Kevin Ruskusky, 42, is Colorado’s 2022 gubernatorial nominee for the Libertarian Party, the state’s third-largest political party.

A history teacher at Yeshiva Toras Chaim – an all-male, Lithuanian-style Talmudic academy near Sloan’s Lake in West Denver – the Aurora resident joined the Libertarian Party in 2016, frustrated with the two major political parties, and soon became a party officer in Arapahoe County.

At 40,567 active registered voters, the Libertarian Party is dwarfed by the state’s two major political parties and the ranks of unaffiliated voters – on Oct. 1, there were 1,045,459 Democrats, 935,045 Republicans and 1,710,800 voters without affiliation – but counts nearly four times as many members as the next-closest minor political party. The American Constitution Party boasts 11,866 members, followed by the Green Party at 8,559, the Approval Voting Party with 4,420, and the Unity Party with 3,282.

In March, at the Libertarians’ annual state convention at an event center in Keensburg, Ruskusky was encouraged to run for governor and won the party’s nomination with more than 80% of the delegate vote, beating “none of the above,” the other option.

Alongside his running mate for lieutenant governor, Michele Poague, Ruskusky is one of five gubernatorial candidates listed on mail ballots that started going out to voters on Oct. 17. The others are Democrat Jared Polis, the incumbent; Republican Heidi Ganahl; American Constitution Party nominee Danielle Neuschwanger; and Unity Party nominee Paul Noel Fiorino. Two unaffiliated candidates – Paul Willmon and Zachary Varon – have registered as official write-in candidates.

Our interview with Ruskusky has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Colorado Politics: How did you get involved in politics and decide to get involved with the Libertarian Party?

Kevin Ruskusky: In my regular life I’m a history teacher, and it’s kind of the only promotion that a history teacher can get is to run for office. I really believe in America, I think that it’s a very blessed nation – I mean, as a history guy, we have more navigable rivers than every other country put together, we have more ports that are available to big shipping than every other country put together. And I don’t approve of the way it’s been run for quite some time, especially since 2010, with the Citizens United vs. the United States (Supreme Court decision), the one that declared that people are corporations and speech is money. That’s a problem. So what got me started was, I’ve seen too much, and complaining is not helping, so let’s try to do something, whatever it may be. That was my run into politics – an attempt to do something to stop the slide into whatever authoritarian (system) this is becoming.

CP: Have you always been a Libertarian?

Ruskusky: No. I grew up in Boulder, I grew up on Team Blue. I was a staunch Democrat for many, many years, but since probably 2016, with Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, that whole meshugaas (foolishness) that went on there, I needed something else, something that had actual principles, as opposed to talking points.

CP: How did you wind up as a top-ticket nominee for the party?

Ruskusky: It was shocking – I’m stunned to have this opportunity. So a couple years ago, I’d wanted to be a part of something, and an old high school friend who I knew was in the party, I just called her one day and we got to talk, and she introduced me to somebody and that person introduced me to the local Arapahoe County Libertarian Party, and I’m actually still the treasurer. And one meeting we were all having together, they said, “We don’t have a governor candidate.” And my my thought was, well, heck, that’s something I feel capable of doing. This is what’s required. So I volunteered and they nominated me in the Libertarian primaries, and I ran against NOTA, which is “none of the above.” I didn’t win them all. That was the surprising part is I think there was 145 people and I think I got 120 votes. Twenty or so of the Libertarians voted for no one, which I support. I support that.

CP: I’d say that sounds like a very Libertarian thing.

Ruskusky: Exactly!

CP: What do you say to Republicans, who routinely complain that the Libertarian candidates are siphoning off votes from Republican candidates?

Ruskusky: The concept of siphoning votes is outrageous, because, are there truly only two parties? Is America not supposed to have multiple opportunities? It’s not siphoning votes off, it’s just somebody choosing something else. Some Libertarians just wouldn’t vote if there wasn’t a Libertarian on the ballot. I can’t speak for all Libertarians, but based on the fact that NOTA got 20%, right? I think that Libertarians are not shy about just bowing out if they don’t support someone or if there isn’t somebody good.

