Gary Johnson Announces Presidential Bid; Challenges Two-Party Control of Debates

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Former governor of New Mexico and 2012 Libertarian presidential nominee for president, Gary Johnson, announced his candidacy for president Wednesday. Johnson made the announcement via Neil Cavuto's show on Fox Business, saying, "I'm hoping to get the Libertarian nomination for president in 2016."

During his announcement, Johnson highlighted his platform priorities, which include:

• Reducing the $20 trillion national debt;
• Increasing personal freedom;
• Reducing the size and scope of government;
• Being fiscally conservative and socially liberal; and
• Protecting the freedom of religion while cutting off funding for the politics of Sharia law.

Johnson has been very vocal about the lack of competition in the presidential election process. He's previously argued that the Commission on Presidential Debates has purposely written the rules to exclude all candidates who are neither Republican nor Democrat:

"We've sued the Presidential Debate Commission" said Johnson during his announcement. "The notion that if you're on the ballot in enough states to mathematically be elected president  you should be included in the presidential debates. If the Libertarian nominee for president, and I hope that's me, is in the presidential debates, I think that a lot of things can change in this country."

When prodded by Cavuto as to whether or not a Gary Johnson candidacy might "hurt" the eventual republican nominee, Johnson rebuffed saying, "I think a lot of people hold to that belief, but in fact, that's not the case at all. When it comes to Libertarians, Libertarians draw as many votes from Democrats as they do from Republicans."

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