Richardcyoung.com

  • Home
  • Debbie Young
  • Jimmy Buffett
  • Key West
  • Your Survival Guy
  • How We Are Different
  • Paris
  • About Us
    • Foundation Principles
    • Contributors
  • Investing
    • You’ve Read The Last Issue of Intelligence Report, Now What?
  • The Swiss Way
  • My Rifles
  • Dividends and Compounding
  • Your Security
  • Dick Young
  • Dick’s R&B Top 100
  • Liberty & Freedom Map
  • Bank Credit & Money
  • Your Survival Guy’s Super States
  • NNT & Cholesterol
  • Your Health
  • Ron Paul
  • US Treasury Yield Curve: My Favorite Investor Tool
  • Anti-Gun Control
  • Anti-Digital Currency
  • Joel Salatin & Alfie Oakes
  • World Gold Mine Production
  • Fidelity & Wellington Since 1971
  • Hillsdale College
  • Babson College
  • Contact Us

Gary Johnson Must be in Debates

July 1, 2016 By Richard C. Young

Emily Ekins is a research fellow and director of polling at the Cato Institute.

Cato Institute’s director of polling, Emily Ekins, explains to Americans exactly what must happen to get the Libertarian party’s Gary Johnson into the debates.

I have been writing in support of a multi-party system for America much the same as exists in France and Austria as good examples. America has outlived the two-party system where both entrenched major parties are on the payroll of the neocon-centric military/industrial complex. You and I no longer have a meaningful place at the table. This situation must change and 2016 is the year to bring about the change most Americans know must come.

 Fifteen percent is the magic number Libertarian presidential candidate and former governor Gary Johnson needs to reach to earn his voice in the 2016 election.

By capturing the support of 15 percent of voters in national public opinion polls, Johnson could join the major party’s presidential candidates on the primetime debate stage. With both Democratic and Republican presidential candidates disliked at historic levels and a rising share of political independents frustrated with the two major parties, this is the year a third-party candidate like Johnson has a realistic chance of getting onto the debate stage.

Johnson would need to receive an invitation to participate in the debates from the Commission on Presidential debates (CPD), a private, non-partisan, 501(c)(3) organization that has sponsored the general election presidential debates since 1988. The CPD is not a government entity, nor does it receive government funding. But it is a creation of the two major parties, co-chaired at its inception by both the Republican and Democratic parties’ national chairman.

Next, Johnson would need to have the support of at least 15 percent of “the national electorate” as determined by the average of five selected national public opinion polling organizations’ most recently publicly reported results, at the time eligibility is determined.

The key for Gary Johnson is to convince the major polling organizations to include him in their polls—and to continue to do so. He may be in luck. The 2012 organizations that are polling the 2016 election have included him in their match-ups against Clinton and Trump, with Johnson garnering: Fox (12 percent), CBS (11 percent), NBC/Wall Street Journal (10 percent), ABC/Washington Post (7 percent), an average of roughly 10 percent. Other highly regarded pollsters such as CNN/ORC (9 percent) Quinnipiac (5 percent) and Monmouth (9 percent) have also asked about Johnson this cycle, although they were not included in CPD’s 2012 recognized polls.

He’s not there yet. But Johnson absolutely has a chance of getting to 15 percent in the polls.

If Johnson is on the eligibility cusp, then the CPD may exercise subjectivity in determining whether or not he is allowed to participate in the debates. For instance, it is unclear how the CPD defines “support…of the national electorate” since in practice pollsters have different methods of determining who likely voters are and thus what is the national electorate.

Read more from Gary Johnson in his books America’s Best Hope: A Libertarian President, and Seven Principles of Good Government.


More from Emily Ekins here:

If you’re willing to fight for Main Street America, click here to sign up for my free weekly email.

Related Posts

  • Gary Johnson Must be in Debates
  • Gary Johnson Gets It
  • Gary Johnson: Eliminate the Corporate Tax
  • Author
  • Recent Posts
Richard C. Young
Richard C. Young
Richard C. Young is the editor of Young's World Money Forecast, and a contributing editor to both Richardcyoung.com and Youngresearch.com.
Richard C. Young
Latest posts by Richard C. Young (see all)
  • Most Secure Border in History - July 3, 2025
  • Can Peace Hold with a Defiant Iran? - July 3, 2025
  • Democrats Aiming for Self Destruction? - July 2, 2025

Dick Young’s Must Reads

  • DIGITAL ID: You Are More than a Soulless Digital Identity
  • “I Need Preservation of Principal and Growth”
  • Are You Looking for Investment Counsel? 2 Questions
  • Tucker Carlson Interviews My Favorite Florida Farmer
  • Sen. Hawley Makes the Case Against U.S.-China Relationship
  • Paris, The Palace Hotels: Part I
  • “Off the Table”
  • Tom Brady Is Proof You Shouldn’t Retire if You Still Love Your Work
  • ENERGY FREEDOM ACT: Ted Cruz Introduces Bill for Energy Independence
  • In Chicago, Education Connects the Dots

Compensation was paid to utilize rankings. Click here to read full disclosure.

RSS Youngresearch.com

  • Happy Independence Day!
  • Survival Guy: An All-Weather Balanced Portfolio
  • A Bazooka Fired at Private Equity
  • US Trade Deficit Widens in May
  • Job Gains Light Up the Labor Market
  • U.S. Eases Chip Software Restrictions, Boosting Tech Trade with China
  • NYC, Crypto, ESG, the Haves and the Have-Yachts
  • Trump Announces Vietnam Trade Deal
  • Nuclear Surpasses Coal in U.S. Energy Mix for the First Time
  • Grand Theft Cargo: California’s Cargo Thefts Thrive

RSS Yoursurvivalguy.com

  • Happy Independence Day!
  • Survival Guy: An All-Weather Balanced Portfolio
  • A Bazooka Fired at Private Equity
  • NYC, Crypto, ESG, the Haves and the Have-Yachts
  • “Behind Every Blade of Grass”
  • Beware the ‘Democratization’ of Investing
  • Survive and Thrive June 2025: The Lay of the Land: Who Can You Trust?
  • Dividends: “Because It Works”
  • “Surrounded by an Armed Country”
  • Every Family Should Own at Least One Shotgun: Here Are Three

US Treasury Yield Curve: My Favorite Investor Tool

My Key West Garden Office

Your Retirement Life: Traveling the Efficient Frontier

Live a Long Life

Your Survival Guy’s Mt. Rushmore of Investing Legends

“Then One Day the Grandfather was Gone”

Copyright © 2025 | Terms & Conditions | About Us | Dick Young | Archives