With the presidential election just over a week away, some North Carolina voters may be interested in third-party options that better fit their political preferences. While the independent campaigns of the likes of Robert Kennedy Jr. and Cornel West stole headlines with legal battles to get on (or off) the ballot, the largest third party in the United States will be an option for voters in all 50 states. In November.
Carolina Journal interviewed Chase Oliver, the official presidential candidate for the Libertarian Party, to provide readers with more information about their choices in the general election. In 2022, Oliver ran for U.S. Senate in Georgia’s 5th Congressional District, causing a forced runoff between Senator Raphael Warnock (D-GA) and his Republican challenger, Herschel Walker. The show received more than 80,000 votes.
Oliver agreed to a phone interview with the Carolina Journal to discuss his platform and salient issues in the election.
Much of Oliver’s program focuses on addressing issues related to the economy. That’s because the most important issue to address is the one most important to voters – and the cost of living and price inflation have dominated local discourse, he said. During the interview, Oliver said the biggest driver of inflation is leveraged spending and the amount of money we print annually.
According to the 2025 Federal Reserve Banknote Printing Order of the Federal Reserve System, the 2025 currency printing orders range from 4.1 billion to 5.9 billion banknotes, which have a value of $83.2 billion to $113.0 billion in U.S. dollars. The government has spent $1.9 trillion as of September 30, 2024, according to the US Treasury Department.
When asked how he plans to “crush inflation,” as stated on his official campaign website, Oliver emphasized that it is about getting our fiscal house in order as a government.
“The first and most urgent way we can address inflation is to reduce the main driver of inflation, which is debt and deficit spending,” he said. “Other areas where we can lower the cost of living without increasing government influence is regularizing zoning laws across the country, so housing is less expensive to build. In particular, low-income housing density.”
Oliver also stated that he wants to remove various barriers and regulations to entrepreneurship as well as prevent the government from subsidizing the energy market.
“I would like to say that I am very honored to be the first millennial presidential candidate in the entire country,” he said. “I think it’s time for Millennials and Generation Z to be more involved and have a direct impact on our elections because voters are getting younger and younger, but our leadership across the country seems to be getting older and older.”
Many liberals favor term limits between various positions in government, and Chase Oliver is one of them. During the interview, he stressed that voters can help make term limits in Congress a reality.
“I want to say to your readers this: A lot of people support term limits, but unfortunately the people who are going to need to support term limits to enact this law are your members of Congress and your state legislators because you’re going to have to amend the Constitution,” he said. . “So, I say to voters that the best way to enact term limits is to stop voting for incumbents who have been there for a very long period of time. Whether it’s a primary or a general election — elect newer voices, younger voices and voices that are willing to change the status quo.
According to AP News, the Libertarian Party received about 1% of the vote in the US presidential election in 2020. The latest CJ poll tracks this same level of support. However, there is hope from the Liberal Party that this will change in 2024. Oliver expressed his hope that younger generations will join him in supporting an alternative to the two-party system in the 2024 election.
“I think this is the first election where we can start to address this issue head-on,” Oliver said.
In a September poll of likely North Carolina general election voters, respondents were asked what they thought of third-party candidates: 49.3% of respondents said it was a good idea to give voters more options outside of the two major parties.
Polls are open for early voting across North Carolina through November 2. The general elections will be held on Tuesday, November 5.
Editor’s Note: The Carolina Journal invited Republican and Democratic presidential candidates to participate in an interview.
