Austin Petersen was a candidate for the Libertarian Party’s 2016 nomination for President of the United States, taking second place in a crowded primary behind Governor Gary Johnson, and ahead of cyber security maverick, John McAfee. Petersen earned many high profile endorsements in his run for the White House, including that of Mary Matalin, Erick Erickson, and Leon Wolf of RedState.com.

Austin Petersen is the owner and chief executive of Stonegait LLC, which owns the popular Libertarian Republic and Liberty Viral news magazines. Petersen has turned The Libertarian Republic into a powerful online news source for the public. As a publisher, Petersen grew The Freedom Report podcast into a top audio news source, with an average of 1.5 million monthly downloads. Previous notable career highlights: Associate producer at Fox Business, producing “FreedomWatch” starring Judge Andrew Napolitano. Director of Production at FreedomWorks. Media director at the Atlas Foundation, and Director of Outreach for the Libertarian National Committee.