Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call via GettyImages(NEW YORK) — Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson has won the Libertarian nomination for president.
Hoping to emerge as a viable contender against the two major parties’ nominees in the general election, Johnson says he aims to tap into voters’ broad reluctance to fall in line behind Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.
But Johnson needed to fend off challengers from more extreme wings of his party, originally falling five votes short of winning the 463 delegates needed for the nomination on the first ballot. Delegates voted a second time, giving Johnson the majority he needed (55.8 percent).
Johnson defeated five hopefuls to secure his place on top of the Libertarian ticket, which will likely be the only third party on the ballot in all 50 states.
Delegates have yet to vote on Johnson’s hand-picked vice presidential pick, former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld. Many Libertarians here are wary of Weld, who joined the party less than two weeks ago and endorsed Ohio Gov. John Kasich in the Republican primary earlier this election cycle.
Unlike the primary and caucus system used by the Republican and Democratic parties, Libertarian presidential candidates have spent much of the past week debating and wooing delegates, who were free to vote for whomever they choose at the party’s national convention.
The Libertarian Party faces an uphill climb to become viable in the general election. A recent Fox News poll shows Johnson at 10 percent in a race against Trump and Clinton, although polling tends to overstate the support of third party candidates.
Johnson was also the party’s nominee in 2012, when he received 1 percent of the popular vote – topping 1 million votes for the first time in the party’s history.
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