Joey Aguirre

jaguirre@gannett.com

As an alternative to a businessman and lifelong politician, Gary Johnson hopes to become president of the United States by just being himself.

"This is a guy that's been an entrepreneur, an athlete who's climbed the highest mountain on each of the seven continents and has been a governor," Libertarian presidential candidate Johnson told the Register on Saturday before his rally at Grand View University.

"And the guy he's running with is like the smartest political guy on the whole planet," he said of running mate Bill Weld, a former governor of Massachusetts. "We're trying to win."

Johnson, 63, spent his Saturday afternoon inside the Johnson Wellness Center on the campus of Grand View University in Des Moines. In front of hundreds of people, the former two-term governor of New Mexico spent 45 minutes outlining what he would do if he were elected president.

Johnson said he is for less taxes and smaller government and especially wants to get the federal government out of education. He's also in favor of a stricter Second Amendment, legalizing marijuana and gay marriage. He's against military interventions and mandatory minimum sentences.

Johnson ran for president in 2012 and received over 1.2 million votes. He's running a smarter campaign this time with the same principles.

"In retrospect, 90 percent of what I did was wasted time," Johnson told the Register. "That was like, I must have spent 30 straight days on internet radio, when you add it all up. And internet radio, there's exceptions to everything, but I envisioned a 40-year-old in his basement with the only other people listening were his parents, the next floor up. And then showing up to events where instead of 500 people, there were nine people."

To go with in-person events, Johnson has a growing online presence.

"Right now there's an insatiable appetite for earned media," Johnson explained. "Right now we can go to a rally and have 400 enthusiastic people but within two hours, 300,000 people have viewed it on Facebook Live. That's a whole different world."

Gary Johnson in Iowa: I represent 13 million people

Mark Kenkel, a senior at Iowa State University, came from Ames to see Johnson in person for the first time.

He says he's voting for Johnson in November.

"If all you want to do is provide a service and all I want to do is pay you for it, it should be that simple," said Kenkel, 22. "Doing it like this would provide for lower prices. Like 'X-rays R Us,' if I roll my ankle, I can get an X-ray for them to tell me if it's broke or not, I shouldn't need to visit an emergency room. If it's broken, I know what I need to do at that point."

Kenkel said he enjoyed listening to Johnson, and so did Chris Sexton, who came with Mark.

"For me, if I'm not negatively affecting your life then I should be able to make whatever choice," said Sexton, 22. "Get the government out of your life in general. The government doesn't do anything efficiently so I think that would be a positive."

Sexton said Johnson came across as "incredibly honest," which is something he believes is rare in politics today.

"He seems very real, like he believes what he's saying and not just pandering to what people expect him to say," Sexton said. "It's refreshing to see someone who cares about what they are doing and truly make the lives of people better."

Johnson told the crowd the model of the future is "Uber Everything," especially when it comes to health care.

"… The middle man is eliminated to allow you, as the provider of goods and services, to directly deliver those services to an end user who will pay less for it," Johnson said. "We would have insurance to cover ourselves from catastrophic injury and illness. But we would pay as you go, in a system that is very competitive. You'd have advertised pricing and advertised outcomes. You'd have 'Stitches R Us' and 'X-rays R Us.' Right now the Affordable Care Act is a tax."

An international student at Des Moines Area Community College who goes by Ismail called Johnson "the best candidate" in this year's election.

"I know we only have two months but we have a shot at electing Gary Johnson," said Ismail, 25. "Today is my first time seeing him in person and I took a selfie. I'm constantly following his Facebook page and I just think he's the best. He understands our situations and understands this is a nation of immigrants. He understands a middle-class family."