Libertarian Party Nominates Cliff Hyra for Virginia Governor – Bearing Drift (press release) (blog)

In his first news media interview after receiving the Libertarian Partys nomination for Governor of Virginia on Saturday, May 6, Mechanicsville lawyer and business owner Cliff Hyra predicted that Virginia will legalize marijuana before it privatizes the states ABC stores.

Of course, Im for both, he said, noting that as we see the trend nationwide, marijuana will be legalized or decriminalized within the next few years but I really havent seen any movement toward deregulating liquor sales.

Hyra ran unopposed for the Libertarian Party of Virginias gubernatorial nomination. He earned the nod at a special convention held in the Meadowdale Library in Chesterfield County, by a vote of 43 to one for none of the above, which is always a choice in Libertarian Party nomination contests.

Married with three children under the age of 7 and one more due in August, Hyra is a patent attorney, like the GOPs 2013 nominee, Ken Cuccinelli. He said he was motivated to run because he was dissatisfied with the choices offered by Republicans and Democrats.

The candidates who are out there now, he said, are not proposing real solutions. Theyre not addressing a lot of the issues that are very important here in the Commonwealth, so he thought adding a Libertarian to the ballot would bring those issues before the public.

Growth, reform, choice His top three issues are economic growth, criminal justice reform, and adding choice to the education and health-care systems.

Economic growth, he said, has been much too slow in Virginia over the past decade or so. We need some bold action on tax cuts [and] cuts to regulations to encourage the formation of small businesses throughout the Commonwealth.

Virginia really lags behind other states in criminal justice reform efforts, Hyra said. There are arrest quotas; that needs to end. I would grant pardons to people who have been convicted only of victimless crimes, such as drug use. I would order that the laws against drug use be given lower priority.

He pointed out that Virginia is arresting so many people, about 35,000 to 40,000 each year, just for drug use. On top of that, he said, it costs $25,000 a year to incarcerate a single person. Its really out of control.

Hyra said he wants to introduce elements of competition and choice into the educational system [and] health care system. Thats where we need to bring expenses down [and] quality up, across the board.

After Sarvis The Libertarian gubernatorial candidate believes his party can build on the foundation laid by Robert Sarvis in his campaigns for governor (2013) and U.S. Senate (2014).

Were really riding an upswell, he said. We have so many great volunteers now. We have so much great information about where the voters are receptive to our message, whos really interested in libertarian messages that were sending.

Its worth noting that Hyras campaign manager is John Vaught LeBeaume, who also ran the two Sarvis campaigns and served as a national media director in the 2016 Gary Johnson for President campaign. With that experience on the campaign side, Hyra said were going to reach out to all those people.

He added that the libertarian message is one that resonates with young people, especially criminal justice reform. Generally, the message of freedom and choice is one that is popular with people who are not affiliated with one of the big-government parties. There is a lot of room for growth among that new generation of voters and were looking to keep all the voters that we picked up with Rob Sarviss great campaign in 2013 [and] the Johnson-Weld campaign, and then grow even further from that.

Democans and Republicrats As for his potential opponents in the governors race, Hyra does not think highly of them.

Former Congressman Tom Perriello, a contender for the Democratic nomination, is, he said, a big money guy. Hes just another in a long line of basically corrupt big-government candidates that are being funded by a very small number of donors, noting that Perriello has received donations from financier George Soros.

Hes not going to do anything to address the issues Ive raised, Hyra said, and hes not going to improve the business climate here in Virginia, which, he added, is really true of both of them, whether its Ralph Northam or Perriello. Theyre not talking about criminal justice reform at all, which is something that Virginia desperately needs.

The candidates from both parties, Democrat and Republican, he said, are really trying to avoid these hard issues. Theyre beholden to a lot of special interests. Theyre not presenting real solutions. In Virginia, weve alternated back and forth. Weve had Republican governors, Democratic governors. For the most part, theyve all done pretty much the same thing.

No matter which party wins elections, he said, Government just grows and grows. For both of them, thats what I see.

