Edward E. Clark (born May 4, 1930) is an American lawyer and politician who ran for governor of California in 1978, and for president of the United States as the nominee of the Libertarian Party in the 1980 presidential election.

[2] He was in active service in the United States Navy from 1952 to 1954, as a lieutenant (junior grade), and was a reservist until 1965.

[1][3][4] Once a liberal Republican, he joined the Libertarian Party following President Richard Nixon's imposition of wage and price controls in 1971.

During the campaign, Clark positioned himself as a peace candidate and emphasized both large budget and tax cuts, as well as outreach to liberals and progressives unhappy with the resumption of Selective Service registration and the arms race with the Soviet Union.

[16] Ed Clark's running mate in 1980 was David H. Koch of Koch Industries,[17] who pledged part of his personal fortune to the campaign for the vice-presidential nomination, enabling the Clark/Koch ticket to largely self-fund and run national television advertising.

[19] Clark's record for most votes won by a Libertarian presidential candidate stood for 32 years until it was broken by Gary Johnson in 2012.