The 2016 presidential campaign of Gary Johnson, the 29th Governor of New Mexico, was announced on January 6, 2016, for the nomination of the Libertarian Party (or LP) for President of the United States.

[11][12][13][14] Johnson took a moderate position in a debate field of more hardline libertarian candidates, which led to an occasionally hostile reception from the audience when he spoke up in favor of certain government programs and regulations, including a moment that gained viral notoriety where he was booed for expressing support for testing and licensing drivers.

[27][28][29] In early May, some commentators opined that Johnson was moderate enough to pull votes away from both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump who are very disliked and polarizing.

[36] Beginning on August 12, a pro-Johnson political action committee, America Deserves Better PAC, began running television ads in Maine.

[38] In August, Johnson's poll numbers began to approach the 15% threshold necessary to make him the first third-party candidate in recent history to participate in the broadcast, fall presidential debates.

[44] The campaign held events in Burlington Vermont, Concord, New Hampshire, Lewiston, Maine, where pro-Johnson super-PAC ads were being aired, and Boston, Massachusetts, home of Bill Weld.

"[57] During a CNBC town hall television broadcast on September 28, Johnson was asked by moderator Chris Matthews, "Who's your favorite foreign leader?"

[66] Of the states which conducted a non-binding Libertarian presidential primary, Johnson won in North Carolina, Nebraska, and in the Minnesota caucuses.

[67][68][69][70] In late September 2016, Johnson's support was placed at 8.6% by the RealClearPolitics average of presidential polls and at 7.9% by the FiveThirtyEight polls-only forecasting model.

[78] On August 5, the editorial board of the Chicago Tribune called on polling organizations to "acknowledge" Johnson, giving him an opportunity to garner the necessary level of support to participate in the presidential debates.

[81] Former Governors Mitt Romney, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Mitch Daniels, without endorsing Johnson, called for him to be in the debates,[82][83][84] as did commentator Joseph Steinberg.

[86][87] It was also announced that Mike Pence and Tim Kaine would be participating in the only scheduled vice presidential debate, to take place at Longwood University on October 4, and Weld did not reach the cutoff.

[88][89][90][91][92] According to journalist Brian Doherty, editor of Reason magazine, the project is intended to appeal to voters who, "while disliking both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, didn't want to feel that their third party vote helped make the one they hated more win.

[93] Dead Abe Lincoln goes on to promote Johnson as a candidate, pointing out that he was popular as the Republican Governor of a Democratic state where he reduced taxes and that he wants to protect personal privacy.

May 18, Johnson told the Associated Press that his campaign had just $35,000 in the bank at the end of March, and that he hoped his newly announced running mate, Gov.

"[99]Talking with reporters at the 2016 Democratic National Convention, William Weld stated that he believed that some very large potential donors were waiting to see Johnson hit 15% in the polls before they donated to the campaign.

The group was reported to have reserved nearly $62,000 worth of TV time in the Bangor and Presque Isle markets (including ad-buys on WAGM and WVII totaling more than $20,000 as well as cable ads).

[119][120] Shortly after Johnson secured the party nomination, Cato Institute founder Ed Crane announced that he would be rebooting "Purple PAC", a super-PAC that had previously supported Rand Paul’s presidential campaign, to serve as a pro-Johnson organization.

[122] June 12, 2016 The Boston Globe reported on Socially Liberal and Fiscally Conservative PAC, a newly founded SuperPAC that would both assist in the campaign's fundraising efforts and make ad-buys in the future.

[126][127][128][129] Conservative magazine National Review stated that "if the presidential debates wind up convincing many voters that both Trump and Hillary are unacceptable, then Johnson's support could stabilize or even rise.

"[130] The Washington Post editorial board wrote in an article named "Do Gary Johnson supporters really want to help Trump win?

Does Mr. Johnson's running mate, former Massachusetts governor William Weld, who is much sharper, really want to help Donald Trump win – and be remembered as the Ralph Nader of 2016?

[128]When The Nation endorsed Hillary Clinton for president, the magazine's staff expressed while they respect the challenge third parties have raised to a frequently dysfunctional two-party system, 2016 was not an ordinary election as in an ordinary election strategic voting only requires swing-state voters to choose between "the lesser of two evils", so it was needed to reconsider the balance between expressing their own disgust and diminishing the size of Trump's repudiation.

[131] Michael Tomasky for The Daily Beast weighted the contradictions of "the libertarian live-and-let-live credo" stating that it doesn't apply "just to young people who'd like to blow a doob in a public park", but also to polluting corporations, corporations and individuals who want to make unlimited dark money contributions to political campaigns, the forces pushing free trade, employers who don't want to be nickel-and-dimed over paying their workers a minimum wage, gun manufacturers, and the National Rifle Association of America.

[133] Given the circumstances, the Clinton campaign and Democratic allies stated they were taking the threat from Johnson seriously, making direct appeals to young voters and punching down at the third-party candidates they view as potential spoilers.

[52] The 2016 election results made analysts focus on four states in which Trump's lead over Clinton was less than Johnson's total number of votes: Florida, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan; for instance, analysts also expressed if about half of Johnson's supporters would have voted for Clinton over Trump, the electoral map would have been decidedly different.

[137] Vanity Fair expressed in an article: "Millions of Americans, dissatisfied with both candidates and unwilling to choose between the lesser of two evils, registered their protest by voting for Gary Johnson or Jill Stein, helping hand a number of critical swing states, and the presidency, to Donald Trump.

[144] Johnson's supporters heavily skewed young, with 70% of them being under 50, and many of them Republican-leaning and holding a bachelor's degree or higher; however, he was deeply unpopular with very conservative voters.

[145] On August 6, U.S. Representative Scott Rigell, Republican of Virginia, announced his support for Johnson, marking the candidate's first endorsement by a member of Congress.

[147] Johnson received the endorsement of the editorial boards of nine daily newspapers: the Chicago Tribune, the Detroit News, the New Hampshire Union Leader, the Winston-Salem Journal, and the Richmond Times-Dispatch.