Writing on Facebook, Benedict said:
Why should Libertarians trust me after I worked for the RFK Jr. campaign?
Short version:
I voted for Chase Oliver for President in all six nominating rounds at the 2024 Libertarian National Convention. I donated $600 to his campaign and voted for him in the general election. I never encouraged anyone to nominate RFK Jr., I never quit the Libertarian Party, and I never criticized our nominee.
Now the longer explanation.
I joined the Libertarian Party in 1996. I later served as national Executive Director from 2009 through 2018, longer than anyone else has held that position. In 2012 I founded the Libertarian Booster PAC, and over the years I’ve recruited more Libertarian Party candidates than anyone else in party history.
In early 2024, before the Libertarian National Convention, there was a Signal chat with Libertarian activists. One participant kept arguing that the party should nominate RFK Jr. for President. Almost everyone pushed back hard. I was glad to see that, because I wanted a real Libertarian nominee, not RFK Jr. and certainly not Donald Trump.
At the same time, I worried that the hostility toward RFK Jr. supporters might close doors in the future. That concern came from experience. In 2006, when Carole Keeton Strayhorn and Kinky Friedman ran as independents for Texas governor, I was Executive Director of LP Texas. We recruited 168 Libertarian candidates, and Texas Libertarians received more than 7 million votes, about 57 percent of the nationwide Libertarian total. Independent-minded voters can matter, even when we don’t agree with them on everything.
On March 31, 2024, I posted on Facebook suggesting we acknowledge our differences with RFK Jr. while keeping things civil with his supporters. That post got the attention of the Kennedy campaign, and members of his team started reaching out to me.
Before the Libertarian convention, they asked if I’d consider working for the campaign. I said I would not be available until after the convention. At no point before or during the convention did I support RFK Jr. as a Libertarian nominee. I voted for Chase Oliver in every round. Only one Texas delegate voted for RFK Jr., and it wasn’t me.
After the convention, Chase Oliver had won the nomination, which made me happy. The Kennedy campaign still wanted to hire me. I took time to think it through. I set clear boundaries for myself: I would not undermine the Libertarian nominee, I would not leave the Libertarian Party, and I would not work for Republicans or Democrats.
I accepted a temporary role as Texas State Director for the Kennedy campaign, from June through August of 2024.
RFK Jr. gave a thoughtful speech at the Libertarian convention. He openly acknowledged where he differed from Libertarians and showed real understanding of our principles. Many Libertarians worked on his campaign as staff or volunteers. While some of his positions conflicted with strict Libertarian philosophy, libertarians on his team influenced his rhetoric in meaningful ways.
In August 2024, RFK Jr. dropped out and aligned with the Trump campaign. The Kennedy team asked me to follow him. I declined. I’ve spent decades urging people not to vote Republican or Democrat and explaining why Trump is the opposite of a Libertarian. I wasn’t about to reverse that.
Confidentiality agreements limit what I can say about my work, but I can say this: I learned a lot about how a $50 million independent presidential campaign operates, I met many good people, and I gained experience that I believe is useful for building a stronger Libertarian Party.
When I worked for the Kennedy campaign, I never attacked Chase Oliver, and I never left the Libertarian Party. In fact, I was also the Libertarian nominee for Williamson County Commissioner in 2024, where I earned 15,500 votes and 23.21% of the vote.
I want the Libertarian Party to succeed. Republicans and Democrats have overspent, expanded government, violated civil liberties, and governed without any coherent philosophy. The country needs a serious libertarian alternative.
The Libertarian Party wasn’t perfect when I was Executive Director, but it was more professional, more active, and more effective than it is today. I know what worked, I know what didn’t, and I know what needs to be fixed.
That’s why I’m running for Chair of the Libertarian National Committee.
I’m not a perfect candidate, and my work for the RFK Jr. campaign is a fair reason for some delegates to prefer someone else. If another candidate demonstrates both stronger loyalty to the party and the ability to lead a national organization with 50 state affiliates better than I can, I’ll be glad to see the party succeed under their leadership.
Until then, I’m asking for your support. I look forward to earning your vote and seeing you at the convention on Memorial Day weekend in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
I posted this in a Facebook group after another Libertarian announced he is running for chair. These questions apply to all seeking to be chair.
Thank you for throwing your hat in the ring.
What is your vision for the growth and success of the Party?
Is it a core value of yours that our presidential candidate is on the ballot in at minimum 50 states, Washington DC, and the US territory of Guam? Should not achieving this goal be considered a failure?
There has been discussion that the way we nominate our presidential candidate and vice-presidential candidate should be changed. What is your opinion?
