Rand was libertarian Republican, before libertarian Republican was cool

Carlos Lazada of the Washington Post recently reviewed two new biographies of Ayn Rand's life. In the review he brings attention to Rand's brief stint as a libertarian Republican activist. She was even a volunteer campaign worker on the streets of New York for GOP candidates.

From the Austin American-Statesman, "Two new biographies of Ayn Rand shine light on libertarian lioness" Jan. 2:

[Jennifer] Burns, a historian at the University of Virginia, emphasizes Rand's impact on American conservatism. Though her Russian roots forever informed her politics, Rand's U.S. political awakening flowed from her revulsion against President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal. She became a volunteer for Republican presidential candidate Wendell Wilkie in 1940, even conducting opposition research on FDR and blasting the president on New York City streets. "What she wanted, more than anything else," writes Burns, "was someone who would stand up and argue for the traditional American way of life as she understood it: individualism."

Rand was also supportive of Goldwater and Reagan. However, as Lazada points out, she didn't believe either one of them were as purely capitalist as she would have liked.