Vermin Supreme Says This Time, He's Serious

IN 2016, THE Libertarian Party’s presidential ticket, former Republican Govs. Gary Johnson and Bill Weld, had the most executive experience in the field.

- MATT WELCH

And yet America’s third party is more synonymous in the minds of many onlookers with viral video footage of a nearly naked and heavily tattooed James Weeks, a distant finisher in the race for L.P. national chair, performing a striptease live on C-SPAN at that year’s convention.

So depending on where you sit politically, it was either surprising or predictable that Vermin Supreme—a gray-bearded performance artist and serial joke candidate who promises free ponies for everyone and wears a giant boot on his head—concluded the month of March in second place for the 2020 L.P. presidential nomination, behind only longtime libertarian activist and author Jacob Hornberger. Unlike Supreme’s previous runs in the Democratic and Republican parties, he says his Libertarian campaign reflects his actual political beliefs. In March, the satirist spoke with Reason’s Matt Welch about his candidacy.

Q: Is it more difficult to sell what looks like a satirical presidential campaign during a pandemic?