2012 presidential campaign of Gary Johnson , the 29th Governor of New Mexico , was announced on April 21 , 2011 . He declared his candidacy for the 2012 Republican Party nomination for President of the United States . On December 28 , 2011 , Johnson withdrew his candidacy for the Republican nomination , and declared his candidacy for the 2012 presidential nomination of the Libertarian Party . The 2012 Libertarian National Convention was held during the first weekend of May 2012 . On May 5 , 2012 , after promoting his libertarian-oriented political positions to delegates , Johnson received the most votes at the convention and became the official 2012 Libertarian presidential nominee . On November 6 , 2012 , Johnson received just under 1 % of the popular vote in the general election , amounting to more than 1.2 million votes , more than double what the Barr/Root ticket received in 2008 . This was the most successful result for a third-party presidential candidacy since 2000 , and the best in the Libertarian Party 's history by vote number at the time . Johnson ran again in 2016 and received nearly four times his 2012 vote total
2012 Libertarian National Convention
2012 Libertarian National Convention
Gary Johnson 2012 presidential campaign