HELENA — Kaiser Leib of Helena says the reason he decided to run for Montana governor as a Libertarian candidate is simple – no one else was doing it.
“I think that this is a great platform to advocate for the principles of liberty,” he said. “It's not necessarily a great platform to get elected to office, but I think that it's important that voters have a choice that is not an authoritarian right-wing candidate or an authoritarian left-wing candidate.”
Leib, 37 years old, filed to run on the last day candidates could get into the race, just 90 minutes before the filing deadline closed. He says his lieutenant governor candidate, Matt Campbell, is a friend who was sitting with him when he decided to run.
Leib was born in Montana – which he says sets him apart from Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte and Democratic nominee Ryan Busse, both born out of state. He says he lived in the state for most of his life but spent several years in Arizona and California. He works as a software engineer, most recently for the company Laurel, and is also a standup comedian and organizer for comedy shows.
Leib says his biggest disagreements with Gianforte and Republicans come on social issues, where he believes they’ve made a “push against the freedoms to live the way that we want to live.” He says his biggest split with Busse and Democrats is on gun policy.
Leib believes services in Montana haven’t improved despite increases in property taxes. At the state level, he wants to see reductions in government spending and further tax cuts.
“This doesn't actually mean, at least to me, that we're trying to prevent the things that the government wants to be done from being done,” he said. “Kids ought to be educated; people ought to have health care – I just think that market solutions tend to be more effective at providing those things in the absence of state intervention.”
Leib says he thinks Montana voters generally don’t want government to interfere with their lives, and that puts them on the same page with Libertarians.
“I think the ideas themselves resonate very strongly with voters,” he said.
CANDIDATE INTERVIEWS
- Interview: Ryan Busse
- Interview: Greg Gianforte
- Interview: Kaiser Leib
He, like other Libertarian candidates, discounted the possibility that he’d serve as a spoiler for one party or the other.
“If the candidates from the Democrat Party or the Republican Party would prefer not to have their potential voters vote for us instead, they ought to adopt the principles of liberty,” he said.
Leib acknowledged the other candidates have a larger platform than he does, and said he’s had to look for other ways to get his message out.
“Mostly memes on Twitter,” he said.
“Is that getting people’s attention?” MTN asked him.
“No,” he responded. “It did for a little while.”
He said Campbell, a professional video producer and editor, is planning to put together a video ad for the campaign.
“We're going to try to get as many people as possible to at least know that we exist,” he said.
Regardless of how he does in this race, Leib says he believes Libertarians can play a role at the state level going forward, supporting priorities like the “Defend the Guard Act,” which seeks to prevent deploying National Guard troops abroad without an official declaration of war.
“The biggest thing is to get more people who believe in the principles of liberty involved in the ship of state,” he said. “That means the Libertarian Party, but that also means writing letters to your representatives, that means engaging with each other civilly to talk about what are the things that the government should not be doing to interfere with your life.”
The results of the governor’s race can have a big impact on third parties like the Libertarians. State law says, if any of a minor party’s statewide candidates receives at least 5% of the vote that the winning candidate for governor received, they’ll be guaranteed ballot access for the next two election cycles. Libertarians have maintained access for several decades by reaching that threshold.
