CANDIDATE PROFILE YOU DIDN’T SEE IN THE OFFICIAL ELECTION PAMPHLET
Gary Johnson, Libertarian candidate for U.S. President
Gary Earl Johnson is an American businessman, author, politician, and the Libertarian Party nominee for U.S. President. The Alaska Division of Elections did not print his biographical information in the Official Election Pamphlet, but Must Read Alaska has cobbled together an unofficial biography for interested voters, condensed from Wikipedia:
Gary Johnson was the 29th governor of New Mexico from 1995 to 2003. He was a Republican. He was the Libertarian Party’s nominee for President in 2012.
Johnson is from the private sector, the founder of a large construction company in New Mexico. He entered politics by running for governor on a low-tax, anti-crime platform, beating incumbent Democrat Bruce King easily. He cut the ballooning budget by signing more than 200 vetoes during his first six months.
Johnson won again in 1998, and fought for school vouchers and decriminalized marijuana. He set records for vetoes — signing more of them than all the other 49 governors combined.
Johnson ran for president in 2012, as a Republican on a libertarian platform emphasizing the United States public debt and a balanced budget, protection of civil liberties, military non-interventionism, replacement of income tax with the FairTax, and opposition to the War on Drugs. He changed midway through the race and became the Libertarian nominee in 2012, winning the most votes in Libertarian Party history.
In 2016, Johnson announced his candidacy for the Libertarian Party nominee again, and won in May. Former Massachusetts Governor William Weld is his running mate.
Johnson’s views are fiscally conservative and socially liberal. He espouses limited government and military non-interventionism. He supports the repeal of Obamacare and favors a simplified tax code with lower taxes.
As governor of New Mexico, Johnson cut taxes 14 times and never increased them. He has supported the FairTax as a blueprint for reform, abolishing all federal income, corporate and capital gains taxes, and replacing them with a 23 percent tax on consumption of all non-essential goods, while providing a rebate to households according to household size, regardless of income level. He supports the Trans-Pacific Partnership, stating that he previously thought it limited fair trade, but is now informed it, in fact, fosters free trade.