Paul-McCarthy 1980

Ron Paul won a special election in 1976 for a Texas House seat, lost by 0.2% that November, but came back in 1978 and would remain in the house until 1984. Let's say he gets reelected in 1976 here and thus isn't really a freshman congressman when 1980 comes around.

Eugene McCarthy ran an independent 1976 campaign and in 1980 would support Libertarian candidate Ed Clark before ultimately endorsing Reagan (mostly on the grounds that he liked Reagan personally and hated Carter's guts).

What if Ron Paul and Eugene McCarthy had run as the Libertarian ticket in 1980?



Paul McCartney would likely be very confused that year.
 
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A Ron Paul-Eugene McCarthy Libertarian ticket would probably receive more than 1% of the popular vote, which was what the Ed Clark-David Koch ticket received in OTL 1980. They might reach 5%, but I don't think that would be too likely. Paul would still be nationally unknown, and McCarthy was a has-been by 1980 - he won only 0.9% of the popular vote when he ran for president in 1976 as an independent.

Ultimately, a Paul-McCarthy ticket would be too inconsequential to swing the general election. Ronald Reagan would still be elected president. He defeated Carter by almost 10 points in OTL. If anything, the Paul campaign might drain some supporters from John Anderson's campaign that year.
 
While I can believe that McCarthy as a private citizen would endorse a Libertarian candidate, maybe make the odd speech on his behalf here and there, I'm wondering if he could really defend the Libertarian platform consistently over the course of an election campaign. Weren't his economic views fairly left-wing or at least New Dealish? I thought he was associated with Commonweal, the liberal Catholic magazine.

Or were Libertarian campaigns in those days such torpid affairs that he wouldn't even really have to campaign?
 
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While I can believe that McCarthy as a private citizen would endorse a Libertarian candidate, maybe make the odd speech on his behalf here and there, I'm wondering if he could really defend the Libertarian platform consistently over the course of an election campaign. Weren't his economic views fairly left-wing or at least New Dealish? I thought he was associated with Commonweal, the liberal Catholic magazine.

Or were Libertarian campaigns in those days such torpid affairs that he wouldn't even really have to campaign?

McCarthy's politics were fairly odd. He was a strong civil libertarian, an anti-war type, and was a plaintiff in Buckley v Valeo (the case against campaign finance limits). He was pretty against the two-party system more generally. My impression is it was the libertarian aspects about him that everybody knew him for.

The Clark-Koch ticket had money to run ads, so I imagine there'd be some actual campaigning.
 
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