The Alaska Libertarian Party is the affiliate of the Libertarian Party (LP) in Alaska, headquartered in Anchorage.

It is the third-largest active party in Alaska and has the highest percentage of registered Libertarians of any state. Since 2012 candidates running as Libertarians who have won the Democratic-Libertarian-Independence primary have always polled between 5% and 30% in at least one state or federal election every election.

Since Libertarian presidential candidates were on the ballot in 1976, Alaska has been a stronghold for Libertarians with it being their best-performing state in every election until 1992 and was in the top five except in 2004 and 2008. Many of the first offices held by Libertarians were in Alaska.

History The Alaskan Libertarian Party was founded shortly after the national party and grew to become a stronghold for the new party in the late seventies and throughout the eighties. In 1973 John Hospers and Tonie Nathan, the party's 1972 presidential and vice presidential nominees, spoke at the party's first state convention in Fairbanks to fifty members of the party. During the 1980 presidential election Ed Clark and Eugene McCarthy both appeared and spoke at their state convention.

Dick Randolph was elected to the Alaska House of Representatives as a Libertarian in the 1978 election. Randolph and Ken Fanning were elected to the state house in the 1980 election. Randolph received 15% of the popular vote as the party's nominee in the 1982 gubernatorial election, but the Libertarians lost both of their seats in the state house. He became the leader of the party, but left to run for the Republican nomination in the 1986 gubernatorial election. Republican Representative Fritz Pettyjohn said that Randolph was "the glue that held the party together" and his "departure will be a death blow". Andre Marrou was elected to the state house in 1984.

In 1980 Randolph led an effort to abolish the state income tax, which was successfully enacted in 1981. It was the only existing, broad-based individual income tax ever to be wholly eliminated. Governor Jay Hammond considered a veto but knew he would be overridden, finalizing what he later considered to be his greatest regret. There have been numerous attempts to reinstate the state income tax, in 1986, 1987, and 1989, but all have failed.History of Alaska Individual Income Tax

https://www.akleg.gov/basis/get_documents.asp?session=30&docid=17151

In the 1986 gubernatorial election the party leadership rejected the primary winner, Mary O'Brannon, and chose to launch a write-in campaign with the lieutenant governor candidate and runner up in the primary, Ed Hoch, as their candidate after failing to remove her with a lawsuit due to her failing to meet the residency requirements. O'Brannon defeated Hoch in terms of popular vote with 1,050 against his 107 write-in votes, but she had lost over 14% and 28,000 votes from Randolph's 1982 campaign. Marrou, the only sitting Libertarian in a state legislature at the time, lost reelection to the state house.

In 1988 the party was successful in placing three legislature candidates on the ballot after the state Supreme Court ruled the filing deadline to be unconstitutional. In 1992, the Alaskan affiliate along with the state's Constitution Party affiliate won a lawsuit against the Alaskan state Elections Division after both of their presidential ballot petitions were rejected.

From 2009 to 2010 the party was engaged in a voter registration drive to reach 9,786 registered voters due to a 2004 bill that changed the Alaskan party qualification rules so that a party using the registration test must have registration of 3% of the last vote cast resulting in mid-term years having higher voter registration amounts needed than presidential election years. From April to June 2009 party registration increased by over 1,000 voters.

In 2016, Cean Stevens withdrew after winning the state Libertarian primary to allow Republican Party member and Tea Party favorite nominee of the 2010 Senate election, Joe Miller her spot on the ticket in the 2016 Senate election and Miller was unanimously approved by the executive board to take Stevens' place. Miller came in second place and garnered nearly 30% of the vote, the highest percentage ever received by a Libertarian Senate candidate, but did not beat the total vote record established in 2002 Massachusetts Senate election by Michael Cloud.

Current officials Alaska Public Office Commissioner Robert Clift (2017–present) – Appointed to a five-year term by Bill Walker Alaska Public Office Commissioner Adam Schwemley (2017–present) – Appointed to a five-year term by Bill Walker Ketchikan Gateway Borough School Board member Stephen Bradford (2021–present).

