The report finds:

Libertarians are a significant part of FreedomWorks supporters, comprising about 30% of the group. On both immigration and abortion, libertarians (as reflected in that party’s platforms over the past three elections), take positions quite distinct from the Republican Party and from many other Tea Party supporters. On abortion, libertarians were about 20% less likely to support a constitutional amendment banning abortions, and about 12% less likely to support stricter limits on immigration.

The most important factor in predicting candidate support is libertarian identification. Among libertarians (who comprised almost a third of FreedomWorks supporters), Ron Paul was the top choice, while among others he was at the bottom.

2008 Paul supporters among FreedomWorks supporters were also distinctive from supporters of any other candidate. Only 40% of them did something for the McCain‐​Palin ticket in the 2008 general election, compared with 70% of the supporters of every other major nomination candidate from that year.

These findings echo our own. Libertarians are significant part of the tea party story, and hold different views on a variety of issues and candidates. However, Rapoport may underestimate the number of libertarians at FreedomWorks, and by implication the tea party more generally.

To identify libertarians, Rapoport’s survey asked respondents if they were libertarian, “yes” or “no.” This method yields about 13 percent libertarians in a national sample. However, as David Boaz and I found in our previous studies on libertarian voters, many people who hold libertarian beliefs are unfamiliar with the word “libertarian.” Using broader questions probing background beliefs, we estimate that libertarians are between 15–24 percent of the electorate — depending on how many and how strict the questions. Using a broader method to identify libertarians, Rapaport’s data may well find the similar 50–50 split to our own data sources.

Perhaps Paul Ryan moves tea party libertarians more than conservatives. No doubt Romney’s famously data‐​driven campaign tested Ryan’s impact on various segments of the electorate. If 2012 becomes a turnout election, Rapaport’s data suggests that tea party libertarians and Ron Paul supporters would otherwise be less inclined to turn out and help than conservative tea partiers.

Ryan may well be the presidential politics expression of a “functionally libertarian” candidate. He’s no libertarian, for sure. But by emphasizing fiscal, rather than social issues, he may unite tea partiers, appeal to libertarians and win general election voters concerned about the economy.