The 2020 presidential campaign of Vermin Supreme began on June 26, 2019, and ended during the

2020 Libertarian National Convention The 2020 Libertarian National Convention delegates selected the Libertarian Party nominees for president and vice president in the 2020 United States presidential election. Primaries were held, but were preferential in nature and did not determ ...

; Supreme failed to win the nomination.

Background

Vermin Supreme Vermin Love Supreme (born 1960 or 1961) is an American performance artist and activist who has run as a candidate in various local, state, and national elections in the United States. He served as a member of the Libertarian Party's judicial c ...

is a

perennial candidate A perennial candidate is a political candidate who frequently runs for elected office and rarely, if ever, wins. Perennial candidates' existence lies in the fact that in some countries, there are no laws that limit a number of times a person can ...

who has run in several United States presidential primaries. Supreme has run in the

2004 Democratic Party presidential primaries From January 14 to June 8, 2004, voters of the Democratic Party chose its nominee for president in the 2004 United States presidential election. Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts was selected as the nominee through a series of primary electi ...

, the

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

Republican presidential primaries, and the

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gat ...

and

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses duri ...

Democratic Party presidential primaries. After having announced plans in 2018 of running for the 2020 Libertarian Party presidential nomination, Supreme filed his candidacy with the FEC on June 26, 2019. According to FEC filings, he chose Desarae Lindsey as his campaign manager. He also chose Richard Manzo, budget committeeman in

Goffstown, New Hampshire Goffstown is a town in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 18,577 at the 2020 census. The compact center of town, where 3,366 people resided at the 2020 census, is defined by the U.S. Census Bureau as the Goffst ...

as his chief strategist. Supreme has described his campaign staff as including "about a dozen people around the country with the various state coordinators," and his effort as "ultimately isfirst real campaign".

Campaign

Vermin Supreme appeared on

Fox News The Fox News Channel, abbreviated FNC, commonly known as Fox News, and stylized in all caps, is an American multinational conservative cable news television channel based in New York City. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is owne ...

' ''Watter's World'' on May 18, 2019 to discuss his campaign for the Libertarian nomination. In December 2019, Supreme selected

Spike Cohen Jeremy "Spike" Cohen (born June 28, 1982) is an American libertarian political activist, entrepreneur, and podcaster. He was the Libertarian Party's nominee for vice president of the United States in 2020, serving as Jo Jorgensen's running mate ...

as his running mate. On January 11, 2020, Supreme won a non-binding presidential preference poll conducted internally by the

Libertarian Party of New Hampshire The Libertarian Party of New Hampshire (LPNH) is the New Hampshire affiliate of the national Libertarian Party (LP). Active since its foundation in 1972, it is the third-largest political party in the state having had multiple members elected ...

, winning 26 out of 44 votes cast. The primary was tabulated using

Bucklin voting Bucklin voting is a class of voting methods that can be used for single-member and multi-member districts. As in highest median rules like the majority judgment, the Bucklin winner will be one of the candidates with the highest median ranking ...

. On the 3rd of March 2020, Supreme was declared the winner of the Massachusetts primary. On May 23, Supreme placed third on the party's final round of balloting. Supreme's former running-mate,

, went on to win the Libertarian Party's vice presidential nomination.

Satirical candidacy

Many have cited Vermin Supreme's presidential campaign as harmful to the credibility or image of the Libertarian Party. As Supreme told ''

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the nor ...

'' magazine, "It’s been a very interesting sell trying to convince the Libertarian Party that a serious party can take a joke candidate and get their 5% without being pegged as a joke party." Spike Cohen, Supreme's running mate, remarked that their campaign is "perfectly serious". Explaining the campaign's message, Cohen said, "it's the system that's a joke and it treats us as a joke and it treats the idea of having more than two options as a joke. We're changing the punch line by trolling the system." Supreme has said that, in contrast to his past runs for the presidency, he considers this campaign a "serious" bid.

References

{{United States presidential election, 2020 Supreme