There is Another Choice for Ohio Conservatives this November

Photo via IrvineforOhio.com

Avoid marrying yourself to a “lesser of two evils” mindset.

This should be a time of great joy among Ohio conservatives. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump won the state in 2016. Republicans dominate the Ohio State Senate and the House of Representatives. Every non-judicial state-wide office is held by a Republican. Most U.S. Representatives from Ohio are Republicans. Yet there has been much discontent among rank-and-file Ohio conservatives in recent years. The reason can be summed up in two words: John Kasich.

Kasich is one of the least-liked governors within his own party in recent history. Despite his protestations that “I’m a conservative,” most conservatives in the state are uneasy at best with his record.

And now, to deepen this uneasiness, the Republican candidate to succeed him—Mike DeWine—is seen by many conservatives to be essentially a third term of Kasich politics. Although Lt. Governor Mary Taylor was supported by many Ohio conservatives, she was unable to defeat the entrenched DeWine in the Republican primary. So Ohio conservatives are stuck voting for DeWine, with their noses firmly held.

Or are they?

I would argue that there’s another alternative to simply pulling the lever for another tax-and-spend Republican: the Libertarian Party candidate Travis Irvine. After a four-year fight, the Libertarian Party is back on the ballot, which gives voters another option this November. For many conservatives, the Libertarian Party doesn’t seem like a natural fit, but in reality it matches up better to many conservative values than the actual practice of Kasich and DeWine and other establishment Republicans. I’m not the only one who thinks this might be a good idea: recently the Northeast Ohio Conservative Coalition also suggested that conservatives skip voting for DeWine and instead select Irvine.

Why should Ohio conservatives look to the Libertarian Party? Shared priorities when it comes to fiscal policy, for one. For example, the Tea Party lists its “core principles” as follows:

Fiscal responsibility

Limited government

Free markets

The raison d’être of the Libertarian Party is limited government. Compare the Tea Party’s fiscal priorities with the platform of the Libertarian Party of Ohio:

Free Markets – Believing that free markets are the arbiter of value, we are opposed to legislation or government contracts in the State of Ohio that require pay above fair market price for wages or property, create environments of cronyism or nepotism, require occupational licensing, or allow for theft of private property through eminent domain.

Taxation & Spending – The State Government should not incur debt. We call for the repeal of the state income tax, property tax, and the reduction of all fees, licenses, and other taxes, including sales tax.

Such positions should be music to a fiscal conservative’s ears. And if you look at how Kasich has governed—and how DeWine will almost certainly govern—there is no way you could consider either of them as “fiscal conservatives.” It’s no wonder the Tea Party was particularly supportive of Taylor over DeWine, and now is concerned with having to endure another four years of progressive-leaning Republicanism (assuming DeWine defeats Democrat Richard Cordray, of course). In the governor’s race, there’s only one actual fiscal conservative—the Libertarian Party candidate, Travis Irvine.

Of course, there are some common objections to the idea of voting for the Libertarian candidate, including:

A vote for the Libertarian will help the Democrats. By far the biggest concern people have when considering third-party candidates is the fear that a vote for a third party will throw the election over to the opponent. There’s no evidence this has actually happened in any significant race (most third-party candidates evenly split their support between the two major parties), but it’s still the fear. Yet, I have to ask, would a Cordray victory necessarily be worse than a DeWine victory? With Republicans comfortably controlling both houses of state congress, it’s unlikely that Cordray would be able to push through most of his agenda. Yet, as we’ve seen with Kasich, those same Republican legislators are much more likely to roll over when a Republican governor like DeWine proposes another expensive program. Further, if it were to happen that Cordray were to win, it would send a message to the Republican Party that they can’t keep nominating big-government “moderates” without consequences.

A third-party candidate can’t win. Voting third party is the classic case of a Catch-22: I won’t vote for a third-party candidate because he or she can’t win; a third-party candidate can’t win because people won’t vote for him or her. And it’s true: third-party candidates rarely win statewide races in this country. Yet a vote for the Libertarian Party candidate this year keeps the Libertarian Party on the Ohio ballot for future elections, which helps move the political needle to a more fiscally-conservative viewpoint. A more influential Libertarian Party would force the Republican Party to take seriously the views of fiscal conservatives, rather than just give them lip service as they have in the past.

Conservatives don’t agree with Libertarians on social issues. There’s no denying the Libertarian Party often has different positions than the Republicans when it comes to social issues. This comes from the Libertarian emphasis on freedom—not only economic freedom, but personal freedom. The primary example this year of this divergence is the Libertarian call for the decriminalization of marijuana. Yet for all practical purposes, how have elected Ohio Republicans advanced either the fiscal or the social agenda of many conservatives? Yes, they campaign on these issues every four years, but rarely is anything concrete accomplished once elected. Do you really think Mike DeWine will be a champion of conservative values, either fiscal or social?

Ohio conservatives don’t really have a conservative choice this year for governor among the two major party candidates. Yet they do have a fiscally-conservative choice: the Libertarian Party candidate Travis Irvine. If they want to send a message to the Republican Party, as well as shift the debate back to true fiscal conservatism, then they should seriously consider voting for Irvine this November.

Follow this author on Twitter: @EricRSammons

Eric Sammons, a native of Cincinnati, graduated from Miami University with a degree in Systems Analysis and a concentration in Economics. A small-business owner and real estate investor, he is the chair of the Hamilton County Libertarian Party.

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