Ed Clark was the Libertarian candidate for President of the United States in the 1980 presidential election.

Clark was an honors graduate of Dartmouth College and received a law degree from Harvard Law School.

In 1978, Clark received some 400,000 votes, 5 percent of the popular vote, in a race for Governor of California.

In 1980 he won the Libertarian Party nomination for the Presidency at their party convention in Los Angeles, California. He published a book on his programs, entitled "A New Beginning". The book's introduction was by Eugene McCarthy.

Clark received just under 1 million votes and over 1% of the total; the highest number and percentage of popular votes a Libertarian party candidate has ever received in a presidential race.