Jeremy "Spike" Cohen
About 100 people gathered at the Capitol Campus Monday afternoon to hear Jeremy "Spike" Cohen, the running mate of 2020 Libertarian party presidential nominee, Jo Jorgensen.
Monday's gathering concluded a multi-state bus tour for the vice presidential nominee.
After hearing from local members of the party, including Allen Acosta, who was recently a District 22 candidate for the state House of Representatives, Cohen took the megaphone and hammered home some themes the party is known for, including limited government and individual liberty.
As part of that message he took aim at the Democrats and Republicans, saying the two political parties have taken away the people's power, freedom and money and given it to themselves, which has led to harmful, abusive and inequitable outcomes.
"We as Libertarians recognize that we thrive and prosper when we are given our control, our power, our freedom and money back and the barriers that are put in place to make that harder are removed," he said.
After Cohen spoke, he fielded questions from the audience.
Those who attended on Monday included Ken Hopkins of Oak Harbor and Dan Turner of Burlington, both of whom were motivated to drive to Olympia to hear Cohen speak
Hopkins, 27, said he was attending his first-ever political rally.
He's voting Libertarian in the fall because he feels the Democrats and Republicans have mismanaged the country at every level, Hopkins said.
He said he wants to see the U.S. deficit addressed and he wants gun rights restored to the people.
"Voting for the lesser of two evils is not a great choice, and I genuinely feel that Jorgensen is a better candidate than either Trump or Biden," Hopkins said.
Hopkins said president Donald Trump has "sown a lot of disconnect," and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden doesn't listen to the electorate. He also noted that both have been accused of sexual misconduct.
"It doesn't mean they did it," he said about those allegations, "but I'm of a mind that where there's smoke, there's some fire."
Jorgensen and Cohen are scandal-free, clean candidates, Hopkins said.
Dan Turner, 42, said he is voting for the first time in his life because of the Jorgensen-Cohen ticket.
He said they speak to the values that he likes, including limited government and personal responsibility.
"I don't hear that anymore in politics at all," he said. Instead, it's " let's stay in power and tell people what they want to hear."
And the Libertarian party hits all the right buttons when it comes to military intervention, the war on drugs, mass incarceration and immigration, which Turner agrees needs to either change, or see the U.S. withdraw from or end.
"I think they're great candidates," he said about Jorgensen and Cohen.
