Transhumanist politician wants to run for governor of California

Zoltan Istvan didn’t have much of a chance at being president, but that didn’t stop him from campaigning as the Transhumanist Party’s candidate to promote his pro-technology and science positions. Now, he’s setting his sights a bit lower, and with a different party. Istvan announced this morning that he plans to run for governor of California in 2018 under the Libertarian Party.

“We need leadership that is willing to use radical science, technology, and innovation—what California is famous for–to benefit us all,” he wrote in a Newsweek article. “We need someone with the nerve to risk the tremendous possibilities to save the environment through bioengineering, to end cancer by seeking a vaccine or a gene-editing solution for it, to embrace startups that will take California from the world’s 7th largest economy to maybe even the largest economy–bigger than the rest of America altogether.”

When we spoke to him in November, Istvan made it clear that he would be looking at the Libertarian Party if he were to run for president again. Not only does he identify as libertarian, he also saw the benefit of working with a more established political party, instead of starting one from the ground up.

“I would probably run under the Libertarian Party next time,” he said. “The problem, though, is that I actually lean quite far left. When you actually look at who I am, I’m as much on the Democratic side as I am on the Libertarian. I am what they call a left-leaning Libertarian. So most Libertarians would say I’m not Libertarian enough. And a lot of Democrats would say, ‘You’re not like us; you’re not Bernie Sanders enough.’”

Of course, just because Istvan wants to run doesn’t mean he’ll actually score the Libertarian Party nomination. His announcement, at this point, is basically just a statement of intent.

Source: Newsweek