About

Gary Earl Johnson (born January 1, 1953) is an American politician and businessman who served as the Governor of New Mexico from 1995 to 2003 as a member of the Republican party. Johnson ran twice for presidency as the Libertarian Party's candidate in the 2012 and 2016 United States presidential elections.

History

Born in Minot, North Dakota, Johnson graduated from the University of New Mexico with a Bachelor of Science degree in political science. He then started Big J enterprises in 1976, focusing on mechanical contract work. It grew into a multi-million dollar company, and when he sold the business in 1999, it was one of New Mexico's leading construction companies.^[2]

Governor of New Mexico

Johnson became Governor of New Mexico as a member of the Republican party in 1995, following a close primary and a gubernatorial election that he won via plurality.^[3] He followed a strict small-government approach, and vetoed 200 of 424 bills in his first six months of office.^[4] He proposed a wide range of tax cuts, but during his first term, he raised education spending by nearly a third.

He won reelection by a margin of 55%-45% in 1998.^[5] In his second term, one of his key political goals was the implementation of a school voucher program.^[6] He also became one of the highest ranking elected officials to advocate for the legalization of marijuana.^[7] He was also widely praised for his handling of the Cerro Grande Fire that devastated New Mexico in 2000.^[8] Though the Libertarian Party attempted to draft him for the 2000 United States Presidential Election, he declined, saying he was a Republican and had no intention of running for president.^[9]

Presidential Campaigns

2012 Presidential Campaign

Johnson ran for President in 2012 initially as a Republican, but his failure to do well in the polls barred him from appearing in majority of the Republican Primary debates, leading him to eventually withdraw his candidacy and announce that he would run for the Libertarian Party's nomination on December 28th, 2011.^[10] His goal was to win 5% of the popular vote, and though he fell short by winning 1% of the popular vote, he did win the most votes ever by a Libertarian candidate.^[11]

2016 Presidential Campaign

In November 2014, Johnson announced that his intention to run for the Libertarian nomination for the 2016 United States Presidential Election.^[12] On May 18th, 2016, he announced that his running mate would be former Massachusetts governor William Weld.^[13] On May 29th, Johnson received the Libertarian nomination. As of September 2016, Johnson has consistently polled between 6-8%.

Gaffes

Nazi Cakes

Johnson's 2016 campaign has been marred by several gaffes. In an April 2016 Libertarian primary debate, Johnson argued that cake stores should legally be obligated to fulfill requests for cakes featuring Nazi symbols.

"What is Aleppo?"

On September 8th, 2016, Johnson responded to a question about Aleppo, a major city in Syria engulfed by the refugee crisis, with "What is Aleppo?" which led media outlets to question his knowledge on foreign policy.^[14]

Global Warming Comments

On September 22nd, a video of Johnson talking about global warming and arguing that allocating resources to global warming research was not important because the fate of the Earth is to be swallowed by the sun in billions of years began spreading among media outlets, furthering his reputation that he is an uninformed candidate.^[15]

Tongue Incident

On September 23rd, Johnson stuck his tongue out and talked to a reporter while making a point that his mere presence in the 2016 Presidential Debates would help him the polls. The act drew ridicule from media outlets who said Johnson clearly did not appear presidential.^[16][17]

"Aleppo Moment"

On September 28th, Johnson and Weld appeared on MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews. Matthews asked Johnson to name a foreign leader he respects, and Johnson had trouble naming one, saying he was having "an Aleppo moment." The comment again drew criticism from media outlets who took it to mean Johnson did not have the foreign policy knowledge to be president.^[18]

Mowmen

On October 12th, 2016, while multiple women came out with stories about how Donald Trump had made inappropriate sexual advances on them, the Gary Johnson campaign released via email a statement about Johnson's reaction to the controversy. In the subject line, the campaign misspelled "women" as "mowmen" (shown below).

The gaffe led to to series of jokes both about Johnson's incompetence and his alleged advocacy for "mowmen." The gaffe drew the attention of The Daily Dot^[23] and New York Magazine.^[24]

Online Presence

As of September 29th, 2016, Johnson has 1.6 million likes on Facebook, ^[19] over 356,000 Twitter followers,^[20] over 76,700 Instagram followers,^[21] and over 20,000 on his dedicated subreddit.^[22]

Search Interest

External References