William Ainsworth 2024 presidential campaign
 | |
| Campaigned for | 2024 Antillean presidential election (Federalist primaries) |
|---|---|
| Candidate |
William Ainsworth Presidential Chief Strategist (2020–2021) Secretary of the Navy (2017–2019) Bradley Simmonds Director of National Intelligence (2016–2021) Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (2010–2015) |
| Affiliation | Federalist Party |
| Status |
Announced: February 2, 2023 Suspended: June 30, 2024 |
| Headquarters | New Charleston, Cuba |
| Key people | Kathy Hogan (campaign manager) |
| Slogan | Keep America Great |
Military officer and politician William Ainsworth announced his campaign for the presidency on February 2, 2023, announcing his candidacy for the Federalist Party nomination at a rally in New Charleston, Cuba, becoming the second candidate to enter into the race.
The campaign was announced after months of speculation and publicly expressed interest by Ainsworth himself as the former commandant of the Marine Corps had been well known for his public criticism of incumbent president Arian Lawrence throughout the latter's presidency, criticizing his rhetoric, frequent clashes with opposing factions of the Federalist Party, and his domestic policies, accusing him of engaging in authoritarian behavior and of holding dictatorial desires. Starting in September 2022, Ainsworth was a source of speculation by media as a potential challenging to Lawrence in the upcoming primary races and began appearing in opinion polls. By November 26, Ainsworth expressed interest and by January 2023, he would schedule February 2 as the date of his formal announcement which occurred on that day at a rally.
At the rally, Ainsworth announced his campaign to primary Lawrence for the 2024 presidential election, accusing him of behaving in a quasi-authoritarian fashion, abandoning traditional Federalist values, and calling for limited government, decentralizing the federal government, and a stronger adherence to the values of liberty and freedom. From February 2 to the 8, Ainsworth campaigned in several cities across Cuba from New Charleston to his home town of Siboney and several places in between. On February 10, he held his first rally in Hispaniola, campaigning in Fort Hood as part of his "tour across America" initiative.
William Ainsworth would receive endorsements from within the first day and week, receiving the endorsement from the Libertarian Caucus, a notable group opposing the Lawrence administration, and several ideologically libertarian Federalist politicians, party officials, activists and other notable individuals. His campaign has received criticism with several accusing his campaign of threatening party unity for the election, claims that Ainsworth and his campaign have dismissed, claiming that Lawrence is not immune to a primary challenger in a genuine free society.
On June 4, 2024, Ainsworth announced that he would continue his campaign until the conclusion of the 2024 primary season despite being decisively defeated in both the Cuban and Hispaniola primaries. By the time of the announcement, Ainsworth had won a total of 283 delegates and 1,436,190 votes. Ainsworth formally suspended his campaign on June 30.
Background
Ainsworth published an op-ed in the Columbia Tribune in December 2022 that criticized the Arian Lawrence administration, blaming him for stoking tensions with the Continental States, being embroiled in scandals, and limiting the Federalist base of support to a minority of the population by alienating voters, which he said caused an under-performance in the 2022 midterm elections. In the November 2022 elections, the Federalist Party maintained its majority but also did not make any significant gains against the Civic Democrats. Although Lawrence remained popular with the Federalist base, the leadership of the party believed that he limited their ability to expand their support and created too many scandals. In the months leading up to the midterm elections and increasingly in the months following, some Federalist commentators speculated about the possibility of running a primary challenger to Lawrence who would borrow elements of the changes he introduced while largely bringing it back to the party orthodoxy. Several Federalist Party donors initially proposed Lawrence's 2020 primary opponent Robert Kozlowski in the summer of 2022, while others thought that Lawrence would run unopposed in the 2024 primary because of his popularity among Federalist primary voters.
After the retired Marine general began openly criticizing Lawrence and having closed-door meetings with Federalist Party officials and donors in December 2022, rumors circulated in the Antillean media that he planned on running against Lawrence in the primary.
2020 Federalist primary activities
In 2020, Michael Abarough had voluntarily chosen not to run for re-election as president in 2020 in accordance with the Washington tradition, the oath to not serve longer than two terms as president. During the subsequent Federalist primaries for the election, Ainsworth had endorsed Robert Kozlowski, the mayor of Fort Hood, Hispaniola, for president. Kozlowski represented the traditional conservative establishment and was a known staunch and loyal defender and supporter of Michael Abarough throughout his presidency. Outside of endorsing him, Ainsworth campaigned for Kozlowski by partaking in campaign rallies, staring in ads, and publicly defending him on television on outlets such as Columbia News and CBS News. Ainsworth accused Lawrence of being too politically radical, accusing him of being authoritarian in his social policies and warning that he could potentially alienate the Federalist Party from voters in future elections, especially with minority and young voters. During an interview he had on April 22, he accused Lawrence of being a "radical by another name" after accusing Civic Democrat Allen Paul of being too extreme during a campaign rally in Hispaniola earlier that day, remarking that he was "throwing traditional party values in the gutter".
Criticism of the Lawrence administration
Ainsworth would distinguish himself as one of the most notable and vocal critics of Arian Lawrence and his administration since the start of his presidency. While Ainsworth has praised him for the Lawrence administration's foreign police in the wake of the Caribbean crisis, however he would accuse him of being overly dependent on his foreign policy to compensate for his more controversial domestic and social policies, remarking in March 2022 that Lawrence was "banking too hard on the Caribbean".
Campaign
Announcement
Ainsworth announced his campaign on February 2, 2023, followed immediately by a rally in New Charleston, Cuba. He claimed that Lawrence was leading the party to "destruction" and believed that, while he was right to take on Landonism and its "subversion of Western democracies," he was alienating Antillean allies and preventing the country from gaining more recognition around the world through his "tyrannical" domestic policies. He called on Federalists to "put country above party" and to oppose Lawrence, who was "helping the Civic Democrats" by his radicalism alienating voters.
Endorsements
Vice presidential election
On May 25, 2023, Ainsworth announced that he chose Bradley Simmonds, a retired United Commonwealth Army general who had served as the United Commonwealth Director of National Intelligence and as Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, to be his vice president.