Has any Libertarian ever been elected to Congress, won statewide office, state legislature? Or are their electoral successes confined mainly to non-partisan municipal offices?
State representative, in Alaska and New Hampshire. A Libertarian also won an electoral vote in 1972 when the party was in its infancy, but that was due to a faithless Republican elector and not due to electoral success.
Ron Paul is a member of the Republican party, but has run for President as a Libertarian (and as a Republican).
I’m sorry, but so what? The OP asked what offices were won, not run for. The Libertarian Party normally runs a candidate for President, and would whether Ron Paul existed or not. Any party can run for any office. Winning is hugely, enormously, utterly different.
I think you missed the point. Ron Paul won a congressional seat. He did it running as a Republican, but given his later runs as a libertarian, he’s relevant to the thread, even if his name should have an asterisk next to it.
Good point. He’s the Roger Maris of libertarian politics.
Honestly, no he isn’t. Lots of politicians who have won seats as a Democrat or Republican have run for office and lost as a member of another party. It’s a common occurrence throughout U.S. history. Losing is losing. Americans are extremely reluctant to vote third party candidates into office. It happens occasionally, usually because of specialized local conditions (Minnesota for Jesse Ventura, Connecticut for Joe Lieberman), but the Libertarians have never had their level of success. Ron Paul can win office as a Republican. He cannot as a Libertarian. No asterisk applies. He’s proof of the assertion, not a contrary.
Let’s expand the question here a bit. Many states allow candidates two or more party lines if they can get the nomination: Democrat Joe Schmoe may also be running as a Liberal in New York; Republican Sam Schwann may have the Constitution Party endorsement somewhere.
But how many people have won office as a third party member, without Democratic or Republican endorsement. Maybe to make it less an IMHO/MPSIMS triviafest, limit the question to state legislators, Congresmen, and people who held statewide office, and since 1900 to omit the 1838 Anti-Masonic cadidates and such. I can recall Senators Lindsay (Liberal) and Buckley (Conservative) of New York, and of course Gov. Jesse Ventura in Minnesota. And I think there were one or two Socialists in Congress in the early 20th century.
Hickel was elected governor of Alaska on an Alaska Independence Party ticket. This is the same party that Sarah Palin’s husband was involved with–not “independent”, “independence”. He had formerly been elected governor as a Republican in the 60s, but jumped into the 1990 race on a third party ticket when both the Democratic and Republican candidates were floundering. After the election he pretty much governed as a Republican and rejoined the party mid-term. Wally Hickel - Wikipedia.
That’s a little ambiguous, because politicians will sometimes use state-level parties with ballot access as a “flag of convenience” for getting on the ballot. Hickel, as noted, ran and won on the Alaska Independence ticket, even though he had no wish for Alaskan independence. Lowell Weicker was elected Governor of Connecticut via the “A Connecticut Party”. Buckley, as you note, won as a Conservative but caucused with the Republicans. Harry Byrd, Bernie Sanders, and a number of Representatives have won as Independents, but always caucused with one party or the other.
As far as bona fide members of true, nationally organized third parties, however, we’ve had Jesse Ventura of Reform in Minnesota, and a handful of Greens and Libertarians have won election to state houses, and post-1950 that’s about it. Ventura also appointed a Reform Senator who served for about a month after Paul Wellstone died.
Earlier in the Twentieth Century, we had Progressives, Farmer-Laborites, and Socialists in Congress and at least one governor of the Prohibition Party.