Johnson will officially announce his plans at a press conference on Dec. 28. Johnson to run as Libertarian

Gary Johnson will quit the Republican primaries and seek the Libertarian Party nomination instead, POLITICO has learned.

The former two-term New Mexico governor, whose campaign for the GOP nomination never caught fire, will make the announcement at a news conference in Santa Fe on Dec. 28. Johnson state directors will be informed of his plans on a campaign conference call Tuesday night, a Johnson campaign source told POLITICO.


The move has been expected for weeks — Johnson had run a New Hampshire-centric effort that never got him past a blip in the polls. He appeared at only two nationally televised debates, and only one in which other major candidates took part.

Johnson expressed deep disillusionment with the process as his libertarian message failed to catch fire and he received almost no attention for his bid. He soon began flirting with the Libertarians when it became clear that he was gaining no traction in GOP primaries.

“I’m still in the race,” Johnson told POLITICO last month. “I’m registered in New Hampshire and the intention would be, hope against hope that I would be able to be heard. But there is not much hope.”

Johnson didn’t immediately return a phone call Tuesday.

Johnson has announced the Dec. 28 event on his Facebook page. Campaign spokesman Joe Hunter said only that it would be “a significant announcement.”

Calling news of the switch “the worst kept secret,” Libertarian Party Chairman Mark Hinkle said Johnson will change his voter registration to Libertarian at the news conference.

Johnson’s campaign has been talking to Libertarian officials for months, Hinkle said.

“It looks like it’s definitely going to come to fruition here,” he said.

Hinkle noted that Johnson remained a dues-paying member of the Libertarian Party while serving as the Republican governor of New Mexico.

Johnson’s efforts to attract attention included a bicycle tour of New Hampshire and Web ads that described him as the ideological heir to libertarian hero Ron Paul.

Johnson’s views mirror Paul’s, though he is more hands-off on social issues, opposing government restrictions on abortion. Like Paul, he opposes all drug laws and the nation’s participation in overseas efforts to stop cultivation of coca and poppy plants.

Party officials said last month that they are holding out hope that Paul and former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura would contend for their nomination, though Paul is now the GOP front-runner in Iowa and Ventura is vacationing at his home in Mexico, where he does not have a telephone or an Internet connection.

Libertarian executive director Wes Benedict said Johnson will need to compete for the nomination at the party’s convention in Las Vegas the first weekend of next May, but was happy to have him join the process.

“I’m always delighted when the Republican Party drives Republicans out of their party and into the Libertarian Party,” Benedict said.

Libertarians, who were on the ballot in 45 states, are aiming to be on the ballot in all 50 for 2012. One problem Johnson could face is so-called sore loser laws that will keep him from appearing as a third-party candidate next November because he’s already on the GOP primary ballots in Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts, Michigan and Missouri.

According to a Public Policy Polling survey of New Mexico conducted Dec. 10-12, Johnson as a Libertarian candidate could affect the vote in his home state.

PPP found Johnson would draw between 26 percent and 30 percent of GOP votes, between 12 percent and 16 percent of Democratic votes and win independents, in a race with either Mitt Romney or Newt Gingrich as the GOP nominee.

Johnson on the ballot would help Obama win New Mexico, typically a swing state, by a 17-point margin, PPP found.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article incorrectly identified who would be organizing the Tuesday night conference call.

CORRECTION: Corrected by: Leigh Munsil @ 12/20/2011 08:17 PM CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article incorrectly identified who would be organizing the Tuesday night conference call.