News

Romney calls for Libertarians to be included in presidential debates

by Jesse Byrnes - 09/07/16 5:35 PM ET

2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney is calling for the Libertarian Party ticket to be included in the general election debates this fall.

Romney sent a tweet Wednesday indicating he wanted to see White House nominee Gary Johnson and his running mate, Bill Weld, on stage:

I hope voters get to see former GOP Governors Gary Johnson and Bill Weld on the debate stages this fall.

— Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) September 7, 2016

{mosads}Romney, an outspoken critic of both Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton, has long indicated he’d consider voting for the Libertarians. He has spoken warmly of Weld, who served as governor of Massachusetts before him.

“If Bill Weld were at the top of the ticket it would be very easy for me to vote for Bill Weld for president,” Romney told CNN in June.

Johnson and Weld said the following month that Romney was weighing an endorsement.

Criteria set for the debates require candidates to have the support of at least 15 percent of the electorate nationally in five recent public opinion surveys, and Johnson is the closest third-party candidate to that threshold in recent polls.

Debate criteria also require that a candidate be on enough state ballots to have at least a mathematical chance of winning the necessary Electoral College votes to become president.

In the past five national polls included in the RealClearPolitics index, Johnson received 12 percent support twice and 11 percent once. He took 7 percent in the other two surveys.

Johnson has started airing television ads in several western states in an effort to lift his poll numbers to the necessary 15 percent.

The three venues slated to host the presidential debates indicated last month that they were preparing a third lectern in the event that another candidate joined Clinton and Trump on stage.

The first general election debate is slated to take place Sept. 26 at Hofstra University in New York, followed by two debates in October in Las Vegas, and St. Louis. The vice presidential debate is scheduled for Oct. 4 in Virginia.

Tags 2016 presidential election Donald Trump Gary Johnson Hillary Clinton