Judd Weiss is McAfee’s Vice Presidential Pick

by Avens O’Brien

Famous computer programmer and businessman John McAfee is one of the top three contenders for the Libertarian Party’s presidential nomination, but one of his greatest weaknesses within the party is a lack of connections within the movement itself.

He may have just solved that problem by asking libertarian photographer and entrepreneur Judd Weiss to be his vice presidential running mate.

The announcement was made at an event Thursday evening at Weiss’ home in Bel Air, California.

Judd Weiss, 35, was born, raised, and is based in Los Angeles, and is a writer, businessman, entrepreneur, hustler, and the most famous photographer for the liberty movement.

On his Facebook Photo Albums Page you can find over 65 albums dedicated to liberty events (some of which he’s hosted himself) and over 27,000 photographs of the beautiful and interesting people at these events.

Weiss knows liberty isn’t just a superficial pursuit though — his involvement with the party and the movement began in his teens after he encountered the writings of Ayn Rand and Nathaniel Branden.

“A friend handed me Anthem when I was 14, and it didn’t take me long to get into it all. I soon tried to find local Libertarians, and there was a small group that would meet up at a Denny’s in Tarzana. Back then it was just a bunch of old people. My friend and I were the only teenagers that would show up.”

He first registered as a LP member in 2000, and began seriously taking photos for Libertarian events in 2011. (See his album of the 2012 LNC convention here.)

He’s been interviewed about his work in the libertarian movement for years. You can see him answer tough questions with Jan Helfeld here, and this interview with Liberty.me about making liberty look good.

When asked of McAfee himself, Weiss said:

“McAfee is an impressive human, and a badass. He has so many incredible stories and achievements in his life, but he’s still pushing himself into more challenging adventures. I want to see a force of nature like McAfee go up against Trump and Hillary. I want to be excited about following this presidential race.”

Weiss offers a number of benefits to the McAfee campaign, with a solid foundation of knowledge of the philosophy of liberty, and a lot of time spent advising fellow libertarians how to sell the ideas of liberty to mainstream audiences, while trying to improve the appearance and public image of libertarians.

He’s also valuable in turning out young people — with his work photographing Students for Liberty and Young Americans for Liberty events, he’s a “celebritarian” among an audience that has spent a lot of time supporting “liberty Republicans” like Ron Paul and Rand Paul instead of being involved in the Libertarian Party itself.

His involvement with McAfee creates a unique opportunity to capture the attention and enthusiasm of young libertarians and grow the party where it needs it most: in the next generation of libertarian minds.

Weiss hosted a fundraising event for the McAfee campaign on Thursday evening at his home in Bel Air, with a turnout of over 200 people.