Jo Jorjensen
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Jo Jorgensen |
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Personal details |
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Born |
Joanne Marie Jorgensen
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Political party |
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Education |
Baylor University (BS) |
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Joanne Marie Jorgensen (born May 1, 1957) is an American academic and libertarian political
activist. Jorgensen is the Libertarian
Party's nominee for president
of the United States in the 2020
election.[1] She was previously the party's nominee
for vice
president in the 1996 U.S.
presidential election as the running mate of Harry Browne.[2] She was also the Libertarian nominee
for South
Carolina's 4th congressional district in 1992, receiving 4,286 votes, or 2.2%.
Early
life and career
Jorgensen was born in Libertyville, Illinois,
and raised in neighboring Grayslake. She
is an alumna of Grayslake
Central High School.[3] Her grandparents were Danish immigrants.
Jorgensen received a B.S. in Psychology at Baylor University in 1979 followed by a Master's
in Administration from Southern
Methodist University in 1980. She began her career at IBM working
with computer systems, leaving there to become part owner and President of
Digitech, Inc.[4] She received a Ph.D. in Industrial
and Organizational Psychology from Clemson University in
2002.[5] She has taught full-time since 2006 as
a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Clemson University, a public, land-grant university in Clemson, South Carolina.[6][7]
Electoral history
1992 U.S. House of Representatives campaign
The first office for which Jorgensen ran
was the 1992 United States House of Representatives election.
She ran as a Libertarian to represent SC-4, in northwest South Carolina,
against incumbent Democrat Liz J. Patterson and Republican Bob Inglis. Jorgensen placed third with 2.2% of the
total vote.
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South Carolina's 4th Congressional District
Election Results, 1992 |
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Party |
Candidate |
Votes |
% |
± |
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99,879 |
50.3 |
+11.9 |
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Liz J. Patterson (incumbent) |
94,182 |
47.5 |
-13.9 |
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Jo Jorgensen |
4,286 |
2.2 |
+2.2 |
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Majority |
5,697 |
2.8 |
-20.2 |
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198,410 |
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Republican gain from Democratic |
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1996 vice-presidential campaign
See
also: 1996
Libertarian National Convention
Prior to the 1996
United States presidential election, the Libertarian Party nominated
Jorgensen to be the vice-presidential running mate of author Harry Browne. Jorgensen was nominated on the first
ballot with 92 percent of the vote.[8][9] She participated in a
vice-presidential debate televised nationwide by C-SPAN on October 22, along with Herbert Titus of the Taxpayers Party and Mike Tompkins of the Natural Law Party.[10]
Browne and Jorgensen, who were on the
ballot in all 50 states and D.C., received 485,759 total votes, which placed
them in fifth place with 0.5% of the popular vote. At the time, this was the
Libertarian Party's best performance since 1980.
2020 presidential campaign
Main
article: Jo
Jorgensen 2020 presidential campaign
Further
information: 2020
United States presidential election § Nominee, 2020
Libertarian Party presidential primaries, and 2020
Libertarian National Convention
On August 13, 2019, Jorgensen filed with
the FEC to run
for the Libertarian
presidential nomination in the 2020
election.[11]She formally launched her campaign at the
November 2, 2019 Libertarian
Party of South Carolina convention, before participating in the official
South Carolina Libertarian presidential debate the same day.[12]
In the non-binding Libertarian primaries, Jorgensen was second in the
cumulative popular vote, winning two of the 12 primaries.
On May 23, 2020, Jorgensen became the
official Libertarian presidential nominee, making her the first woman to become
the Libertarian nominee and the only female 2020 presidential candidate with
ballot access to over 270 electoral votes. Spike Cohen was nominated to be Jorgensen's vice
president; Cohen is a mostly unknown figure in mainstream politics.[13][14] That same day, Jorgensen's supporters
repurposed Hillary Clinton's
unofficial 2016 campaign slogan, "I'm With Her". The slogan trended
on Twitter that night and made national headlines.[15] She has registered negligible support
in polling.[16]
Political positions
Jorgensen supports a free-market healthcare system
financed by providing individuals with a spending account and allowing
individuals to keep any savings, which she believes would create an increased
incentive for healthcare providers to compete by meeting consumer demand for
low cost services.[17][18][19] She opposes single-payer healthcare,
calling it "disastrous."[19]
Jorgensen supports replacing the Social
Security system with individual retirement accounts.[20] In the final debate of the primaries,
candidate Jacob Hornberger accused
Jorgensen of "support[ing] the welfare state through Social
Security and Medicare";
In response, Jorgensen called Social Security a "Ponzi scheme" and said that she would allow
people to opt-out of the program on her first day in office. However, she
emphasized the constitutional inability
of a president to unilaterally end the program without the support of Congress, as
well as the need for the government to fulfill existing Social Security obligations.[21][22] Under Jorgensen's plan, those who opt
out would direct 6.2% of their future payroll taxes in individual retirement
accounts and receive prorated Social Security benefits for existing
contributions as zero-coupon bonds for
retirement.[23]
Criminal justice and drug policy
Jorgensen opposes federal
civil asset forfeiture and qualified immunity.[24] Jorgensen opposes the war on drugs and supports abolishing drug laws,
promising to pardon all nonviolent drug offenders.[25] She has urged the de-militarization of police.[26]
Foreign policy and defense
Jorgensen opposes embargoes, economic sanctions,
and foreign aid; she supports non-interventionism, armed neutrality, and the withdrawal of U.S. troops
from abroad.[27][28][24][29]
Immigration,
economics, and trade
Jorgensen calls for deregulation, arguing that it would reduce poverty.[30] She supports cutting government
spending to reduce taxes.[31]
Jorgensen supports the freedom of American
citizens to travel and trade, calls for the elimination of trade barriers and tariffs, and supports the
repeal of quotas on the number of people who can legally enter the United
States to work, visit, or reside.[32] In a Libertarian presidential primary
debate, Jorgensen said she would immediately stop construction on
President Donald Trump's border wall. During another primary debate she blamed
anti-immigration sentiment on disproportionate media coverage of crimes by
immigrants. She argued that immigration helps the economy and that the blending
of cultures is beneficial.[33][34][35][36]
COVID-19
Jorgensen has characterized the U.S.
government's response to the COVID-19
pandemic as overly bureaucratic and authoritarian, calling
restrictions on individual behavior (such as stay-at-home orders)
and corporate bailouts "the
biggest assault on our liberties in our lifetime".[18][33][37]
Personal life
Jorgensen is married and has two adult
daughters and a grandson.
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