as of 2018, petersen is the owner and ceo of a photo and video consulting firm called stonegait llc and is the founder of "the libertarian republic" and "liberty viral" - both libertarian news and commentary websites. he also recently ran for the 2018 u.s. senate election in missouri as a republican, but was defeated in the primary by missouri's attorney general josh hawley.[https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=austin_petersen&editintro=template%3ablp_editintro#cite_note-exploratory-16 <nowiki>[16]</nowiki>]