Note: This is the sixth in a series of six profiles of each candidate that participated in the South Carolina Libertarian Party Presidential Debate on November 2nd.
Dr. Jorgensen was born in 1957 in Illinois. She graduated from Baylor University with a BS in Psychology in 1979 and then in 1980 she received a master’s degree in Business Administration from Southern Methodist University. Then in 2002 she earned her PhD in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from Clemson University. After finishing at SMU, she began working for IBM with large computer systems. Dr. Jorgensen moved on to start her own company providing hardware and software solutions in the accounting industry. She then co-founded DigiTech, Inc., a software duplication company that worked with companies such as AT&T and NCR. In 1992 she ran for the 4th Congressional District of South Carolina. Then in 1996 she was Harry Browne’s running mate on the Libertarian Ticket for President. She is currently a senior lecturer at Clemson University.
CANDIDATE QUESTIONS
I. What do you like to do in your spare time when you are not spreading the cause of Liberty?
A. I enjoy walks with my Basset Hound, Gertrude.
II. What would you do on your first day as the POTUS?
A. Well, I would bring home our troops from foreign nations, pardon all nonviolent drug offenders, introduce a balanced budget to the U.S. Congress, and read 3 or 4 of the Federalist Papers to remind myself how great our country is and how much better we’re going to make it with Libertarian Presidents. Then I would break for lunch. (A tip of the hat to our dear friend David Bergland.)
III. What sports do you like to follow or participate in?
A. Ice hockey. I play it.
IV. What brought you to the LP? When?
A. While living in Dallas in 1979, I heard Honey Lanham on a local radio show, representing the LP. It was music to my ears. I had read “Atlas Shrugged” a few years earlier, and now realized I was not alone. I attended the next local meeting, and that was the first step towards becoming a Lifetime Libertarian.
V. What is the biggest challenge facing the federal government currently?
A. It’s what to do with all the bureaucrats that we lay off when we downsize D.C.
VI. Who is your favorite singer and what are your favorite song?
A. Axl Rose, and any GNR song or any song with double bass could be my favorite song.
VII. What have you personally done to spread Liberty?
A. As the Vice-Presidential nominee, I helped Harry Browne double the size of the national LP, bringing the number of members from slightly over 10,000 dues-paying members to over 22,800 due-paying members. That is a libertarian record that has never been equaled. That’s on top of my volunteer efforts around the country as well as in my home state of South Carolina.
VIII. What is your favorite vacation spot? Why?
A. What’s a vacation?
IX. What is our most important right?
A. Our rights are inseparable – our rights to life, liberty, property, the fruits of our labor, the pursuit of happiness, as well as those elaborated in the first amendment. They’re all bound together and inseparable.
X. Who are the four people, living or dead, you would invite over for dinner? Why?
A. Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and Victor Davis Hanson in modern day. And of course, Axl Rose. I love his music.