As the unofficial election results came in Tuesday night in Iowa, there might be a major change in the political party system.

Libertarian Party of Iowa Co-Chair Ed Wright tells Raccoon Valley Radio the unofficial results indicate that the their party will most likely lose their major party status in the state. He says under Iowa law, in order for a political organization to be of major party status, that party must receive at least two-percent of all of the votes cast in the highest office in a general election. In the case for 2018, the highest office was the gubernatorial race. According to the Iowa Secretary of State’s website, Libertarian candidate Jake Porter was below that threshold at 1.6-percent. There were no Libertarian candidates that won any state or federal offices from Iowa.

However, Greene County Attorney-Elect Thomas Laehn ran unopposed as a Libertarian candidate and he believes he is the highest elected Libertarian in the state. Laehn says Porter was polling at seven-percent earlier on the campaign.

“But then he (Porter) was excluded from the gubernatorial debates. And I think that’s the primary reason he did not obtain more than two-percent of the vote. And there really was no justification for excluding him.”

The Libertarian Party achieved major party status in Iowa following the 2016 presidential election. If after the canvass of votes happen next week and the Libertarian Party losses its major party status, Laehn believes they will eventually get that distinction back.

“I have great feeling that in two years at the next presidential election, we’ll obtain more than two-percent of the vote and regain our major party status.”

The Libertarian Party was established in Iowa in 1971.