photograph by Calvin Lu, distributed under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license
Libertarian Party delegates gathered in Washington DC for the 2024 Libertarian National Convention decided in a vote that Angela McArdle will remain the Chair of the Libertarian National Committee. Angela McArdle received over 53% of delegate votes in a second round. The closest contender Mark Rutheford received 44% of votes. The delegates still need to decide who the presidential and vice-presidential nominee will be.
McArdle’s victory margin was much smaller than last time
The result is a victory for the incumbent Mises Caucus faction, which has garnered control over all Libertarian National Committee in 2022 in what was named “The Takeover”. It was then that Angela McArdle supported by the Mises Caucus became the Chair of LNC, after only one round of ballots, receiving almost 70% of the votes.
The faction in power has had a rocky road ever since. Over the two years of their reign, the party has been losing donors and members. There has been uproar around McArdle hiring her boyfriend Austin Padgett as the chief fundraiser for the Libertarian Party. He was contracted without providing appropriate conflict of interest disclosure beforehand. According to the leaked chats between LNC members, McArdle struggled at that time with her finances. In addition, chair’s company specializing in makeup for women, closed soon after it was launched.
More recently McArdle was responsible for the decision to allow Donald Trump to speak at the Libertarian National Convention in DC, which has caused major controversy among libertarians. LNC leadership contributed to even more quarrels by the last-minute decision to change the members of the Credentials Committee, who then proceeded to remove delegates selected for the convention by the state parties from Michigan, Washington and Oklahoma. Removed delegates were reinstated by the delegates on the convention floor on the first day of the proceedings in DC.
