Larry Sharpe was nominated for Governor by the Libertarian Party of New York at its 2025 Nominating Convention, held on October 25 at the Homewood Suites by Hilton in Rochester, New York.
LPNY Chair Duane Whitmer called the meeting to order. The nominations for statewide candidates were among the earlier items of business. Two candidates were nominated for Governor: Larry Sharpe and Christopher Olenski. None of the Above (NOTA) is always a choice on party ballots. In the first and only round of voting, Sharpe was nominated after recieving 12 out of 20 votes of the State Committee. Olenski received 5 votes and 3 votes were cast for NOTA.
Other statewide offices, including Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, and Comptroller, will be filled before a March 15, 2026 deadline set by the State Committee, as the party works to assemble a full and competitive slate of candidates for 2026.
This is Sharpe’s third run for Governor. His first run in 2018 garnered over 95,000 votes and gave the Libertairan Party ballot access for the first time in New York history. However, the state budget snuck in changes to ballot access laws, increasing the signature threshold and vote requirement to get ballot access.
Sharpe’s second run occurred under these new laws in 2022, in which he had just over 42,000 raw signatures (which was more than Lee Zeldin’s raw signature account for the Independence Party line, after removing the 11,000 fraudulent signatures), but was not enough for the required 45,000 signatures. The Libertarian Party of New York and Green Party of New York were involved in a three-year court battle to overturn these requirements from 2020 to 2023.
Other business at the convention included the election of New York’s representatives to the Libertairan National Convention committees. For Platform, Onondaga County Secretary and State Platform Committee member Rose Leatherman will serve as the Representative while Suffolk County Vice Chair Christian Padgett will serve as Alternate. For the Credentials Committee, State Treasurer Chance Haywood will serve as Represnetiave while Monroe County Chair Steve Becker will serve as Alternate. Additionally, 30 delegates were appointed to represent New York. Additional delegates will be appointed once an exact number is known.
The convention was concluded with remarks from LNC Region 6 Representative Patrick Ford, as well as Libertarian attorney James Ostrowski, who is running for LNC Chair. The convention concluded with a moment of silence in honor of former statewide candidate and state Vice Chair Donald Silberger, former Chair James Rosenbeck, and LPNY founding chair and 1980 Presidential nominee Edward Clark, all who passed away in the past few months.
