Q&A: Dave Crance on Libertarianism in Virginia
Lone 2025 libertarian candidate for General Assembly discusses libertarianism, the Libertarian Party in Virginia, Big Tech, and the transformations of the two major parties.
As both major U.S. political parties undergo radical transformations in real time, I’ve been wondering how these dynamics affect the third parties that have fielded candidates in Virginia during the 21st century.
As far as I can tell, in the 2025 cycle, there’s only one candidate from a third party running for the House of Delegates or statewide right now: Dave Crance, running as a libertarian.
Crance is challenging Del. Marcus Simon (D-Falls Church) this cycle in House of Delegates District 13. The district is currently a Democratic stronghold; Simon defeated Crance in 2023 with nearly 79% of the vote.
I reached out to Crance with a set of questions concerning libertarianism, the Libertarian Party, and Virginia. Below are his answers verbatim - and here’s a disclaimer from him:
Thank you for the questions, please note I'm answering these from my personal perspective and by default the Campaign not on behalf of LPNOVA or LPVA. The questions were so well thought out it almost by default forces a disclaimer for my organizations.
Libertarianism & Identifying as a Libertarian
Q: What does libertarianism mean to you, and what does it mean to identify as a libertarian?
Libertarianism to me is about prioritizing a limited government that protects individual rights while ensuring a free market system. I often speak of Libertarian Democracy which takes it a step further in today's world of government overreach. What I refer to is not only protecting individual rights but rights at the community level - the rights of individuals to decide amongst themselves what is best for their community instead of having that dictated by an all powerful State or Federal Government. At the community level, ie. town, city, county, we are practicing our right of voluntary association. Yet we have State and Federal governments that instead of serving their original purposes have become overly bloated bureaucracies through usurping our rights, work, and decision making capabilities at the individual and local level. This has allowed both Federal and State Governments to continue to grow and consume more and more power, resources, and control.
That is how I identify a Libertarian, not by their level of Libertarian Ideals and concepts so much as by their understanding we need to work to return the Federal and State Governments back to their originally intended sizes and scope. This means having the trust in the Voters, our neighbors and ourselves, to return control back to our communities and individuals. Too often the concept of what is a libertarian gets lost in the weeds through folks trying to define Libertarians vs. Libertarianism. I think it is the goal that defines a Libertarian; which is reducing the size and scope of Government, regulations, fees, and tax burdens on the individual. Regardless if that be in mass with perhaps a chainsaw approach or as I would prefer a bit at a time with a scalpel approach.
Intellectual Influences Shaping Contemporary Libertarianism in Virginia
Q: What intellectual / movement influences have most shaped contemporary libertarianism in Virginia - for example, are Randian/objectivist strains prominent?
That's a question that should perhaps lead to an essay or research piece vs a quick answer so if printed I ask my fellow Libertarians to forgive my glancing over many of the influences in the respect of space and time. While Rand's objectivist views absolutely are present in most Libertarians I meet, I believe a good majority are unaware of or would not articulate that connection these days.
The fact is Virginia's Libertarian Party is born of Classical Liberalism much as the national party was a few years prior. The party was born not only to protect individual Liberties but also as a response to ending wars, the draft, and the ending of the gold standard with the economic influence of Austrian economics as verbalized by Rothbard and such weighing over policy. Over the years like all parties and organizations it has evolved and I would say the biggest influences along the way would be related to the Ron Paul Presidential campaign messaging and most recently the impacts of Covid. This is combined with the internet increasing the availability of works from as early as John Ball and John Lock [sic] through Ludwig Von Mises up to Hyack [sic], Freidman [sic], and Rothbard all of which have notably surpassed Rand in today's libertarian discussions.
Effects of Major Party Transformations on the Libertarian Party
Q: How have the recent transformations of the two major political parties affected libertarians and the ability to recruit for and grow the Libertarian Party?
There has been a definite impact from both the two old parties which I believe has led to a lot of the internal confusion and angst among our own membership these days. We have seen the democrat party move further from its original liberalism through progressivism and into almost socialism as of late. In fact up until the last few years I could have honestly told you if you want to know what a modern Libertarian is look at most 90's democrats. The majority of our membership in Virginia was probably more reflective of my own Socially Liberal, Fiscally Conservative philosophy up until recently.
Then we saw the republican party begin to focus on taking on libertarian ideas in an attempt to grow and retain its own decreasing base in the state. This only increased through the tea party years and has gotten to the point where many Libertarians don't realize that several organizations that are associated with our movement are actually republican donor backed orgs - Young Americans for Liberty, Students for Liberty, and so on. That move began to drain us of people while also bringing in more conservative members who were swayed towards right wing populism. Simultaneously this herding of our party further to the right also flushed out a lot of liberal leaning members. With the conflicting information and both the old parties presenting differing narratives it has made it difficult not only to recruit but also maintain membership. That's one of the key reasons I felt it important to run. I want to present a campaign that gets us back to our core Libertarian principles of a true big tent party that is home for everyone focused on reducing Government and its burden upon us as individuals regardless of left or right paradigms.
