Maggie Helveston is running as the Libertarian Party's candidate in the Alabama State House District 94 contest against Republican Jennifer Fidler. Helveston last ran for public office in 1990, when she was the Libertarian Party's nominee in the New York State Attorney General's race. (supplied photo).

Jennifer Fidler assumed she had won the Alabama State House District 94 seat after she unseated five-term incumbent Rep. Joe Faust during the May 24 Republican Party primary.

No Democratic opponent was on the ballot, and the potential of a write-in candidate remains remote.

“I put it out there on Facebook thanking (supporters) for electing me,” said Fidler. “But I found out immediately that I have an opponent. So, I’m fundraising … another six to 12 weeks, and I will be talking to more folks.”

Her opponent is Maggie Helveston, a 70-year-old retired attorney and nurse who moved to Fairhope six years ago from upstate New York.

She’s also a member of the Alabama Libertarian Party, which returns to the statewide general election ballot for the first time in 20 years.

“I am providing a choice for the voters,” said Helveston, of Fairhope, who is running in her first election since running as the Libertarian candidate for New York Attorney General in 1990.

“The Democrats didn’t even bother to put anyone up for this seat,” he said. “This is the opportunity to vote for someone different. Libertarians are not Republicans or Democrats.”

Indeed, the political party that emphasizes free market ideals, and pushes back against government intrusion and overregulation, is back in Alabama and in a big way.

After securing well over the 51,588 signatures required to gain statewide ballot access this year, party leaders are hopeful they will get one – if not, more – of their candidates who are running for statewide office to receive more than 20% of the vote so their party can return to the ballot in 2024.

Gavin Goodman, a 32-year-old Huntsville resident who is running against incumbent U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell in the Alabama Congressional District 7 race, said that 65 candidates are running during the November 8 election. That includes candidates for the major statewide contests, along with Libertarians seeking Alabama State Senate and House seats, and a couple of sheriff’s and county commission contests.

“It’s about taking it one day at a time,” said Goodman, when asked about the party’s campaign strategy and how best to utilize its limited resources. “We are not looking at just this election cycle, but the next five election cycles. The midterms are important, absolutely. But I want to see us retain ballot access.”

The strategy is simple enough, and all it takes is for one of the Libertarians competing in a statewide contest to garner more than 20% to allow the party to continue with its ballot access.

Libertarian candidates are hoping their candidates can achieve that percentage in some of the races where there is only one Republican, and no Democratic choices, on the ballot. The possibilities include Lieutenant Governor, Commissioner of Agriculture and Industries, Auditor, Treasurer, and Public Service Commission (Places 1 and 2).

Dr. Jimmy Blake, a retired physician living along the Black Warrior River, is running as the Libertarian Party's candidate for governor in 2022. It's the first time the former Birmingham City Councilman has run for public office in over 20 years. (supplied photo).

“If people in Alabama want options, vote for a Libertarian and help us stay on the ballot,” said Dr. Jimmy Blake, a former member of the Birmingham City Council who is running in his first political contest in over 20 years.

At 71 and retired and living along the Black Warrior River, Blake was asked to run for governor against incumbent Republican Gov. Kay Ivey – the heavy favorite to win re-election – and Democratic challenger Yolanda Flowers.

But he said he’s hopeful his name ID while serving in Birmingham will help boost Ruth Page-Nelson of Dothan, who is running against Republican incumbent Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth, and who is looking to eclipse the 20% threshold needed to return to the ballot in two years.

“That is our goal,” he said about Libertarians receiving at least 20% in one of the statewide races. “I think you will find that is the primary goal.”

Blake said that an overwhelming majority, or about 50 of the Libertarian candidates, have entered races where there is only one candidate on the general election ballot.

“That should tell you what the Legislature has done,” he said. “They have made it where each district in Alabama is either Republican or Democratic. The Libertarians are tossing a monkey wrench in it.”

It will be a difficult lift for the Libertarians to achieve the 20% vote, much less attempt to win one of its races.

