McArdle resigns as U.S. Libertarian Party chair

Libertarian National Committee (LNC) chair Angela McArdle abruptly resigned her office in January, during an LNC email vote on investigating misconduct allegations against her. At the LNC's next meeting Stephen Nekhalia was elected chair, defeating Mises Caucus founder and leader Michael Heise.

Libertarian Party Gets New National Chair After Angela McArdle's Surprise Resignation | Reason | Brian Doherty

February 4, 2025 - "Riding a wave of accolades for her role in convincing Donald Trump to fully pardon Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, Angela McArdle made a surprise announcement late on January 24 that she was resigning ... as chair of the Libertarian Party's National Committee (LNC). McArdle released a farewell video a couple of days before a Sunday night LNC board meeting via Zoom that selected her replacement in which she stressed Ulbricht's release from prison as the 'biggest political victory' the party has ever achieved. She also accused George Phillies, a past L.P. candidate for office from Massachusetts and operator of Third Party Watch, of being a federal operative.... She hinted without directly stating that she left the L.P. to work for the federal government in Robert Kennedy's Department of Health and Human Services....

McCardle at Libertarian convention in 2022,
ReasonTV. CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia Commons.

"Kennedy certainly owes her; under her leadership the L.P. formed a joint fundraising agreement with his campaign, thus helping a candidate opposed to the L.P. raise money (while also keeping a portion of it for the L.P., and indeed the money flowing from McArdle's decision to ally with Kennedy seems to be keeping the L.P. from running out of money entirely.) Organizations she controls outside the L.P. in turn have received over $750,000 in 2024. The vast bulk went to her nonprofit Rescue the West, some from the Kennedy Joint Fundraising Committee itself and more from other PACs and operations associated with Kennedy's campaign.... This information was first reported in December by Jake Porter, a former L.P. candidate for governor of Iowa.... 

"The LNC at Sunday night's meeting created an investigatory committee to, in its language as voted on, 'investigate issues of conflict of interest and business practices of the Libertarian National Committee.' A live email ballot was in progress regarding forming such a committee that specifically referred to 'allegations of misconduct' against McArdle, with votes already cast indicating it would be created, when McArdle suddenly resigned.... 

"Looming over the proceedings was the allegation that McArdle was funneling party money to her own household, furthered by investigative work from Porter on his Substack. On January 21, he reported that under McArdle's leadership the LNC has paid over $45,000 since last February to a company called Freedom Calls for fundraising services. Porter discovered that McArdle's domestic partner and father of her child, Austin Padgett, was the incorporator of record for that entity.... The LNC had previously decided to suspend a series of monthly payments directly to Padgett in January 2024. The payments to Freedom Calls began the following month.... 

"In response to written questions from Reason about Porter's accusations regarding LNC payments to Freedom Calls, McArdle wrote: 'The LNC is reacting as best they can in the face of constant attacks by unstable litigants like Caryn Ann Harlos, and my cyber stalkers Todd Hagopian and Jake Porter. I have retained an attorney to deal with the aggressive cyberstalking by these men. I will be working with new appointees in the Trump administration to find out if the FBI and State Dept have been involved in the attacks on the LP and me.'.... Harlos is the LNC's elected secretary, who had filed a lawsuit in October seeking McArdle's removal, as reported by Reason. Hagopian is former elected treasurer of the LNC who had filed an amicus brief supporting Harlos' suit....

"The L.P.'s national board has in the past week faced an email campaign sponsored by the Mises Caucus (which has largely controlled the party since 2022) pushing for its founder Michael Heise.... McArdle firmly endorsed Heise as her successor, stressing he was the one prepared to continue her fruitful personal relationships with the Trump administration. Nonetheless, in the Zoom meeting of the LNC Sunday night, Heise lost in a 9–6 vote to Steven Nekhaila, who had been an at-large member of the LNC and threw his hat in the ring very late in the process.... 

"In the contentious questioning process from LNC members during the meeting before the chair vote he lost, Heise said, in defense of wanting to lead a third party after he endorsed and supported [Donald Trump for POTUS], that blind demands for partisanship on the part of the L.P. were insulting to would-be donors and harm outreach to potential major party converts. Heise also firmly insisted the LNC should not care about, and not seek the identities of, the unnamed donors he announced would pay him directly if he took the formally unpaid position of LNC chair....