Trump, Big Tech, and Libertarian Proclivities
Q: How are libertarians reacting to President Trump's inclusion in his administration of figures from the big tech sector, a sector historically known for libertarian proclivities?
On this I'm not hearing a lot of buzz, that probably has to do with the fact that the big tech sector has always been known for its libertarian leanings so I don't feel there is much of a change or impact from administration to administration. The only real change seems to be individuals from Zuckerberg and Musk down the rank and file being more open to discussing it without fear of reprisal - Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg Now Reportedly Identifies As A Libertarian. This is likely why we are hearing more of it in mainstream media.
The Libertarian Party of Virginia
Q: Is there an official, functional Libertarian Party of Virginia? I recall the 2022 issues in the news and haven't followed their resolution.
Yes there is still a Libertarian Party of Virginia, in the 2023 election cycle both myself and our other candidates for House of Delegates and State Senate were identified by the Virginia Department of Elections with the (L) beside our names on the ballot. I will upon party nomination have the (L) by my name again this election cycle.
The events of 2022 were regrettable and I will mention that I became chair of LPNOVA in 2024 after the statement referred to in the article was issued, but I understand the anger and frustration that drove it. We are discussing a few individuals who almost ended decades of efforts by many to provide an alternative to the Old parties and their messages of fear and division. As I mentioned earlier we saw a swing at the national and some state level affiliates from classical libertarianism to more of a conservative populism. This disenfranchised many in our party and honestly I don’t begrudge either side for their views, but sadly some good individuals I know and respect reacted rashly to what was occurring. I was disappointed that during this time some members chose to try and tank state affiliates vs. working to understand why our membership chose this route and work to find a middle ground.
While the background of this had to do with caucuses and factions within the party that I was not a part of, I and many others had to invest a lot of time to salvage the party and the work done. It was tough Josh, I also had lost a position I was running for in the party to members from the same caucus before that happened. Tougher still was losing and still showing up at the next board meeting and literally seeing none of the faces I was used to working with. But I bore through it and said I’m here, what can I do to help y'all with the transition.
Fast forward to 2024 and those same individuals asked me to step up as my affiliate chair and are still invested in our work today along with many “old timers” from membership who have gotten back involved. Many good people also put in a lot of work at the state level the same way and while we are still rebuilding we got candidates up and running in our ‘23 state elections and managed the signature lift to get our presidential candidate on the Virginia Ballot in 2024. Honestly this event brought both sides together and might be one of the best things that could have happened for the long term. We are now seeing this play out at the national level with a new National Chair this year and his work to unite the party at that level. Recently I’ve shifted from worry to feeling our best years as a party are ahead for us in Virginia.
Youngkin, Northam, and Libertarian Wins?
Q: Can you think of any policies/laws enacted in either Gov. Youngkin's or Gov. Northam's terms that you believe were good and in line with libertarian principles?
Let’s face it, one of the reasons I’m a Libertarian is slowly watching our State and Nation turn into a Plutocracy with our politicians beholden to the wealthy elite via the old two party political system of pacs and donations. We have a wealthy class creating a political class to do their bidding and as such we get politicians who put national party politics ahead of their voters and own communities time and again. Northam’s abuses of personal and individual liberties via lockdowns and business closures during his tenure was reprehensible to me. While I could understand short term panic, under him it evolved into a long term abuse of state powers the results of which we are all still suffering today. Youngkin similarly puts his party agenda ahead of our people. While his actions on parental rights, budgeting, and numerous vetoes fall more in line with Libertarian leanings, at the end of the day he also shifts to the winds of his parties’ national politics and populism.
Lack of Libertarian Candidates in Recent General Assembly Cycles
Q: In the last two cycles, we've seen fewer libertarian candidates for the General Assembly than in the preceding cycles - why do you think that is?
I think it’s a result of all I discussed in the earlier questions. In Virginia our party is still in a rebuilding stage. We basically suffered a scorched earth retreat and had to rebuild from the ground up at the local and state level. Then we had the party at the National level with different factions and caucuses vying for power and control creating more chaos. The best analogy I can provide is the Syrian revolution with multiple factions and clans fighting each other for control while the bigger nations finance and fan the internal strife for their own benefit. As a party we are just emerging from this stage and while I feel we are back in a good place for growth at national and even better at the state level I can understand the previous reluctance of our members to run for office in such an environment. That said, with current leadership changes I believe this is in the past and we will start seeing more and more L's on the state ballots in elections to come.