But those signs disappeared when Robert F. Kennedy Jr. withdrew from the race, and voters now have few options other than Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.

But one of those options is the Libertarian Party’s candidate for president: Chase Oliver. And he has the potential, along with Green Party candidate Jill Stein, to spoil a state victory for Harris or Trump.

Oliver is only 39 years old and the youngest of the major third-party candidates. He is from Atlanta and ran twice for the House of Representatives in 2020, and then for the Senate in 2022.

Oliver rose to national prominence with his role in his final run, in which he received 2% of the vote in the Senate race between then-candidates Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker. He debated, without Walker, against Warnock in a showdown hosted by Georgia Public Broadcast in October, which brought him additional fame.

Oliver’s 2% ultimately helped force a runoff in the Senate elections, when neither candidate received 50% of the vote. Warnock was going to win.

Oliver is now playing a similar “spoiler” role in the 2024 presidential election. Although he has received minimal funding for his presidential campaign – Oliver has raised just under $450,000 for his campaign – at least one Democratic group has reportedly spent significant sums to give him a boost, hoping that voters will see him as an alternative to Trump.

Civic Truth Action has pushed Oliver for more than $1.5 million in YouTube ads, touting him as a “true conservative” who wants to abolish the income tax, not unlike a platform Trump has verbally adopted. The super PAC’s largest backer is Democratic-owned Evidence for Impact.

While Stein is widely seen as taking votes away from Harris’ progressive and far-left flank, Oliver could take away Trump’s support from libertarian-leaning voters. It would not be the first time that Trump has been hurt by a libertarian candidate in the presidential elections.

In 2020, Libertarian candidate Jo Jorgensen received more support than President Joe Biden’s margin of victory in Georgia, Arizona and Wisconsin. Jorgensen achieved her highest vote totals, all above 2% of the vote, in eight different Republican-won states. Some libertarian ideals, such as no income tax and minimal gun regulation, appeal to conservatives.

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Oliver could spoil Georgia, a somewhat Republican state, for Trump. A recent one New York Times a poll in Georgia showed him with 2% support in the state, leaving a 46%-46% tie between Harris and Trump.

Georgia could be where Oliver makes his biggest impact. He would likely draw support away from Trump, and a Harris win in the state would make it much harder for Republicans to win the election.