The Libertarian Party chair on Sunday urged the Koch brothers to dump the GOP and bring their political war chest to the nation’s largest third party, telling the billionaire brothers that it’s time “to come home.”
“I think being successful businessmen that they understand the nature of return on investment, and I think it’s time for them to come home,” said Nicholas Sarwark, who heads the Libertarian National Committee.
His comments came at a press conference aired on CSPAN shortly after the party nominated former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson for president at its convention in Orlando, Florida.
Mr. Johnson has disputed reports linking his campaign to the Kochs, while the billionaire brothers have denied through a spokesman that they are backing a third party.
Even so, Mr. Sarwark said that party officials have reached out to the billionaire brothers through back channels.
“There’s back channel communication to suggest to the Koch brothers that the return on their political investment would be a lot higher in the Libertarian Party and we align better than their values than the Republican Party, where donors collectively threw $166 million into a hole and lit it on fire to try and nominate Jeb Bush,” said Mr. Sarwark.
SEE ALSO: Libertarians nominate Gary Johnson for president on second ballot
He characterized Mr. Johnson’s nomination as a game-changer for funders searching for a presidential campaign to get behind, adding that he had met with representatives from three super PACs during the convention that are “lacking a candidate to support.”
“I am aware that the Koch brothers through a spokesperson issued a denial that they had been in talks about funding Gov. Johnson’s run, but that was a pre-nomination denial and unrelated to whether or not the parties reached out to them,” Mr. Sarwark said.
Efforts to “fix” the Republican Party are doomed to fail, he said, because the party “is not fixable.”
Charles and David Koch, who have spent untold millions supporting Republican candidates, “have not gotten what they wanted out of it, and honestly any party that can encompass Donald Trump and Rand Paul stands for nothing,” said Mr. Sarwark.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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