Alabama is considered among the most restrictive states for third-party ballot access, according to FairVote, a nonprofit organization that pushes for electoral reforms. Another challenge for Libertarians is that Alabama is one of only six states that allows for straight party voting, which means a voter can select an entire party’s slate of candidates with just a single ballot mark.

If the Libertarian Party does not achieve 20% in any of the statewide races, it will be back to the drawing board for gathering the tens of thousands of petitions and verifying signatures, much like it did to get placement on the ballot this year.

Goodman said he remains hopeful the party can pick off a lower-level contest, though even that will be an uphill climb in Alabama.

The state is considered one of the most Republican states in the U.S., and one of the country’s most inelastic – a term that suggest Alabama’s voters are consistent, and do not ebb and flow with the national mood. It is where most voters are either Black (reliably Democratic) or evangelical white (reliably Republican).

Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill, however, said the Libertarian Party’s accomplishment of gathering about 80,000 signatures symbolized a political party that is “very committed, energetic and passionate” when it comes to its candidates.

The party’s return also comes at a time when Americans are tiring of the two-party system that has dominated American politics for more than a century.

The frustration over the parties is building as polarization continues to dominate political discourse, media, and cultural debates. The Pew Research Center, in a recent survey, found the share of voters with an unfavorable view of Republicans and Democrats growing from 6% in 1994 to 27% today.

“I think one could interpret a larger number of third-party candidates as at least the expectation that voters are looking for alternatives,” said Regina Wagner, associate professor of political science at the University of Alabama. “This seems unlikely to lead many elected third-party candidates though because of electoral rules … as well as strong attachment to the two major parties among the electorate.”

Efforts are slowly trickling to break through the duopoly. The “Forward Party,” a third-party encouraging more moderate politics and candidates, was recently formed by Andrew Yang, former Democratic nominee for president, and Christine Todd Whitman, a former GOP governor of New Jersey.

On TV, the channel NewsNation is attempting to market itself as an alternative to the political partisanship of the major channels – Fox News, MSNBC, and CNN.

Capri Cafaro, a political science professor at American University in Washington, D.C., said the timing is ripe for third-party conversations to be “fertile” ahead of a midterm election, and at a time when “more extreme elements of each party” is winning congressional races due to gerrymandering.

“It reflects there is a desire for an alternative and a frustration that most Americans know exists,” she said.

John Sophocleus of Lee County is the Libertarian Party's candidate for U.S. Senate in 2022. Sophocleus ran for Alabama governor in 2002, and received enough votes to make a difference in the outcome of a razor-thin contest between incumbent Democratic Gov. Don Siegelman and Republican Bob Riley. (supplied photo).

Alabama rarely sees a third party stir the electorate.

Even its own politicians, when running as a third-party candidate, did so during a national contest.

George Wallace, who served as a Democratic governor during most of his tenure in Alabama politics, ran as a member of the far-right American Independent Party during the 1968 presidential election and he carried five states, including Alabama.

Wayne Flynt, an Alabama state political historian and a professor emeritus of Auburn University, said the only true historical third-party force in Alabama history was the Populist or People’s Party in the late 19th century.

The Populists won two congressional elections in 1894 and would have won the governor’s race had Democrats not manipulated vote counts in the state’s Black Belt. Six years later, the party had disintegrated and ceased to exist.

Flynt said that party “scared the heck out of Democrats because its reforms represented Black/white (Republican/Democrat) insurgency which threated the so-called ‘Big Mule’ hegemony for one of the few times in Alabama history.”

Phillip Rawls, a former longtime Alabama journalist with The Associated Press, said the only third-party with success in Alabama that he can recall in more modern times was the National Democratic Party. The party was headed by the late Dr. John Cashion, a dentist and civil rights campaigner who was the first Black candidate for governor since Reconstruction when he challenged Wallace in 1970. The party, with Cashion leading it, had success with Black candidates at the county level in west Alabama in 1968, Rawls said. It disbanded in 1976.