Commenting on the Republican candidates, he said that Corey Stewart is running on a Trump message, a divisive message. I dont see a lot of substance there. Hyra met Stewart at this years Shad Planking and thought he was a nice guy but hes always talking about the [Confederate] monuments. To me, there are a lot of bigger issues than those and it just doesnt seem that the solutions, the ideas are there in Stewarts campaign.

He said he was surprised to hear state Senator Frank Wagner advocate for raising taxes during a Liberty University debate. Thats a really strange position for a Republican, he said. Its really important for me to shrink the role of government in peoples lives [and] reduce the amount of taxpayer money that were spending.

He agrees with Wagner that transportation is an important issue, but weve got to find that funding from waste. Weve got to cut other things. We cant continue to increase taxes on the citizens of Virginia.

Republican front-runner Ed Gillespie, who ran against Robert Sarvis in the 2014 U.S. Senate race, is just an establishment candidate, Hyra said. Hes coming from out of state. Hes got a big lead and hes trying not to offend anybody, I think, but hes not proposing the sort of real solutions we need.

Hyra took issue with the underlying assumptions of Gillespies proposed tax cut.

Its tiny, he said. Hes trying to tell people that its going to save the typical family $1,300 a year. Obviously, he didnt go to school here in Virginia because the numbers just dont add up.

Virginias top tax rate is 5.75 per cent. How much money do you have to be making for a 10 percent rate cut to amount to $1,300 a year? Youd have to be making $250,000 a year. Is the average family here in Virginia making $250,000 a year? I dont think so. The math doesnt add up. His tax cut is really about $300 a year, which is about a tenth of the size of my proposed tax cut. My proposed tax cut would be $3,000 a year back in the pockets of the average household here in Virginia, ten times bigger than Gillespies.

Qualifications Hyra believes his business and legal backgrounds are assets in his quest to be elected governor, and his lack of experience in public office is not a hindrance.

I have experience running a small business. Im a lifelong resident of Virginia. As a lawyer, Im familiar with some of the legal issues we have here, including the tax climate, business climate issues. I understand how government regulations impact business decisions. Thats very real for me.

Hyra noted that if you look at the sitting governors around the country, about 25 percent of them have had no prior elected office. I dont think its critical that you have prior political experience, and I dont have any.

What people want, he said, is somebody whos not in the machine, someone who is not bought and paid for. A successful candidate for governor, he added, should be a regular person whos interested in the welfare of other people here in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Ballot Access While he has secured the nomination of the Libertarian Party of Virginia, Hyra still faces ballot-access obstacles before he can legally be a general-election candidate.

In a separate interview, state party chairman Bo Brown told me that the drive for petition signatures to qualify Hyra for the November ballot is well under way.

A candidate for statewide office must have 10,000 valid signatures of registered voters, including 400 such signatures from each of the eleven congressional districts. The deadline for turning them in is the same day as the Democratic and Republican primaries, the second Tuesday in June.

Were nearly at 6,000 turned in, Brown said. I believe it was somewhere in the 5,600 range. Ive got another 1,200 or 1,400 that just got turned in to us today, so I imagine were probably at 7,000 or more at this point, with what I have basically in hand or what Ive turned into the State Board of Elections.

As one might expect, LPVA chair Brown is enthusiastic about his partys nominee.

Cliff is just an incredible candidate, he gushed. Hes brilliant. His wifes incredible. Theyve got this great family. Theyre a great representation of Virginians. Weve got to let a lot of our [voters] understand that there are other candidates out there. You dont have to stay stuck to one of those two old parties.

In addition to nominating a gubernatorial candidate at the special convention in Chesterfield, the Libertarian Party of Virginia also elected state party officials (vice chair and secretary) and delegates to the national LPs platform and credentials committees.

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Here is the complete audio recording of Bearing Drifts interview with Cliff Hyra:

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Here is video of Hyras pre-nomination speech to the Libertarian special convention, with a Q&A with party activists:

Here is Hyras speech accepting the LPVA nomination for governor of Virginia:

Rick Sincere is a senior contributor for Bearing Drift.

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Libertarian Party Nominates Cliff Hyra for Virginia Governor - Bearing Drift (press release) (blog)