Did the Libertarian Party blow it in 2016?

Still, measured against expectations—let alone the basic standard that successful political parties must win elections—the Libertarian Party had its most disappointing year ever.

“We wanted to win, and we didn’t achieve that goal,” Johnson’s campaign manager, Ron Nielson, acknowledged shortly after the election. “We were hoping to get into the presidential debate, and no matter how hard we tried we could not achieve that goal. After that our goal was to get 5 percent, and for the last 45 days we pushed toward that effort, which was entirely achievable but for the fact that the election came down to such a tight margin between Clinton and Trump. That put pressure on third-party support, and a lot of Johnson support moved in the end toward Trump, or possibly chose not to participate.”

While 3.28 percent marked an all-time high for the party, it was also just a third of the campaign’s highest polling average, which came in late July. All summer long Johnson had avoided the typical third-party fade, with such forecasters as FiveThirtyEight projecting a finish higher than 7 percent for months on end. But the plates came crashing down over the final eight weeks, prompting much anguish and fingerpointing among activists and supporters.

“The Libertarian Party,” wrote 2016 L.P. presidential runner-up Austin Petersen on Election Day, “has blown a chance that it may never have again in my lifetime.”