[Borodog]

Several years ago. I got 14% of the vote. Trip report is that I learned that the system is rigged.

If I had not run, the incumbant Democrat would have run unopposed, because the Republicans generally do not bother to run against Democrats in their districts, and vice versa. In my state, there are literally hundreds and hundreds of races that are unopposed, because the districts are completely gerrymandered. Almost every seat is secure. Rarely a state legislator will do something particularly egregious and either be sent to prison or actually get defeated in an election, but the latter is rare.

Libertarians are excluded from state wide debates by the duopoly candidates. They tell whatever group is sponsoring the debate that they will simply not show up if the Libertarian candidate is invited, and since the group knows that without the major party candidates there is no debate, they acquiesce.

Not to mention that reporters honestly seem to get a perverse pleasure in making Libertarians sound crazy. "Libertarian Nut Wants to Get Rid of the People Who Feed Me My Press Releases" is what the headlines should really read. I cannot tell you the number of times I saw reporters talk to a Libertarian candidate for 15 or 20 minutes solid, waiting for that one quote of one half of one single sentence out of context like ". . . we should legalize heroin . . . " or some such.