Select Page
Ian Freeman Rainbow Hat

Ian Freeman

Perhaps for the first time ever, 2014’s primary election featured a third party candidate running as a democrat: the New Hampshire Liberty Party‘s Ian Freeman.  Despite the entire campaign budget being about three dollars for postage and doing virtually no campaigning besides media appearances and a debate-turned-speech,  Freeman received more than 4% of the vote!

It would be comparing apples-to-oranges, but it’s interesting to note that 4% is nearly 50% higher than the 2.6% score by the Libertarian Party’s candidate for governor in the 2012 general election.  The libertarians spent a lot of time and money promoting their candidate, including thousands of dollars on his ballot qualification alone.  Freeman, on the other hand since he is registered as a democrat, became ballot qualified by simply paying $100 to the Secretary of State.  Part of the campaign was to bring attention to the unfair ballot access rules for third parties in New Hampshire.

The campaign also focused on ending cannabis prohibition and secession from the United States.  You can learn more about the New Hampshire Liberty Party here.