Gary Johnson gains notice in Arizona, where race was tight
TEMPE, Ariz.—Under a scorching September sun, Lauren McCarthy and Anthony Fraijo were unflaggingly chipper as they buttonholed Arizona State University students with one question: “Are you happy with the two major parties?”
The two recent college graduates were looking to coax voters over to a third option, the Libertarian presidential ticket of Gary Johnson and Bill Weld. And they were working doubly fertile territory of both Arizona, home to a particular strain of libertarian-tinged conservatism, and one of the nation’s largest campuses, full of millennials shown to be more open to outsider candidates than older generations.
That Arizona, a reliably red state, is seen as a potential battleground at all underscores the unpredictable nature of this year’s presidential contest, into which Johnson’s insurgent campaign has injected even more ambiguity.
Will he build on his party’s relatively strong standing here to siphon away would-be voters for Donald Trump, tipping the state to Hillary Clinton? Or will his appeal to younger voters peel off potential Democrats whom Clinton needs to pull off an upset?
McCarthy, 21, a registered Republican and recently converted Johnson supporter, said that short of an outright win, she’d be fine with either scenario—so long as the Libertarians factor into the outcome.
“The fact that we can start moving away from a two-party system—that’s a win,” she said.
Recent polls showed Johnson, the former Republican governor of New Mexico, fetching between 8 percent and 12 percent of support in Arizona, a marked improvement from his 2012 presidential bid when he notched just over 1 percent here. Jill Stein, the Green Party nominee, registered around 3 percent in recent polls.
Johnson is pulling a substantial share in a race that is unusually close for this Republican Southwest stronghold. Since 1948, Arizona has only sided with a Democrat in the presidential race one time, Bill Clinton’s 1996 re-election.