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SALT LAKE CITY — We’re often told that voting for a third-party presidential candidate is a wasted vote. Don’t tell that to Gary Johnson.

The Libertarian presidential candidate will make the case at a rally Saturday in Salt Lake City that voters who are turned off by Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump should reject both candidates.

After all, Johnson emphasized, voting for a third-party ticket is the only hope of ending the crippling partisan gridlock in Washington, D.C.

“I think it will be easier to work with Republicans and Democrats when you have a nonpartisan administration—you have the power to call out both sides,” Johnson said in an interview Thursday. “If Trump or Clinton gets elected, no way will you be less polarized.”

Johnson, a two-term governor of New Mexico, has been traveling the country to make the case that America’s future is in small government, a place where Americans aren’t dying in foreign interventions.

Johnson’s Libertarian platform blends issues championed by both the left and the right.

He is a strong proponent of balancing the federal budget and erasing the national debt, loosening regulations on businesses, simplifying the tax code, protecting the Second Amendment rights of gun owners and providing school choice in the American education system.

At the same time, he is pro-choice, supports legalization of marijuana, embraces immigration, and adheres to a generally non-interventionist foreign policy.

“The American dream is still alive,” Johnson said during Thursday’s interview. “If people are looking for income equality, I don’t believe the government can achieve that — taking from Peter and giving to Paul. But what government can do, and I base this on having been governor of New Mexico, is work toward equal opportunity.”

Johnson, whose national campaign headquarters are in Salt Lake City, is working in earnest to court Utah votes. This week, he published an op-ed that praises the “Utah compromise,” a 2015 landmark state bill that has been hailed by Mormon leaders and gay rights advocates for striking the proper balance between LGBT rights and religious freedom.

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Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson to speak at U. rally Saturday Libertarian candidate for president Gary Johnson is set to speak at a campaign rally at the University of Utah on Saturday.

“It is a Utah solution that appropriately reflects the state’s diverse and strongly held freedoms,” he wrote. “… America is big enough to accommodate differences of opinion and practice on religious and social beliefs.”

Johnson also addressed controversy over his remarks last week that allegedly vaguely referenced 19th-century spates of violence involving members of the LDS faith. When asked about this during an interview, he emphasized he was misquoted and was attempting to drive home the point that people of the LDS faith were routinely persecuted by the majority for their religious beliefs.

“In the name of religion, discrimination should not be allowed,” Johnson said in Thursday’s interview. “I oppose discrimination of any sort. If you allow discrimination on the basis of religion, is not anything fair game to discriminate against?”

Johnson and his vice-presidential running mate, William Weld, will hold their first Utah rally on Saturday from 2 to 4 p.m. in the ballroom of the A. Ray Olpin Student Union building.

Utah state Sen. Mark Madsen, R-Salt Lake City, is scheduled to speak, and Johnson will take audience questions.

Amy Osmond Cook, Ph.D., is the CEO of Osmond Marketing. For more information, please visit www.osmondmarketing.com

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