US presidential candidate Gary Johnson has won the Libertarian Party nomination. He is also the only major presidential candidate to accepting donations in Bitcoin.
May 29th at the Libertarian Party convention in Orlando, Florida, Johnson was chosen as the party’s nominee. He placed first on a first ballot vote, though with insufficient margins to win outright. On the second ballot, Johnson secured the nomination, edging out Austin Petersen and John McAffee, respectively.
According to the donation page on the Johnson campaign website, Bitcoin is mentioned among the accepted forms of donations.
Gary Johnson polling double-digits against Trump and Clinton
Recent polls, when Johnson was included, gave him double-digit numbers in the general presidential election. A poll by Monmouth University had him polling at 11% in the general election. Meanwhile, Republican nominee Donald Trump polled at 34%, while Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee, polled at 42%.
Johnson ran for president as the Libertarian nominee in 2012. He received only one percent of the national vote, or slightly over one million votes.
Johnson the only major candidate left accepting Bitcoin donations
Of the major candidates for president in the United States left running, Gary Johnson is the only one to accept Bitcoin donations for his campaign. Early last year, libertarian-leaning Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul, for a time the Republican frontrunner, became the first major presidential candidate to accept Bitcoin. However, Paul dropped out of the presidential race earlier this year, leaving Johnson as the only major candidate still in the race to accept Bitcoin.
A number of candidates for lower office have taken Bitcoin donations, particularly in New Hampshire. Darryl W. Perry, former Libertarian presidential campaign, famously accepted donations exclusively in cryptocurrency, precious metals, and other non-governmental stores of value.