There have been controversies in the past in which officers assisted candidates seeking the nomination for president to the detriment of other candidates seeking the nomination. Should the officers of the Party be required to take a neutrality pledge as it relates candidates seeking the nomination of president of the Libertarian Party?
The last two presidential nominating conventions a day (Friday) was spent discussing who was eligible to participate as a delegate to the convention and which affiliates would participate at the convention. What would you do so that a day was not wasted on these controversies?
At some of our presidential nominating conventions presidential candidates of other political parties gave speeches at our convention. What is your opinion as to whether candidates of other political parties should be invited to give speeches at our conventions?
At the last presidential nominating convention, the delegates got rid of the roll call of the states. Since the Party was founded in 1972 the roll call of the states had always occurred. What are your thoughts concerning this?
Should the Party form relationships with other Libertarian parties of other countries? There is a movement in California which I support to have a “sister city” type of relationship between the Libertarian Party of California and the Libertarian Party of Baja California North (a state in Mexico bordering California). What do you think?
The Party is currently in debt and is not profitable. How will you fix this? Should it be fixed or do you believe some debt is ok and we should not worry about it?
There is a political party founded in 2024 that infers they are the true “libertarian party.” How would you respond to this? Should we worry about this?
There are two views as to how the Party should be governed. There is the bottom up view that organization flows from the members, to the states, to the Party. The other view is the top down view. The organization flows from the Party, to the states, to the members. What is your view?
Congressman Justin Amash has not been active in the Party since he announced he would not be seeking the nomination for President of the Party. Would you communicate with him to welcome him back in the Party? What roll would you see for him if he became involved in the Party?
In short, I am not mollified by a pat on the head “I am glad you did what you did.” Do you have ANY IDEA AT ALL what that cost me?? When people tell me they were “glad,” I asked where were YOU????????
Thank you. Before the Anschluss I stoutly disagreed with Harlos at most opportunities. But as our vote share is set to converge on zero graphed from the day mystical bigotry began presenting as “libertarryin'” I have flip-flopped entirely. Since the day she filed papers for an actual libertarian to run in Colorado I have come to appreciate the wisdom of nearly everything she reports.
I was in a cult for a few years. I have repented.
He tried to screw over every member in Colorado without blinking. I don’t know if someone comes right back from working with that. Will you apologize to enabling a man who wrecked our party in that way?. The JFC I believe was absolutely illegal and we will need to pay. Will you cover that up? Do you acknowledge McArdle embezzled?
If the answers to those are not yes you will apologize and yes you will lead accountability on the LNC you need to sit out until 2030.
Caryn Ann, based on what I’ve heard, my understanding is that the RFK Jr. campaign reached out to the LP Colorado state chair and attempted to take over the Libertarian Party’s ballot access. You successfully got Chase Oliver onto the ballot as the Libertarian nominee in Colorado.
I think it was wrong for the RFK Jr. campaign to try to take LP Colorado’s ballot access. More importantly, it was wrong and inappropriate for the LP Colorado chair to attempt to hand that ballot access over to the RFK Jr. campaign.
So yes, I support you on that point, and I’m glad you were able to preserve the Libertarian Party’s ballot access in Colorado for Chase Oliver.
The campaign was complicit with the CO Chair in attempting to defraud Colorado voters of their legitimate choice. Glen Rink ran cover for McArdle. I’m still being bullied and defamed here. The JFC was further a FECA violation (in my opinion) and I went through hell. You and I have always been cool Wes but RFK Jr is lunatic fraudster whose campaign and accomplices tried to ruin my life and destroy my reputation. I cannot get past that.
The best thing I know of to do for the Libertarian Party is to serve as its chair because I know what needs to be done throughout the organization and its processes and I have the longest track record of getting things done for the Libertarian Party. If delegates choose someone else to be chair, then I’ll be able to get less done for the Libertarian Party. If I’m not elected, hopefully someone else effective is elected. Caryn Ann, I understand that you do not support me for chair.
When we do something incorrect there is a sitting out period. It’s not permanent. But it’s not overnight either.
If it gives any solace I’m not thrilled with Evan at this point either. One thing I can say for you, you’d never talk down to me. Which you did not.
The only thing I am right now is Nekhaika for nothing. I’ve got stories to tell you.
