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Michael Badnarik was born in Hammond, Indiana. He is the oldest son of John
and Elaine Badnarik, and the grandson of Slovak immigrants, Michael Badnarik
attended Indiana University Bloomington but left one semester away from
earning a degree in chemistry. He worked as a computer programmer at the
Zion Nuclear Power Station beginning in 1977, and from 1982 to 1985, was a
senior software engineer for Commonwealth Edison.
In 1985, he relocated to Montebello, California, to work on the Stealth
Bomber simulator project and in 1987 moved to San Luis Obispo, California,
as a system administrator and computer trainer at the Diablo Canyon nuclear
plant.
In 1997, unhappy with gun laws enacted by the California legislature,
Badnarik moved to Texas and began work as a senior trainer for Evolutionary
Technologies International. He currently resides in Austin, Texas.
Badnarik worked as a Red Cross volunteer during the 1970s, and has been a
volunteer leader in several Boy Scout troops (Badnarik claims he came just
short of becoming an Eagle Scout). He is a certified scuba diving and
skydiving instructor.
Badnarik is a Libertarian, believes in the Non-Aggression Principle, and his
political philosophy emphasizes individual liberty, personal responsibility,
and adherence to what he considers to be an originalist interpretation of
the US Constitution. All of his positions arise from this foundation. In
economics, Badnarik believes in laissez-faire capitalism, a system in which
the only function of the government is the protection of individual rights
from the initiation of force and fraud. He therefore opposes institutions
such as taxation, welfare, and business regulation.
Badnarik first ran for public office in 2000 as a Libertarian, earning
15,221 votes in a race for the Texas legislature; he ran again for the same
seat in 2002. Badnarik is a participant in the libertarian Free State
Project.
In February 2003, Badnarik announced his candidacy for the Libertarian
Party's presidential nomination, and spent the following 18 months traveling
the country, teaching a course on the United States Constitution to dozens
of libertarian groups. He has written a book, Good To Be King: The
Foundation of our Constitutional Freedom (ISBN 1-59411-096-4) on the subject
of constitutional law; the book was first self-published by Badnarik, but
was released in hardcover in October 2004.
Badnarik was viewed as unlikely to win the Libertarian presidential
nomination, facing challenges from talk-show host Gary Nolan and Hollywood
producer Aaron Russo. At the 2004 Libertarian National Convention, Badnarik
gained substantial support following the candidates' debate (broadcast live
on C-SPAN). In the closest presidential nomination race in the Libertarian
Party's 32-year history, all three candidates polled within 12 votes of each
other on the first ballot (Russo 258, Badnarik 256, Nolan 246). When the
second ballot placed the candidates in the same order, Gary Nolan was
eliminated and threw his support to Badnarik; Badnarik won the nomination on
the third ballot 417 to 348, with None of the Above receiving 6 votes.
Richard Campagna of Iowa City, Iowa, was elected separately by convention
delegates as his vice-presidential nominee.
Badnarik's capture of the nomination was widely regarded as a surprise by
many within the party; both Nolan and Russo had outpaced Badnarik in both
fundraising and poll results prior to the convention. Badnarik commented
following his success at the national convention, "If I can win the
nomination, there's no reason I can't win this election."
Badnarik and Green Party candidate David Cobb were arrested[1][2] in St.
Louis, Missouri, on October 8, 2004, for an act of civil disobedience.
Badnarik and Cobb were protesting their exclusion from the presidential
debates of the 2004 presidential election campaign. They were arrested after
crossing a police barricade in an attempt to serve an Order to Show Cause to
the Commission on Presidential Debates.
By the end of the election cycle, Badnarik's presidential campaign had
raised just over one million dollars (US), obtained ballot access in 48
states plus the District of Columbia (the Libertarian Party failed to obtain
ballot access in Oklahoma and New Hampshire, although Badnarik was a
qualified write-in candidate in New Hampshire), and placed nationwide
political advertisements on CNN and Fox News in addition to local
advertising buys in the important swing states of Wisconsin, New Mexico,
Nevada, plus Arizona.
No national polls including Badnarik had put him above 1.5%, though one poll
put him at 5% in New Mexico and another at 3% at Nevada.[2] A Rasmussen
Group poll on October 26, 2004 put Badnarik at 3% in Arizona.[3]
Badnarik polled just under 400,000 popular votes nationwide, in the November
2, 2004 election, taking 0.34% of the popular vote and placing fourth, just
behind Ralph Nader. Badnarik spent much of early 2005 touring the country
speaking and teaching the class on the U.S. Constitution which he developed
during his presidential campaign. |
