Seth A. Richardson

srichardson@rgj.com

The Libertarian presidential ticket of former Republican Govs. Gary Johnson of New Mexico and Bill Weld of Massachusetts was born in Nevada, according to the two candidates in an interview with the Reno Gazette-Journal.

Johnson, the presidential candidate, and Weld, the vice presidential candidate, had long had talks about working together on the ticket, but hadn’t been able to meet up to make the deal happen, according to Johnson and Weld.

“The best day it turned out was going to be a Saturday or Sunday,” Weld said. “Gary was coming from Detroit and I was coming from Boston. … We met and shook on the whole thing right in Vegas.”

Johnson and Weld made their return trip after the birth of their campaign to Reno on Friday outside the Joe Crowley Student Union. It was the first campaign stop in Nevada. University Police Services estimated the crowd at the town hall style rally at about 500.

Johnson and Weld are trying to get to the ever-crucial 15 percent figure in national polls – the number needed to be included in the presidential debates and gain massive amounts of exposure for the third party.

“I saw last week where they were projecting there is going to be more viewership for the first presidential debate than the Super Bowl,” Johnson said. “If we’re in the Super Bowl, anything can happen.”

Johnson said to the crowd he wants to be the alternative to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, whom he called “the two most polarizing figures in American politics today,” echoing statements he made in the RGJ interview. He and Weld were the fiscally conservative, socially liberal alternative, he said.

"If Clinton is elected or if Trump is going to get elected, I think the polarization in Congress will be greater than ever," Johnson said Friday in the RGJ interview before he spoke at UNR. "Nothing is going to get done. it is going to be so ugly, so partisan, so back-biting. Well what if you elect a couple of Libertarians?"

How hard is it for a Libertarian to win in Nevada?

Johnson also took special aim at Trump's plan to build a wall along the United States-Mexican border, saying the country needed to embrace immigration.

"I hear that Donald Trump is watching the Olympics tonight. He's seeing how high the Mexican pole vaulters go," he said. "Look, the deportation of 11 million undocumented workers starts with misinformation. They are hardworking people that have come into the Untied States and they have to come in illegally because the government can't provide them an easy way to get in legally."

The main message the two candidates gave was one of smaller government and liberal social policies including cutting military spending, legalizing marijuana, and shrinking or eliminating the Department of Education, Department of Housing and Urban Development and Department of Commerce.

The two candidates also touched on issues involving race and inequality. When asked if black lives matter -- referencing the group who protests police brutality -- Johnson responded with, "Of course black lives matter." The issue, he and Weld said, started with rebuilding the education system in the inner cities. Weld also chastised Republicans for brushing off the issue altogether.

"When the question is put from the leaders of that movement do black lives matter, the answer comes back loud and clear from the Republican Party, 'All lives matter,'" Weld said. "Well they might as well say, 'Up against the wall.'"

The crowd was fairly receptive, often breaking out into chants of, “Gary! Gary! Gary!” The Libertarian ticket also gained a couple of endorsements in former Washoe County Republican Party Chairman Adam Khan and Geoffrey Lawrence, an assistant to Republican Controller Ron Knecht. Libertarian Assemblyman John Moore – who was elected as a Republican but switched parties in January citing the passage of Gov. Brian Sandoval’s education tax plan – of Las Vegas also joined Johnson on stage.

Seth A. Richardson covers politics for the Reno Gazette-Journal. Follow him on Facebook here or on Twitter at @SethARichardson.