I believe the version of what happened which you presented above is not accurate. The RFK Jr. campaign had just completed an independent presidential candidate petition which required 12,000 valid signatures. They had more than double the number of signatures they needed. They utilized both paid and volunteer signature ratherers. The RFK Jr. campaign spent in the ballpark of $15-$20 per raw signature, plus on top of this they also had a team of people they paid to check the validity of every signature they collected before they submitted signatures, and this was paid for in addition to the $15-$20 per raw signature I cited. My educated guess is that they spent $15 per raw signature, plus validity checking cost in Colorado (they may have paid around .75 cents or $1 a signature for validity checking, and my sources indicate that they checked 100% of the signatures before submitting to the state). Note that the petition circulators were not getting $15 per signature as some of the $15 went to the pockets of at least two levels of mercenary middleman managers. as overrides. I do not know exactly how many signatures they got from volunteers, but I would bet that at least half or maybe 2/3 of the signatures came from paid signature gathers. The RFK Jr. independent candidate petition was finished BEFORE the above controversy occurred with some peopls wanted to give RFK Jr. the Libertarian Party’s presidential ballot access in Colorado. Why would the RFK Jr. shell out lots of money and volunteer manpower to successfully gather enough signatures to place RFK Jr. on the ballot as an independent presidential candidate if they wanted the Libertarian Party of Colorado’s presidential ballot line? This makes no sense because RFK Jr. did not need the LP of Colorado for ballot access.
What really happened is that certain rogue individuals in the Libertarian Party of Colorado, led by the then State Chair, attempted to give RFK Jr. the LP of Colorado’s ballot access. What was their motivation? Maybe it was votes or money. Maybe it was something else. I can only speculate.
I did not support Chase Oliver for the Libertarian Party’s presidential nomination. I think there were several options available at the 2024 LP National Convention who would have been better candidates. I am not saying that he was a completely bad candidate, but I think some of his issue stances were too far to the left or too moderate, and outside of this he had alienated a lot of the Libertarian Party’s base and he failed to bring in new supporters. I think that he was decent to good on issues in some areas and he is a good public speaker. I did not like the fact that he turned down some podcast appearances, such as Tim Pool and Dave Smith (if he was afraid they were going to set him up or edit his comments he could have brought his own recording equipment), and some speaking engagements while on the campaign trial post nomination.
Having said this, Chase Oliver won at the national convention. A part of winning the nomination at the convention is getting placed on the ballot everywhere the party has ballot access.
I do not like cheaters and I also do not like sore losers. If an affiliate Chair or anyone else in an affilitate does not like a candidate they should not deny that candidate ballot access. They do not have to gather petition signatures for the candidate or donate money to their camppaign or vote for the candidate, but if they hold a position in a party affiliate which requires them to sign paperwork to place a convention nominated candidate on the ballot they should do it, and if they refuse they should resign or be removed from their position and they should be replaced with someone who will sign and file the proper paperwork. Trying to give the ballot access to another candidate is unacceptable.
RFK Jr may be better than most mainstream politicians in at least some areas, but this does not make him a libertarian. Also, his name was put in for the LP’s presidential nomination at the national convention and he lost by a wide margin on the first of multiple ballots, and he received zero votes from delegates from Colorado.
It waa an absolute disgrace for anyone in the LP of Colorado to try to deny Chase Oliver ballot access and to give their ballot line to RFK Jr. I do not put the blame for this on the RFK Jr. campaign, I put it on the people in the LP of Colorado who tried to do this. This is why I referred to them as rogue individuals.
There have been people after every LP presidential nominating convention who dislike who wom the nomination ever since I joined the party in 1996. If we get into the game of denying ballot access in some states to the officially nomimated presidential ticket then
the party may never get 50 state plus DC ballot access for its presidential ticket again which would be a bad thing.
So I think that then LNC Secratary Caryn Ann Harlos did the right thing by filing the neccessary paperwork with the Colorado Secretary of State to place Chase Oliver on the ballot as the Libertarian Party’s presidential candidate.
Excellent summary description of the events that transpired.
Being on the ground here and the target for a year afterwards, the RFK, Jr,. campaign was no doves in this. Yes the former CO Chair earns every statement made by Andy but I will not stand for the downplaying of the campaigns involvement. I was at the board meeting where their local rep breezily ignored what the actual members thought. I saw how he didn’t care about our bylaws. They just wanted to pillage us and it doesn’t matter that there were willing corrupt “leaders.” Ethical people don’t take advantage. What was going on here was NOT secret and any Libertarian should have left assisting him. Sorrynotsorry that is complicitly and while redemption is possible no one will be finding any here in CO until they acknowledge their part. The RFK, Jr. campaign was corrupt AF for doing that. And CO is not the only state they tried it with. No. That requires a time-out from any leadership position until either abject and sincere repentance or until after the next presidential election season.
