Former Democrat denounces two-party system, seeks to slash government and promote free-market solutions
Libertarian Chase Oliver: Free-market solutions for everything
Libertarian Party candidate: 'I think voters deserve to have more than two options on their ballot'
Libertarian Party presidential candidate Chase Oliver is on a mission to slash government and promote free-market solutions to America's problems.
In an age of rising government spending across the board, it's an ambitious goal, but Oliver has already knocked off both Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Donald Trump in securing the Libertarian Party's nomination.
Recently, he sat down with Fox News Digital at FreedomFest in Las Vegas for an interview.
Often billed as America's third-largest political party, the Libertarian Party considered appeals by both Trump and RFK Jr., before moving forward with Oliver after seven closely contested rounds of voting at the party's national convention in Washington, D.C., in May.
Oliver is a former Democrat who supported Barack Obama in 2008, before becoming disillusioned with the party's foreign policy.
Libertarian presidential candidate Chase Oliver says he's running because "voters deserve to have more than two options on their ballot." (AP)
Oliver argues that the two-party system is rotten, and that both parties are fundamentally failing Americans when it comes to individual and economic freedoms.
"Well, I'm running for president because I think voters deserve to have more than two options on their ballot," he said. "They deserve to have a choice that's fighting for each and every person's individual liberty that supports the power of free markets, voluntary exchange, and doesn't seek to use government as the solution on the left or the right. And so I'm happy to be that choice for voters."
Prior to being elected the Libertarian Party nominee, Oliver was most famous for acting as an alleged spoiler in Georgia's 2022 U.S. Senate race, forcing the election into a runoff. Oliver disputes the term "spoiler."
"Well, I always say you can't spoil what's already rotten, which is the two-party system. But I was happy to be a choice for those voters. We had a runoff system for that very reason. And it's why I encourage things like preferential voting or instant runoff voting, ranked choice voting, whatever you want to call it," he said. "Because that removes the so-called spoiler effect and allows for voters to put their first preference first and, rank it on down the line. So I was happy that I paused the voting for about four weeks, but the eventual winner was the guy who was leading on the first ballot. So I don't really feel like I spoiled [the race]."
Georgia Democrat Rev. Raphael Warnock emerged victorious in the 2022 Senate race, in which Chase Oliver ran as a Libertarian. (Paras Griffin/Getty Images)
Oliver said he'll start making considerable cuts to the size of government on day one.
"The first pledge that I would make is that any budget sent to me that isn't balanced would be a vetoed budget…We have to challenge the Congress to actually start cutting government, and it has to come from, not just one department or the other," he said. "In fact, you can remove whole departments…things like the Department of Education can immediately be dismantled, removing that from the federal taxpayer's balance sheet. But in every department of government, there's at least redundancies…I would cut down everything, including the third rail of American politics, Social Security."
Oliver said he believes that Social Security is an unsustainable "Ponzi scheme," and calls for it to be replaced with a program based on market investments.
"It's bankrupt. It's a Ponzi scheme. We've paid into the system. We don't get out what we were promised. And ultimately, it's going to go belly up because the math just doesn't work. And so it is a failed federal program. Much like many federal programs," he said. "It costs too much and it doesn't deliver. And I think it's better for us younger voters or for younger folks especially, to be given our money back so we can invest in the marketplace. I don't want to take it away from my parents or grandparents who are living on those benefits, but I'm never going to get those benefits, even if I pay in until the day I retire."
On immigration, Oliver said he believes that market equilibrium will solve the immigration problem. He's an advocate for free movement of people across borders, but also a staunch opponent of the welfare state.
"The free market is going to bring the jobs here…If we had a free movement of people, they would come, if there's work here. They wouldn't, if there isn't. I understand we have got to remove the welfare benefit. That is something that libertarians have been fighting for over 50 years," he said. "We can walk and chew gum at the same time. We can tear down the welfare state, while also allowing people to come in here and work."
Oliver's foreign policy and economic policy converge on a vision of American leadership where economic engagement and trade drive our values and interests, as opposed to overseas military involvement.
"Some of the most patriotic people are people who have fled these authoritarian dictatorships in Latin America and around the world," he said. "We need to let them come here and utilize their economic output, their economic power here…And ultimately, what you do is…we export our values with market forces and with free and voluntary exchange, instead of the bomb, the bullet and the drone.
People stand on a section of the Berlin Wall at Potsdamer Platz. (Fox News)
"This actually…helped tear down the Berlin Wall. It wasn't just Ronald Reagan saying ‘tear down the wall.’ It was Wrangler jeans and McDonald's and Coca-Cola and all the American exceptionalism that people wanted on the other side of the Iron Curtain that helped tear down these things and bring those forces to bear."
Finally, Oliver said he is enthused by last year's presidential election of the self-described "anarcho-capitalist" and fellow Libertarian Javier Milei in Argentina, and hopes that it is a sign of the rising global appeal of libertarian ideas and principles.
"Ultimately, we're going to wear them down and, see, hopefully the people back at home rising up against socialism as they did in Argentina, against Peronism," Oliver said. "We now have a libertarian head of state in South America. I hope he's not the last one, and I hope we can export that…and bring that to North America as well."
David Unsworth reports on Latin America. You can follow David Unsworth on Twitter @LatinAmerUpdate