CP: You’ve talked in your campaign about getting people out of their partisan corners to resolve things. Where are the opportunities to do that in the state?

Ruskusky: The idea that we are on different teams, I think, is the first place to start. For example, I’m also a Mormon – I’m new to the Mormon church – and one thing that I really respect about the Mormons is that they help everyone – Muslims, Jews, Catholics, Protestants, doesn’t matter. They’re there to be of assistance to everyone.

I’d like to see that in a political front as well. We’re on the same team here. We’ve got a lot of problems to solve. Let’s start with inflation, let’s start with globalization grinding to a halt. I don’t know if people are paying attention to what’s happening on a larger scale, but things are changing, and quickly, and I think that we’re going to need to be on the same team here if we’re going to survive this.

CP: Have you watched any of the gubernatorial debates between Jared Polis and Heidi Ganahl?

Ruskusky: I have not. And the reason is that I’ve heard them both speak, right? And it seems to me that they’re saying the same thing over and over and over again, which is the conservative line and the liberal line.

CP: You haven’t been invited to participate in any of the gubernatorial debates, but what would you have said about some of the topics that came up – Colorado’s rising crime rate, for instance?

Ruskusky: You can’t argue the fact that there’s more crime, but why it’s here is irrelevant. I think, to start, it’s a mental health issue. That’s my platform with all of these things – COVID broke humanity in a way, because, like no other time in all of world history, the entire world was locked down. There’s plenty of psychological research on what that does to the human mind – to be isolated and do nothing but watch Netflix and stuff like that. So I think we need a psychological reset or something along those lines. People came out of the pandemic angry and scared, which is not a good place to be as a society. I don’t have the solution, but there’s a lot of smart people out there. I would look to find the solution on both sides. Look to the liberals look to the conservatives, because as a third party, we have no issue going to either side for a solution as long as it’s a good one. And I would say the answer is found in between both of their policies.

CP: You’re working on putting together a debate featuring the third-party candidates?

Ruskusky: I don’t think it’s going to be put together this year, but the idea is a good one. I would love to see a coalition of the third parties because on our own, we’re easy to swat aside, but if we can unite around the idea that there are other options out there, whatever that would look like I’m not sure, but as the third-largest party, I think we would be good to at least be the ox to start that cart moving, be something to yoke to. There are other voices out there. I would love to unify all the other voices and help funnel them into one coherent message.

CP: What would that message be?

Ruskusky: That there are other options out there. We as Americans have rights, still, and protect them by not falling prey to the system. There are other options – viable ones.

CP: Is that what you’re hearing from voters, that they’re looking for other options?

Ruskusky: Given the paucity of options, the fact that it’s the same message that everyone’s always heard. It’s just more of the same – they’re doubling down on more of the same: the liberals are becoming more liberal and the conservatives are becoming more conservative. And life is in the gray, right? So the Libertarians get to be the party of the gray because it’s flexible, because beliefs need to be flexible and to the best of our current understanding.

CP: There’s a stereotype about Libertarians, which is to do away with borders, do away with government, but that doesn’t sound like what you’re talking about. What would a Ruskusky administration look like?

Ruskusky: First and foremost, I would want to look at education and getting a handle on that. I think that COVID, for all of the damage that it did. It broke a lot of systems that weren’t working anyway. It was the final straw. I think education is one of those. And so education has a strong foundation – society supports it, the whole megillah (complicated explanation), and so it’s to rebuild that. That’d be my first order, to secure the future, if you know what I mean.

I would want to see the parties working together. We don’t have time for all of this partisan mishmash, this mishegoss (craziness) that they’re up to. Just look globally at what’s happening. Biden said the other day that this is not dissimilar to the Cuban Missile Crisis. We’ve got big things to be looking at. I would pitch for working together and letting people know that we still have a chance to pull this nosedive out, but we can’t do it the old way. If you want something different, you’ve got to do something different.