The Geography of Libertarianism

Recently, Libertarianism has been gaining support as a third party throughout America. In the 2012 election, the Libertarian party nominated Gary Johnson who garnered over 1.2 million votes. Libertarians generally are fiscal conservatives and social liberals. Libertarians advocate for individual liberties. For example, many libertarians believe that the government does not have the right to define marriage but individual businesses have the right to deny service to homosexual couples on the basis of religious beliefs. Other important issues to libertarians often include states rights, free trade, legalization or decriminalization of marijuana, open immigration, and non-intervention.

To show where libertarianism is the strongest, we have created a map showing the relative percentage of voters who voted for Gary Johnson in the 2012 presidential election. Johnson did not appear on the ballot in Oklahoma, and he was a write-in candidate in Michigan.