How the liberal presidential candidate could be a spoiler for Trump

But those signs drifted away with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s withdrawal from the race, and voters are now left with few options other than Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.

But one of those possibilities is the Libertarian Party’s presidential candidate: Chase Oliver. And he has the potential, along with Green Party candidate Jill Stein, to spoil a state victory for either Harris or Trump.

Oliver is only 39 years old, the youngest of the major third-party candidates. He is from Atlanta and ran there twice as a House candidate in 2020, then as a Senate candidate in 2022.

Oliver rose to national prominence with his role in his last run, garnering 2% of the vote in the Senate race between then-candidates Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker. He debated, without Walker, against Warnock in a face-off hosted by Georgia Public Broadcast in October, giving him further exposure.

Oliver’s 2% ultimately helped force a Senate runoff as neither candidate reached 50% of the vote. Warnock would go on to win.

Oliver now has a similar “spoiler” role in the 2024 presidential election. While he has had minimal funding for his presidential campaign — Oliver has raised just under $450,000 for his campaign — at least one Democratic group has reportedly spent considerable funds to boost him in hopes that voters will see him as an alternative to Trump.

Civic Truth Action has pushed Oliver for more than $1.5 million in YouTube ads touting him as a “true conservative” who wants to abolish the income tax, not unlike a platform Trump has taken verbally. The super PAC’s biggest supporter is the Democratic-owned Evidence for Impact.

While Stein is generally believed to be taking votes away from Harris’ progressive and far-left flank, Oliver could be shaking up Trump’s support from libertarian-leaning voters. It wouldn’t be the first time Trump has been hurt by a libertarian candidate in the presidential election.

In 2020, Libertarian candidate Jo Jorgensen drew more support than President Joe Biden’s margin of victory in Georgia, Arizona and Wisconsin. Jorgensen received his highest number of votes, all over 2% of the vote, in eight different Republican-won states. Some libertarian ideals, like no income tax and minimal gun regulation, appeal to conservatives.

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Oliver could serve to endear Georgia, a state that is weakly Republican, to Trump. A recent one New York Times poll from Georgia showed him napping 2% support in the state, causing a 46%-46% tie between Harris and Trump.

Georgia may be where Oliver makes his biggest impact. He would likely draw support away from Trump, and a Harris win in the state makes it much more difficult for the Republican to win the election.