Libertarian Party membership applications double after Trump becomes GOP nominee
By ASHE SCHOW
5/4/16 2:29 PM
In the hours after the polls closed in Indiana and it was announced that businessman Donald Trump had won the Republican presidential primary — thereby ending Texas Sen. Ted Cruz's campaign — the Libertarian Party saw a doubling of its new membership applications.
Between 7 p.m. Tuesday evening and noon on Wednesday, the Libertarian Party received 99 new memberships. For the same time period a day earlier, the LP received only 46 new memberships.
In an email to the Washington Examiner, LP Executive Director Wes Benedict said he was unaware of any social media efforts by the party to recruit new members, and believed the increase was in response to Trump becoming the clear Republican nominee.
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Benedict also provided the Examiner with the LP's official membership report through the month of April, showing a drastic increase in new donors as the primaries started and it became increasingly clear that Trump would be the nominee. In April 2015 (an off year), the LP signed up only 106 new donors. From April 2015 through January 2016, the LP averaged 114 new donors per month.
But in February 2016, after Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina held their caucuses and primaries, the LP saw 323 new donors. In March they had 546 new donors, and in April, after everyone but Trump, Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich had dropped out, the LP signed up 706 new donors.
In the same period in 2012, the LP actually saw a slight decrease in the number of new donors per month, and the party didn't see large increases until July of that year.
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