the legal challenge, ruling that "Johnson and Stein have no standing to make antitrust and First Amendment challenges to the CPD’s rules (which require a third-party candidate to average 15 percent support in five national polls in the run-up to debates), because the 'Defendants here are private parties.'" [6]
During the 2016 election, Our America Initiative sponsored a national tour, "visiting college campuses and other venues across America to raise awareness about third party inclusion in national presidential debates." [7]
The tour made stops in 40 states; speakers included Governors Gary Johnson and Bill Weld, Unleash Your Inner Company author John Chisholm, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition executive director and former Baltimore Police Chief Neill Franklin, Free the People's Matt Kibbe, Republicans Ed Lopez and Liz Mair, Conscious Capitalism's Alex McCobin, Reason Foundation’s David Nott, Foundation for Economic Education's Jeffrey Tucker, the Libertarian Party's Carla Howell, former Delaware attorney general and over-criminalization activist Ken Abraham, and author and journalist Naomi Wolf as well as comedians Jeremy McClellan, Viceland’s Travis Irvine, and We the Internet's Lou Perez. [8] [9]
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.
Gary Earl Johnson is an American businessman and politician who served as the 29th governor of New Mexico from 1995 to 2003 as a member of the Republican Party. He has been a member of the Libertarian Party since 2011 and was the party's nominee for President of the United States in the 2012 and 2016 elections. He was also the Libertarian nominee in the 2018 U.S. Senate election in New Mexico.
The Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) is a nonprofit corporation established in 1987 under the joint sponsorship of the Democratic and Republican political parties in the United States. The CPD sponsors and produces debates for U.S. presidential and vice-presidential candidates and undertakes research and educational activities relating to the debates. It has run all of the presidential debates held since 1988. The commission's debates are sponsored by private contributions from foundations and corporations as well as fees from hosting institutions.
Matthew B. Kibbe is the President and Chief Community Organizer of Free the People, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting libertarian ideals. Prior to founding Free the People, he was the President of FreedomWorks He also worked as Chief of Staff to U.S. Representative Dan Miller (R-FL), Senior Economist at the Republican National Committee. Director of Federal Budget Policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and Managing Editor of Market Process, an academic economics journal published by the Center for the Study of Market Processes at George Mason University.
The 2012 United States presidential election was the 57th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 6, 2012. Incumbent Democratic President Barack Obama and his running mate, incumbent Vice President Joe Biden, were re-elected to a second term. They defeated the Republican ticket of former Governor Mitt Romney of Massachusetts and Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin.
The 2012 presidential campaign of Gary Johnson, the 29th governor of New Mexico, was announced on April 21, 2011. He declared his candidacy for the 2012 Republican Party nomination for President of the United States. On December 28, 2011, Johnson withdrew his candidacy for the Republican nomination, and declared his candidacy for the 2012 presidential nomination of the Libertarian Party. The 2012 Libertarian National Convention was held during the first weekend of May 2012. On May 5, 2012, after promoting his libertarian-oriented political positions to delegates, Johnson received the most votes at the convention and became the official 2012 Libertarian presidential nominee. On November 6, 2012, Johnson received just under 1% of the popular vote in the general election, amounting to more than 1.2 million votes, more than double what the Barr/Root ticket received in 2008. This was the most successful result for a third-party presidential candidacy since 2000, and the best in the Libertarian Party's history by vote number at the time. Johnson ran again in 2016 and received nearly four times his 2012 vote total.
The bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) held four debates for the 2012 U.S. presidential general election, slated for various locations around the United States in October 2012 – three of them involving the major party presidential nominees; those being Democratic President Barack Obama from Illinois and Republican Governor Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, and one involving the vice-presidential nominees, those being Vice President Joe Biden from Delaware and Congressman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin.
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 2012 United States presidential election in New Mexico took place on November 6, 2012, as part of the 2012 United States presidential election in which all 50 states plus the District of Columbia participated. This was the 25th U.S. presidential election in which New Mexico participated. New Mexico voters chose five electors to represent them in the Electoral College via a popular vote pitting incumbent Democratic President Barack Obama and his running mate, Vice President Joe Biden, against Republican challenger and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and his running mate, Congressman Paul Ryan.
The 2016 Libertarian National Convention was the gathering at which delegates of the Libertarian Party chose the party's nominees for president and vice president in the 2016 national election. The party selected Gary Johnson, a former Governor of New Mexico, as its presidential candidate, with Bill Weld, a former Governor of Massachusetts as his running mate. The convention was held from May 26–30, 2016, in Orlando, Florida.
The Free & Equal Elections Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, non-partisan organization in the United States, the mission of which is to empower American voters through education and advocacy of electoral reforms. Free & Equal leads national, state, and local efforts to open the electoral process in the United States by hosting all-inclusive gubernatorial, Presidential, and senatorial debates; organizing Electoral Reform Symposiums; producing United We Stand tours; and supporting individuals running for office. Free & Equal was first organized in 1982 as the Foundation for Free Campaigns and Elections, before being formally reorganized in 2008 by Christina Tobin, an American activist and leader in the election reform and voters' rights movement.
Steven Nielson is an American statesman, small government political activist, a former Libertarian Party officer, astronautical engineer, artist, and children's author.
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.
The 2016 Green Party presidential primaries were a series of primaries, caucuses and state conventions in which voters elected delegates to represent a candidate for the Green Party's nominee for President of the United States at the 2016 Green National Convention. The primaries, held in numerous states on various dates from January to July 2016, featured elections publicly funded and held as an alternative ballot, concurrent with the Democratic and Republican primaries, and elections privately funded by the Green Party, held non-concurrently with the major party primaries. Over 400 delegates to the Green National Convention were elected in these primaries, with a candidate needing a simple majority of these delegates to become the party's nominee for president.
The 2016 Libertarian Party presidential primaries and caucuses allowed electors to indicate non-binding preferences for the Libertarian Party's presidential candidate. These differed from the Republican or Democratic presidential primaries and caucuses in that they did not appoint delegates to represent a candidate at the party's convention to select the party's nominee for the United States presidential election. The party's nominee for the 2016 presidential election was chosen directly by registered delegates at the 2016 Libertarian National Convention, which ran from May 26 to 30, 2016. The delegates nominated former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson for President and former Massachusetts Governor Bill Weld for Vice President.
The 2016 United States presidential election in New Mexico was held on Tuesday, November 8, 2016, as part of the 2016 United States presidential election in which all 50 states plus the District of Columbia participated. New Mexico voters chose electors to represent them in the Electoral College via a popular vote, pitting the Republican Party's nominee, businessman Donald Trump, and running mate Indiana Governor Mike Pence against Democratic Party nominee, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and her running mate Virginia Senator Tim Kaine. New Mexico has five electoral votes in the Electoral College.
A series of political debates were held between the Libertarian candidates for US president in the 2016 presidential election.
A series of political debates were held between the Green candidates for president in the 2016 United States presidential election.
The United States presidential candidates in the 2016 United States presidential candidates by political affiliation hold a wide variety of stances on issues related to domestic and foreign policy and their political ideological views.