Libertarian Party of Iowa

Libertarian Party of Iowa
ChairpersonJules Cutler
Senate leaderNone
House leaderNone
FoundedApril 19, 1975
IdeologyLibertarianism
National affiliationLibertarian Party (United States)
Colorsa shade of Blue; Yellow
U.S. Senate
U.S. House
Statewide Executive Offices
State Senate
State House
Other elected officials3 (June 2024)
Website
www.lpia.org

The Libertarian Party of Iowa is the Iowa affiliate of the Libertarian Party. It gained major party status in 2017, following Gary Johnson's performance in the 2016 presidential election in Iowa. As of 2018, there are 11,300 registered Libertarians in the state.

History

The party was originally established on April 19, 1975, dissolved in 1985, and re-established with new organization on April 26, 1987.

The party's first nomination for President was Roger MacBride and David Bergland in 1976.

In 1980 Ed Clark and running mate David Koch became the state party's first nominee for President, to break 1%, receiving 921,128 votes (1.06 percent).

Registration for voters as Libertarian began in 2008.

In 2017 Gary Johnson, who would go on to become the national party's nominee for President, cleared the 2% benchmark, receiving 3.8% of the vote. This allowed the party to achieve official party status the following year.

2018 saw the first Libertarian to win a partisan election in Iowa when Thomas Laehn was elected as County Attorney of Greene County. He was re-elected in 2022, and is now running for U.S. Senate.

On January 15th 2024 the Libertarian Party of Iowa held its first caucus as a major party, nominating Chase Oliver in a straw poll. Participants became ineligible for the Republican caucus the same day or for Democratic mail-in ballots.

Vote totals for Libertarian candidates in Iowa

U.S. President

Year Candidate Votes Percentage
1976 Roger MacBride 1,454 0.1%
1980 Ed Clark 13,123 1.0%
1984 David Bergland 1,844 0.1%
1988 Ron Paul 2,494 0.2%
1992 Andre Marrou 1,076 0.1%
1996 Harry Browne 2,315 0.2%
2000 3,209 0.2%
2004 Michael Badnarik 2,992 0.2%
2008 Bob Barr 4,590 0.3%
2012 Gary Johnson 12,926 0.8%
2016 59,186 3.8%
2020 Jo Jorgensen 19,637 1.2%

2020 U.S. Presidential Caucus Straw Poll

Source:

Candidates Total Votes Percentage
Jacob Hornberger 133 47.3%
Lincoln Chafee 36 12.8%
Jo Jorgensen 18 6.4%
Adam Kokesh 17 6.1%
Daniel Behrman 14 5.0%
John McAfee 10 3.6%
Vermin Supreme 9 3.2%
None of the Above 8 2.9%
Write In 8 2.9%
Sam Robb 7 2.5%
Max Abramson 6 2.1%
Mark Whitney 4 1.4%
Arvin Vohra 3 1.1%
Keenan Dunham 2 0.7%
Ken Armstrong 2 0.7%
Souraya Faas 2 0.7%
Benjamin Leder 1 0.4%
John Monds 1 0.4%
Grand Total 281 100%

See also

Footnotes

  1. ↑ "2022-2024 LPIA State Central Committee". Libertarian Party of Iowa. Retrieved 26 September 2022.
  2. ↑ "Elected Officials". Retrieved June 1, 2024.
  3. ↑ "Libertarian Party Earns Political Party Status in Iowa". US News. AP. March 2, 2017. Retrieved 25 July 2017.
  4. ↑ "Mid-2017 Voter Registration Totals". Ballot Access News. 3 September 2017. Retrieved December 2, 2017.
  5. ↑ "BYLAWS OF THE LIBERTARIAN PARTY OF IOWA". www.druglibrary.net. Archived from the original on 2024-10-07. Retrieved 2026-10-08.
  6. 1 2 desmoinesdem (2016-06-27). "Will 2016 be a record-setting year for Libertarians in Iowa?". Bleeding Heartland. Retrieved 2026-10-08.
  7. ↑ "Archived Election Results and Statistics". sos.iowa.gov. Archived from the original on 2012-09-28. Retrieved 2026-10-08.
  8. ↑ Iowa House of Representatives (1980-09-03), English: NAMES OF CANDIDATES FOR: 1. United States President and Vice President 2. United States Congress 3 . Iowa State Office 4. Iowa Senate 5. Iowa House of Representatives (PDF), retrieved 2026-10-08
  9. 1 2 "Iowa Libertarian Party to Have Major Party Status in 2018 Elections". Independent Voter News. 2017-02-23. Retrieved 2026-10-08.
  10. ↑ Opsahl, Robin (2023-09-22). "Libertarian Party of Iowa announces it will hold caucuses Jan. 15 • Iowa Capital Dispatch". Iowa Capital Dispatch. Retrieved 2026-10-08.
  11. ↑ "Four Libertarians Elected to Partisan Office This Month |". 2022-11-19. Retrieved 2026-10-09.
  12. ↑ tom.barton@thegazette.com, TOM BARTON (2025-10-07). "Greene County attorney enters crowded Iowa U.S. Senate race as Libertarian". The Gazette. Retrieved 2026-10-09.
  13. ↑ Bunge, Mike (2024-01-16). "Libertarian Party of Iowa announces the winner of its statewide Presidential caucus". KIMT News 3. Retrieved 2026-10-09.
  14. ↑ "Welcome to Johnson County, IA". Johnson County Iowa. Retrieved 2026-10-09.
  15. ↑ Howe, Joseph (2020-02-09). "Libertarian Party of Iowa Presidential Caucus Winner and Results". Libertarian Party of Iowa. Retrieved 2020-02-09.