Libertarian Candidates Test America’s Growing Discontent With the Two-Party System

As frustration with the American political establishment continues to soar across the country and public trust in the two-party system reaches historic lows, independent and third-party candidates are moving to fill that void in state races nationwide.

In New Jersey, residents are preparing to vote in what is one of the most competitive gubernatorial races of the year’s election cycle. The race’s two frontrunners, Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D–N.J.) and former state Rep. Jack Ciattarelli (R–Hillsborough), are locked in a head-to-head race to succeed incumbent Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy.

Sherrill maintains a six-point lead over Ciattarelli, according to a new poll from Quinnipiac University, but Libertarian Party candidate Vic Kaplan is hoping to disrupt the race.   

“I am different from other candidates,” Kaplan told WHYY, Philadelphia’s NPR affiliate. “I offer proposals that would improve the lives of the people of New Jersey.”

Kaplan, who is polling just over 1 percent according to the Quinnipiac survey, emphasizes a pragmatic slate of reforms centered on decentralization and municipal autonomy, arguing that local governments—not state bureaucracies—are best equipped to meet residents’ needs.

Kaplan’s platform includes energy deregulation, repealing the state’s Certificate of Need laws, which force health care facilities to receive government permission before they begin construction or renovation, and supporting legislation that limits local cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. He also seeks to expand affordable housing by easing zoning laws and strengthening private property rights by ending the government’s practice of using eminent domain to seize property without the owner’s permission.

While lowering taxes is central to his campaign—he calls for phasing out New Jersey’s income and sales taxes within four years and replacing them with local revenue and user fees—Kaplan diverges from conventional libertarian views in his support for safety-net programs like Medicaid, which could appeal to some moderate and liberal voters.

Over 1,000 miles away, Thomas Laehn, another Libertarian Party candidate, is running for Iowa’s open federal Senate seat, hoping to tap into voters’ growing distrust of both major parties.

Laehn, who describes himself as a “populist” on his campaign website, was elected as the attorney of rural Greene County in 2017—and again in 2021—and is the first libertarian to hold a partisan office in Iowa history. He’s running on a platform that includes decriminalizing marijuana, ensuring a secure and humane border policy, reducing the national debt, and strengthening private property rights by opposing eminent domain.

To Laehn, the campaign isn’t a traditional partisan challenge but an effort to disrupt the American partisan paradigm. “Both parties have worked tirelessly to take power away from the people and concentrate it into their own hands,” he states on his website. “I am not running against a Democrat or a Republican; I am running against the two-party system itself.”

Both Laehn and Kaplan face steep structural hurdles, such as limited fundraising networks and the enduring belief that third-party votes are wasted. Kaplan must stand out in New Jersey’s crowded field, while Laehn confronts Iowa’s entrenched partisan loyalties, shaped by decades of Republican control in rural areas and Democratic strength in cities. Still, both are betting that widespread frustration and the rise of independent voters will help them break through the noise and surpass the Libertarian Party’s typical 1 percent to 2 percent ceiling. Both candidates seem less concerned with winning their elections than with turning voter disaffection into a lasting political force.

Their campaigns also reflect a quiet shift within Libertarian Party politics. After years dominated by ideological purity—intensified by the party’s 2022 Mises Caucus takeover—Kaplan and Laehn represent a turn toward running candidates with a more voter-focused approach. Their brand of libertarianism appears to emphasize civic empowerment and local reform over abstract theory, meeting disillusioned voters where they are. Though their chances of victory are slim, their performance could signal how third-party politics might evolve in an era when voters care less about loyalty and more about limiting centralized power.