William Weld

Weld said he would duplicate what he did as governor in Massachusetts, where he cut taxes 21 times and reduced high unemployment. He said “internet freedom is a must.” He supports abortion rights, gay marriage, term limits and smaller government, adding he wants government “out of your pocket book and out of your bedroom.”

Weld, 71, born in Smithtown, is running for vice president on the Libertarian and Independence party lines. He is a graduate of Harvard and Oxford universities and Harvard Law School. He was governor of Democratic-dominated Massachusetts from 1991 to 1997, winning re-election by a record margin. He was the Libertarian Party’s nominee for vice president in 2012. He fought government corruption as an assistant U.S. attorney from 1981 to 1986, and he headed the Department of Justice Criminal Division from 1986 to 1988. He ran for the Republican nomination for governor in New York in 2006, but he lost to former Assembly Minority Leader John Faso, who eventually lost the general election to Democrat Eliot Spitzer. Weld later became a principal at Leeds, Weld & Co., a private equity investment firm.