At the Hippodrome, Johnson made a particular pitch to young voters. He said it is young people who are fighting the nation’s wars and who might not benefit if entitlement programs go bust.

He said that based on what he knows now, as president he would pardon Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency subcontractor who leaked top-secret information about surveillance programs.

Earlier Monday, Johnson told students at Liberty University that Justice Clarence Thomas is the type of jurist he would nominate to the U.S. Supreme Court as president.

“With regard to Supreme Court justices, it would be an issue of justices ruling on the basis of original intent of the Constitution,” Johnson said in a question and answer session following his remarks at the nation’s largest evangelical university.

“I think that Judge Thomas has probably been at the forefront of the kind of a judge that I would like to appoint.”

As for his position on abortion, Johnson says on his campaign website that his “approach to governing is based on a belief that individuals should be allowed to make their own choices in their personal lives” and that “abortion is a deeply personal choice.”