Editing Ed Clark (section)

==1980 presidential campaign==
In 1979 Clark won the Libertarian Party presidential nomination at the party's convention in Los Angeles, California. He published a book on his programs, ''A New Beginning'', with an introduction by [[Eugene McCarthy]]. During the campaign, Clark positioned himself as a peace candidate and emphasized both large budget and tax cuts, as well as outreach to [[Modern liberalism in the United States|liberals]] and [[Progressivism in the United States|progressives]] unhappy with the resumption of [[Selective Service]] registration and the [[arms race]] with the [[Soviet Union]].<ref>See [http://www.icue.com/portal/site/iCue/chapter/?cuecard=5818 The "Ed Clark: Isolationist Libertarian" television ad]{{dead link|date=December 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes}}  and [http://www.icue.com/portal/site/iCue/chapter/?cuecard=3253 NBC's August 8, 1980 profile of the Libertarian Party]{{dead link|date=December 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes}}</ref> Clark was endorsed by the ''[[Peoria Journal Star]]'' of [[Peoria, Illinois]].<ref>Doherty, p. 414</ref>

When asked in a television interview to summarize [[Libertarianism in the United States|libertarianism]], Clark used the phrase "low-tax liberalism," causing some consternation among traditional libertarian theorists, most notably [[Murray Rothbard]].<ref>Doherty, p. 415</ref><ref>[[Justin Raimondo|Raimondo, Justin]]. ''An Enemy of the State: The Life of Murray N. Rothbard'', Prometheus Books</ref> Clark's running to the [[Centrism#United States|center]] marked the start of a split within the Libertarian Party between a moderate faction led by [[Ed Crane (political activist)|Ed Crane]] and a radical faction led by Rothbard<ref>[[Christopher Hayes (journalist)|Hayes, Christopher]]. "Ron Paul's Roots". ''The Nation'', December 6, 2007</ref> that eventually came to a head in 1983, with the moderate faction walking out of the party convention after the nomination for the 1984 presidential race went to [[David Bergland]].<ref>Doherty, pp. 418–421</ref>

Ed Clark's running mate in 1980 was [[David H. Koch]] of [[Koch Industries]],<ref>Leonard, Christopher. [https://archive.org/details/kochland-the-secret-history-of-koch-industries-and-corporate-power-in-america-ch/page/n18/mode/1up  Kochland: The Secret History of Koch Industries and Corporate Power in America, p. 2. Simon and Schuster, 2019.]</ref> who pledged part of his personal fortune to the campaign for the vice-presidential nomination, enabling the Clark/Koch ticket to largely self-fund and run national television advertising.

Clark received 921,128 votes (1.1% of the total nationwide);<ref>[http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/national.php?year=1980&off=0&f=1 1980 Presidential General Election Results], [[Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections]].</ref> the highest number and percentage of popular votes a Libertarian Party candidate had ever received in a presidential race up to that point. His strongest support was in [[Alaska]], where he came in third place with 11.7% of the vote, finishing ahead of [[Independent (politician)|independent]] candidate [[John B. Anderson|John Anderson]] and receiving almost half as many votes as [[Jimmy Carter]].<ref>[http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/state.php?year=1980&fips=2&f=1&off=0&elect=0 1980 Presidential General Election Results – Alaska], Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections.</ref> Clark's record for most votes won by a Libertarian presidential candidate stood for 32 years until it was broken by [[Gary Johnson]] in [[2012 United States presidential election|2012]].  His Libertarian vote percentage of 1.1% ranks 3rd behind Johnson's 3.3% showing in [[2016 United States presidential election|2016]] and [[Jo Jorgensen]]'s 1.2% performance in [[2020 United States presidential election|2020]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=486001|title=Our Campaigns – US President – Popular Vote Race |date= November 6, 2012|website=www.ourcampaigns.com}}</ref><ref>[http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/national.php?year=2012&off=0&elect=0&f=0 2012 Presidential General Election Results], Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections.</ref><ref>[http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/national.php 2016 Presidential General Election Results], Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections.</ref>