Former officials Bethel City councilor Richard Robb (2017–2018) Cordova City councilor Ken Jones (2017–2021) State Representative Dick Randolph (1978–1982) – First person to be elected to partisan office under the banner of the Libertarian Party State Representative Ken Fanning (1980–1982) – Second person to be elected to partisan office under the banner of the Libertarian Party State Representative Andre Marrou (1985–1987) – 1988 vice presidential nominee and 1992 presidential nominee Juneau City councilor Sara Chambers (2006–2010)

Chairman Terrence Shanigan (2016–2016) Jon Watts (2016–2022) Alex Coker (2022–2024) Meghan Trupp (2024–2024) Nicholas Conrad (2024–present)

Electoral performance

Presidential Year Presidential nominee Votes Change 1972 John Hospers (write-in) 45 (0.1%) 1976 Roger MacBride 6,785 (5.5%) 5.4% 1980 Ed Clark 18,479 (11.7%) 6.2% 1984 David Bergland 6,378 (3.1%) 8.6% 1988 Ron Paul 5,484 (2.7%) 0.3% 1992 Andre Marrou 1,378 (0.5%) 2.2% 1996 Harry Browne 2,276 (0.9%) 0.4% 2000 Harry Browne 2,636 (0.9%) 0.0% 2004 Michael Badnarik 1,675 (0.5%) 0.4% 2008 Bob Barr 1,589 (0.5%) 0.1% 2012 Gary Johnson 7,392 (2.5%) 2.0% 2016 Gary Johnson 18,725 (5.9%) 3.4%2020Jo Jorgensen8,897 (2.5%) 3.4%2024Chase Oliver3,040 (0.9%) 2.3%

House Year House nominee Votes Change 1986 Betty Breck 4,182 (2.3%) 1988 None None 2.3% 1998 None None 2000 Len Karpinski 4,802 (1.8%) 1.8% 2002 Rob Clift 3,797 (1.7%) 0.1% 2004 Alvin A. Anders 7,157 (2.4%) 0.7% 2006 Alexander Crawford 4,029 (1.7%) 0.7% 2008 None None 1.7% 2010 None None 2012 Jim McDermott 15,028 (5.2%) 5.2% 2014 Jim McDermott 21,290 (7.6%) 2.4% 2016 Jim McDermott 31,770 (10.3%) 2.7% 2018 None None 10.3%2020NoneNone 2022 Chris Bye 4,570 (1.7%) 1.7%

Senate Class II Year Senate nominee Votes Change 2002 Leonard Karpinski 2,354 (1.0%) 2008 Fredrick Haase 2,483 (0.8%) 0.3% 2014 Mark Fish 10,512 (3.7%) 1.9%2020NoneNone 3.7%

Senate Class III Year Senate nominee Votes Change 1986 Chuck House 3,161 (1.8%) 1992 None None 1.8% 1998 Scott A. Kohlhaas 5,046 (2.3%) 2.3% 2004 Scott A. Kohlhaas 1,240 (0.4%) 1.9% 2010 David Haase 1,459 (0.6%) 0.2% 2016 Joe Miller 90,825 (29.2%) 28.6%

Gubernatorial Year Gubernatorial nominee Votes Change 1982 Dick Randolph 29,067 (14.9%) 1986 Mary Jane O'Brannon 1,050 (0.6%) 14.3% 1990 None None 0.6% 1994 None None 1998 None None 2002 William Toien 1,109 (0.5%) 0.5% 2006 William Toien 682 (0.3%) 0.2% 2010 William Toien 2,682 (1.1%) 0.8% 2014 Carolyn Clift 8,985 (3.2%) 2.2% 2018 William Toien 5,402 (1.9%) 1.3%

Voter registration

The stagnate registration rate is due to the fact that the Democratic-Libertarian-Independence primary is open which allows any member of either party to vote for a candidate.

Year RV. % Change 2002 7,235 (1.6%) 2003 7,235 (1.6%) 2004 7,331 (1.6%) 0.0% 2005 6,932 (1.5%) 0.1% 2006 9,400 (2.0%) 0.6% 2007 8,587 (1.8%) 0.2% 2008 8,117 (1.7%) 0.1% 2009 6,742 (1.3%) 0.4% 2010 9,280 (1.9%) 0.6% 2011 8,804 (1.8%) 0.1% 2012 8,051 (1.6%) 0.1% 2013 7,687 (1.5%) 0.1% 2014 7,523 (1.6%) 0.1% 2015 7,176 (1.4%) 0.2% 2016 7,477 (1.5%) 0.1% 2017 7,599 (1.4%) 0.0% 2018 7,579 (1.4%) 2019 7,251 (1.3%) 0.2%

See also List of state parties of the Libertarian Party (United States)

Notes

References

External links