Ken Krawchuk at the podium
Robert Milnes
Andre Barnett
Last month I contacted the Libertarian Party of Pennsylvania’s two time gubernatorial nominee Ken Krawchuk about footage of a January 2012 debate he moderated in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. The debate, sponsored by Democracy Unplugged, interested me because it featured Libertarian presidential candidate Robert Milnes of New Jersey. At the time, no publicly accessible videos of Milnes were known to exist. Following my request, Krawchuk posted video of the two hour-long debate to YouTube, enabling me and other viewers to see footage of Milnes for the first time.
Milnes is a current 2016 candidate for President of the United States. Despite suffering from depression and poverty, he sought the Boston Tea Party, Libertarian Party, and Green Party’s presidential nominations in 2008 and 2012. His greatest showing came in the 2008 California Libertarian primary, where he received 721 votes for 4.28 percent of the total.
Milnes considers himself a progressive in the mold of Theodore Roosevelt. He believes he could win election if a libertarian woman agrees to be his running mate. According to Milnes, this ticket would draw support from the pool of libertarian and progressive voters to gain a plurality victory on Election Day. He discusses this plan in the debate video below.
Other participants in the debate included:
- Write-in presidential candidate Jeff Siggins of Delaware
- Independent presidential candidate (and later Reform Party presidential nominee) Andre Barnett of New York
- Party for Socialism and Liberation vice presidential nominee Yari Osorio of New York
- Democratic Party presidential candidate Leah Lax of Pennsylvania
