Libertarian Party of Texas
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The Libertarian Party of Texas
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| Chairperson | John Wilford |
| Senate leader | None |
| House leader | None |
| Founded | 1971 |
| Headquarters | 111 Congress Ave Suite 400, Austin, Texas 78701 |
| Ideology | Libertarianism |
| National affiliation | Libertarian Party (United States) |
| Colors | Gold (PMS [1]) and Blue (PMS [2]) |
| Website | |
| www.lptexas.org | |
The Libertarian Party of Texas is the state affiliate of the Libertarian Party in Texas, USA. The state chair is John Wilford. Former Texas State Chair Geoff Neale (1998-2002) was Chairman of the Libertarian National Committee from 2002-2004, and 2012-2014.
In 1971, Texas was one of the 13 original founding state parties at the first LP convention in Denver, Colorado. Over the next five years, county affiliate parties were founded in Travis, Harris, Dallas, and Bexar counties.
In February 1980, Charles Fuller of Houston becomes the first Texas libertarian to appear on the ballot as a Libertarian Party candidate. (Previous candidates ran for write-in votes or as independents.) Fuller ran in a Special Election for State Representative District 80.
The party first qualified for statewide ballot access in 1980, and then again on September 1, 1982 with 41,000 petition signatures. The party ran 122 candidates that November. Legal issues making signature collection more difficult prevented the party from achieving ballot access in 1984, but it was able to collect the required 32,000 signatures in 1986 to once again make it on the ballot. Three statewide candidates achieved at least 5% of the vote that November, automatically granting the party ballot access for 1988.
In the 1990 statewide elections, gubernatorial candidate Jeff Daiell achieved 3.34% of the vote (129,128) and Comptroller candidate Gill Grisham received 5.8%, guaranteeing ballot access through 1994. Mr. Daiell's showing is still the LP of Texas record in a gubernatorial race.
On March 9, 1998, U.S. District Judge James Nowlin stopped the State of Texas from requiring voter registration numbers alongside ballot access petition signatures in Pilcher v. Rains, brought by the Libertarian Party of Texas. In every election since except that of 2002, at least one of the party's candidates achieved 5% of the vote, guaranteeing ballot access. In May 2004 the party easily met the state's signature requirement.
In the November 2006 elections, the party ran 168 candidates, and easily secured ballot access for 2008 in two-way races for state judicial positions, with the highest vote total going to Jerry Adkins for Supreme Court Place 4: 830,331 votes, or 24.5%.
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