I followed the above situation as it happened. I know people who worked on the RFK Jr. independent candidate petition in Colorado. The RFK Jr. campaign had most definitely finished gathering petition signatures in Colorado BEFORE there was an attempt by certain rogue individuals in the Libertarian Party of Colorado to hand their ballot access for President over to RFK Jr.
RFK Jr. never really needed or wanted the LP’s ballot access. His campaign had already spent millions of dollars on ballot access before the Libertarian Party’s national convention. He allowed his mame to be thrown in for the LP’s presidential nomination at the last minute only because some people wanted him to do it. RFK Jr. did not expect to win the LP’s presidential nomination when he jumped into the race for it at the last minute at the national convention, he just wanted a Libertarian Party “rub” (so to speak) to entice Libertarians to vote for him as an independent.
Like I said above, I do not know how many of the independent presidential candidate petition signatures the RFK Jr. campaign submitted in Colorado came from paid petition circulators and how many came from volunteers but I do know that they did turn in far more than what they needed, double or more than double the number of signatures required, in almost every state. I also know that the RFK Jr. campaign got more volunteer signatures than did the Libertarian Party, but in spite of this even on a ratio scale the RFK Jr. campaign spent far more money on ballot access than the Libertarian Party did, as in even in states where both had to conduct ballot access drives the LP did it much cheaper than the RFK Jr. campaign did.
So what percentage of the petition signatures the RFK Jr. campaign use paid signature gatherers to collect in Colorado and what percentage came from volunteers? I guessed above that 50%-66.7% percent came from paid petitioners above, but it could have been higher than that, maybe 70-85%. Even going with a low end estimate the RFK Jr. campaign still spent a lot of money on their independent presidential ballot access petition drive in Colorado. Why would they do this and then after doing this try to get placed on the ballot as the Libertarian Party of Colorado’s nominee? This makes zero sense and it is not what happened. The effort to place RFK Jr. on the ballot as the Libertarian Party’s presidential candidates was initiated by a few rogue indivuduals in the LP of Colorado, not by the RFK Jr. campaign.
Also, there are other states where the LP had ballot access for President where the requirement is a lot more difficult than it is in Colorado. So why didn’t the RFK Jr. campaign try to “steal” the LP’s ballot access in those states? The answer is that he did not because he never intended to be the Libertarian Party’s presidential candidate.
I just looked up how many signatures the RFK Jr. campaign submitted on the independent presidential candidate petition to the Colorado Secretary of State. They needed 12,000 valid signatures and they submitted 29,670 signatures on July 11th of 2024.
Out of the 29,670 signatures they submitted the Colorado Secretary of State reported that 21,702 of the signatures were valid, so their validity rate was 73 14%.
This is a crazy amount of overkill signatures to submit, especially since they had paid people checking the validity of every signature before they submitted them to the state.
I do not know exactly how much money the RFK Jr. campaign spent on the independent candidate petition drive in Colorado but it would not surprise me if they spent over $300,000 on it, maybe over $360,000. It would not surprise me if they contracted for paid petitioners to double the signature requirement and if volunteers got the rest, but even if the volunteers got more than 5,670 signatures it is still likely that the campaign spent $200,000-$250,000 plus on ballot access there, but knowing what I know about how the RFK Jr. campaign spent money it would not surprise me at all if they spent over $360,000 on this ballot access drive.
Note that there were some states where the RFK Jr. campsign spent well over $1 million on ballot access.
A lot of money was going to have to spent on ballot access for RFK Jr., but frankly his campaign basically got bilked by their consultants. Their highly paid consultants also screwed some states up and caused them to have to redo them. Such as Nevada, where his overrated and over-paid consultants finished the petition drive USING THE WRONG PETITION FORM, so they then had to redo the petition drive usimg the correct form. The overrated and over-paid consultants did not have their pay docked or get sued or even get terminated and replaced, they just got paid to do the job again. Note that it took me about 5 minutes of doing an internet search to find the correct petition form they needed in Nevada, and this would have been ckearly apparent if his overrated and over-paid team of so called “experts” had bothered to read the Nevada statutes pertaining to this before they started the first petition drive there.
If RFK Jr. had had somebody like myself advising him he could have gotten ballot access more efficiently and his campaign could have saved a lot of money.
Regardless of this, if RFK Jr. and his main campaign staff had really been out to steal the Libertarian Party of Colorado’s ballot access from Chase Oliver then I doubt they would have put so much money and effort into doing the independent presidential candidate petition and I doubt they would have turned those signatures in to the Colorado Secreatry of State on 7/11/24 (note that most of those signatures were collected in May and June).