Libertarian presidential hopefuls outline competing plans for growth, messaging and disruption at Washington town hall

Chase Oliver, Jacob Horenberger, Lars Matstead, Mike Termont, Charles Belay and Joshua Smith addressed a Washington state Libertarian audience, offering sharply different roadmaps for how the party should compete in 2024.

Oliver said he wants to be the party’s 2024 nominee and build party infrastructure long after Election Day to "double our party's membership," describing a 50-state tour and citing campaign metrics such as donors, fundraising and events. "I wanna be the libertarian candidate in 2024 because I believe our party has a golden opportunity to really grow and thrive," he said.

Jacob Horenberger argued for a return to what he called the party’s founding principles—dismantling Social Security and Medicare, pursuing monetary and regulatory reform, and taking a hardline stance on immigration. "If we wanna achieve a big breakout in votes ... we have to change directions completely, dramatically toward the restoration of the founding principles of this party," he said.

Lars Matstead framed his bid around a strategy to force national attention by winning key electoral votes that could produce a contingent election, telling the room his plan could "cause national media attention" and "deny both Trump and Biden the election" if the party wins a handful of electoral votes. He urged delegates to back his delegate push in Washington, D.C.

Mike Termont emphasized credibility and organization: run a "principled and credibly competitive" campaign to attract media, donors and voters, he said, arguing against gimmicks and pay-to-play metrics. Charles Belay, a physician, described himself as an outsider with cross-partisan appeal and said the party can reach voters disaffected with the two-party system.

Joshua Smith positioned himself as a "brave messenger" who can use broad media exposure to grow the party’s profile, citing frequent podcast and media appearances and promising a 50-state media tour.

The candidates’ closing remarks reiterated their core pitches—membership-building and messaging (Oliver), principle-first policy (Horenberger), disruptive electoral strategy (Matstead), credibility and organization (Termont), outreach from a professional background (Belay), and media-first messaging (Smith). The town hall concluded with applause and a reminder that delegates will choose at the national convention.

The town hall was hosted by the Libertarian Party of Washington and designed as a short-format forum for delegates and activists ahead of the party’s convention.