Libertarians hope to reach voters ‘looking for a home’
Pair are write-in hopefuls in June 4 primary for two state Senate districts east of Abq.
Thanks to a car accident, John and Catherine Ann McDivitt became write-in candidates this year.
That is, the guy who was supposed to deliver the ballot access documents for them to register as Libertarian candidates for Senate District 19 — Catherine Ann — and House District 20 — John — got into an accident March 12. That was the deadline for filing to have one’s name appear on the ballot for a major party candidacy in the state’s June primary election.
The man, working for the Libertarian Party, suffered a broken arm, John McDivitt said, and that was much worse than meeting a deadline for filing.
In any event, in New Mexico candidates still had the option to join the race by filing as write-in candidates by March 19. So the husband-and-wife duo did that Tuesday.
In general, write-ins might easily be written off, particularly as state law does not allow for their names to be placed on the ballot or in any publicity materials at polling sites in the primary election.
But the McDivitts likely have a clear shot to landing on the ballot in the November general election. Neither has an opponent in their respective races. So they figure if they vote for themselves and each other in June, even if nobody else does, they’ll make it onto the general election ballot.
“We don’t need a lot of votes to get through to the November election,” John McDivitt said in an interview Wednesday.
Maybe not, but they face an uphill battle to win all the same, based on state election data.
Neither of their districts, which cover parts of the
area east of Albuquerque, are heavy with registered Libertarian voters — just 2% of voters in Senate District 19 and 1% in House District 20. Since Libertarians gained the right to run as a major party in the state in 2018, their party has rarely broken out of the single-digit range when it comes to Election Day votes, said Albuquerque-based pollster and political analyst Brian Sanderoff.
“Libertarians typically do not perform well in New Mexico,” said Sanderoff.
The one major exception was in the 2016 presidential race and 2018 U.S. Senate races, when former Republican Gov. Gary Johnson ran as a Libertarian and got more than 9% of the vote for president and more than 15% for Senate.
One challenge, Sanderoff said, is while some of the party’s principles may appeal to members of both major parties, others can put off both those parties.
“In terms of the big picture, Libertarians tend to believe in less government, which is part of the conservative philosophy,” he said. “However, they are also more liberal on such issues as abortion access and [legalizing] marijuana because they believe in less government.”
The McDivitts, Michigan natives who lived in New Mexico from 1986 to 2000 and again from 2017 to now, get that. Their goal in running, they said, is to draw more attention to their party and appeal to people “looking for a home” who are not finding it in either the Democratic or Republican parties, John McDivitt said.
As such, he sees “a real opportunity to cut a wide swath and make a difference” in the coming election cycle, not just in New Mexico, but around the country.
Senate District 19 is a Republican-leaning district that includes communities east of Albuquerque such as Edgewood and Moriarty and follows the Turquoise Trail into Santa Fe County up to about Golden. House District 20 is a Democratic-leaning district on Albuquerque’s eastern outskirts. Both districts have a Democrat and a Republican running as well as the Libertarian McDivitts.
They do not have political backgrounds, per se. He served as an officer in the U.S. Navy; she was a dietician/nutritionist for decades.
They are not political novices either. He garnered more than 4% of the vote in the 2020 Senate District 19 race against incumbent Gregg Schmedes, a Republican — who is not running for reelection — and Democratic challenger Claudia Risner.
She ran for office in 1980, taking on the late U.S. Rep. Rick White of Texas and garnering over 15% of the vote as a Libertarian.
The McDivitts are two of just five Libertarians who filed to run in state House or Senate elections this year, according to the Secretary of State’s website. And they were the only two write-in candidates who looked to be on the road to qualifying by the end of the day Wednesday. Though their qualification status was “pending,” both said they collected enough signatures in their districts to be eligible to run.
The other Libertarian candidates in state legislative races this year are Christian Scott Ehmling, who is running in House District 54 in the Artesia area, and Chris Luchini and Phillip Michael Mach, who are running against each other for their party’s nomination in House District 43 in Los Alamos.
The McDivitts have been registered as Libertarians since the 1970s. John McDivitt said they were drawn to the party’s “very Jeffersonian” attitude that “the government that governs least, governs best.”
In terms of their campaign philosophies, both believe more must be done to recruit and retain health care professionals in the state and fight crime. Tackling the drunken-driving problem is another priority, Catherine McDivitt said.
If they win in November, they will serve, they said. More importantly, they want to show Libertarians have a place in the race and perhaps a larger place in state politics down the line.
“Libertarians represent the Constitution, the Founding Fathers’ viewpoint of how a free society should function,” Catherine McDivitt said. “I think the promotion of that is the most important thing [in running].”
She said they know their party might be caught between two political worlds.
“Some people won’t understand us on the liberal standpoint and some won’t understand us on the more conservative standpoint,” Catherine McDivitt said.
“People ask, ‘Are you left wing or right wing?’ ” John McDivitt said with a laugh. “The answer is, ‘Yes!’ ”