John Sophocleus, the Libertarian candidate for governor, talks to reporter Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2002 at his home in Beauregard, Ala. Twenty years later, Sophocleus is back on the Alabama ballots, this time running for the U.S. Senate. (File photo)

The Libertarian Party’s last foray in Alabama politics included the role of spoiler. In 2002, John Sophocleus ran as the Libertarian Party’s candidate for governor against then-incumbent Democratic Gov. Don Siegelman and Republican Bob Riley.

Sophocleus received 23,272 votes, or enough votes to have made a difference in a razor-thin margin that saw Riley win by 3,100 votes.

Siegelman has long said election count chicanery in Baldwin County led to his loss in 2002, and he does not believe Sophocleus affected the outcome.

Related: ‘Stop the Steal’: Election fraud claims revive memories of Alabama’s 2002 governor’s race

“It is possible that if he had not been on the ballot that those votes, or enough of those votes, would have come to me,” Siegelman said to AL.com last week. “But I think Riley could argue with as much credibility that the votes might’ve gone to him. I don’t know. We don’t know which party it helps or hurts.”

Sophocleus, 60, of Beauregard in Lee County, is now running for the U.S. Senate against Republican favorite Katie Britt and Democratic opponent Will Boyd.

“I’m running to bring credibility to the Libertarian ticket,” said Sophocleus, who taught for decades at Auburn University, Auburn University Montgomery, and Clemson University. “I’m a former candidate, wrote for a dozen years with the Alabama Gazette, and I used to correspond with (former U.S. House Majority Leader) Dick Armey on the tax code. Do you think Katie Britt wants to debate someone like me?”

Gavin Goodman is the Libertarian Party's candidate in the U.S. Congressional District 7 contest against incumbent U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell. Goodman, of Huntsville, is also the Alabama Libertarian Party chairman. (supplied photo)

So, who are the Libertarians and what do they stand for?

The party wants government to defend individual rights, but to stay removed from decision-making on major issues.

It’s a party that supports the legalization of marijuana and wants to see an end to what it calls the failed “War on Drugs;” seeks to promote peace through trade and diplomacy rather than nation-building; champions civil liberties and personal privacy; and backs an easier pathway toward citizenship.

It differs from the Republican Part in Alabama on several issues, but most notable is the view on abortion. While most Libertarians do not support abortion, they do not want the government regulating choice.

“When you create a law against it, you are creating a prohibition which empowers cartels and dangerous organizations that don’t necessarily agree with your ultimate goal,” said Goodman. “Prohibition tends to lead to more criminality.”

Blake said he believes most Libertarians are anti-abortion, but not in the same way as conservative evangelical Republicans.

“Our view is the only proper role of government is to protect the individual pursuit of life, liberty and property,” said Blake.

He said that if he won the governor’s job, he would take an oath to uphold the Alabama Constitution. The state currently outlaws abortion unless a pregnancy endangers the health of a mother.

“It’s up to the people of Alabama and their elected representatives on what we do in Alabama,” Blake said. “Right now, it’s very restrictive. I do think there are a significant number of people who would make an exemption from (the abortion ban) in cases of rape or incest.”

The Libertarian Party aligns closely with Republicans on some cultural issues, namely gun rights. But party officials are troubled with what they believe is GOP in Alabama that appears more supportive in maintaining the status quo on taxes at a time when other states are looking to make tax cuts.

Blake said the state should consider cutting its income tax. In 2021 and 2022, 21 states have enacted reductions to their individual income tax rates or reduced the number of income tax brackets. Another 11 states have reduced their corporate tax structure.

“Florida doesn’t have an income tax and Mississippi is phasing out the income tax,” Blake said. “No one is talking about cutting taxes in Alabama. Kay Ivey pushed and increased the gas tax. I think there is an opening for small government (approaches) to taxes.”

He added, “We are governmental minimalists.”

The party also holds some positions that might not align to most of the state, including its position of decriminalizing prostitution.

Blake said Libertarians apply their personal freedom message throughout their platform even if, personally, they do not support activities like prostitution.

“The bottom line, we don’t want to legislate what people do,” he said.

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