Rutkowski was briefly the vice-presidential nominee of the now-defunct Cyber Party in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, running alongside software entrepreneur John McAfee. McAfee chose in December 2015 to instead switch to seeking the Libertarian nomination, but Rutkowski did not join him in seeking the Libertarian vice-presidential nomination. McAfee later selected photographer Judd Weiss as his Libertarian running mate, but neither were nominated at the 2016 Libertarian National Convention.