"Nekhaila was not always a consistent party-line Mises Caucus voter, but he was part of their endorsed LNC slate at the convention in 2024. His win over Heise signifies a crack, if not a collapse, in the Mises Caucus hold on the party at the national level. Six LNC members endorsed by the Caucus in May did not vote for its founder and leader Heise Sunday night."

Read more: https://reason.com/2025/02/04/libertarian-party-gets-new-national-chair-after-angela-mcardles-surprise-resignation/

Reason on Libertarian POTUS race

Brian Doherty, the author of Radicals for Capitalism, posted a long dispatch on the Libertarian Party National Convention on the Reason website yesterday. While it was mostly devoted to The Story – Donald Trump's appearance at the convention – Doherty also reported on the POTUS nomination race within the party.

Inside the Libertarian Party's Decision To Host a Trump Speech | Reason | Brian Doherty: 

May 24, 2024 - "It's certainly unusual for small political parties to invite their most charismatic rivals to come try to steal their voters.... But the L.P. leadership faction that engineered the stunt, including National Chair Angela McArdle, counter that it has already reaped a nearly unprecedented amount of media attention, bolstering the finances of a party that for the past two years has been bleeding money and membership. 'Convention sales, and donations, have been explosive following the announcement of Trump (and others) since the beginning of this month,' said Todd Hagopian, who has been L.P. treasurer since May 2022, via email. Hagopian, who opposed inviting L.P. competitors Trump, President Joe Biden, and the attending independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr., said that full numbers won't be available until after the convention, but: 'Best period of fundraising since I've been on the board'....

"Part of the McArdle/Mises Caucus pitch for having the Trump and RFK Jr. circuses at the convention is that the much lesser-known L.P. presidential candidates will have the kind of spotlight they never otherwise would have dreamed of. And political reporters will be witnessing a nominating race that is currently wide open.

"The Mises Caucus is backing Michael Rectenwald, a former Marxist professor at New York University who became disillusioned with the politically correct 'social justice creed taking over universities all across the country.' Rectenwald railed against speech codes and microaggressions initially via an anonymous Twitter account, eventually suffering pushback from colleagues and the university. He retired in 2019 and embraced Rothbardian anarcho-capitalism. Rectenwald thinks his already-established relationships with such right-leaning media stars as Tim Pool and Glenn Beck make him the candidate most likely to bring more new attention to the party. (The Mises Caucus thinks Rectenwald has what it takes to help pivot a growing L.P. audience into being the linchpin of a new media empire.) He prides himself as being the candidate most dedicated to loudly and proudly hating the state and feels qualified to throw elbows on stage with Trump, whose foreign policy he sees as essentially indistinguishable from Biden. Rectenwald has raised over $67,000 as of the start of May.

"A wide range of party members and watchers from both sides of the divide think that the Mises Caucus will be coming into the "convention with around 40 percent to 48 percent of the body, not a dominating majority. A Mises Caucus convention strategy memo circulating this week tells members to vote Rectenwald and for Liberty Lockdown podcaster Clint Russell for vice president. (The two votes are separate, with president going first.) Another old Mises Caucus stalwart who didn't get the group's official nod, Joshua Smith, is as of this writing coming in fifth in the donation-based straw poll that will define which five of the nine candidates listed get to debate at the convention.

"Chase Oliver, another presidential hopeful, is an L.P. legend for having consigned the Republicans to a minority in the U.S. Senate in 2022, when he received over 2 percent of the vote in a Georgia Senate race, thus forcing a runoff that Republican Herschel Walker lost. He's been the only presidential hopeful to campaign in all 50 states, to "demonstrate the work ethic that I would bring to the table. So I feel great going into the convention, knowing so many delegates have gotten to see me face to face.' By doing so, Oliver believes he has beaten back the reputation his online detractors had tried to pin on him of being too lefty, too enamored of identity politics. 'I came to the party as part of the antiwar movement within the Democratic Party,' he admits, but now says he's a 'hardcore free marketer' and a straight-line Libertarian on everything from foreign policy to taxes to guns and has no tolerance for 'socialism and communism.' His appeal could roughly be described as more normie political-traditional than the fire breathers he is mostly competing with. Oliver has raised over $74,000 as of the start of May.

"Lars Mapstead, a tech entrepreneur who hit it big in early social media, is offering both an unusual strategic vision for L.P. impact and the ability to self-finance his campaign in the seven figures. Mapstead's strategy is to concentrate on the states of Maine and Nebraska, which divvy up their electoral college votes rather than being winner-takes-all, which could net an actual electoral vote or two and prevent either major candidate from getting a clean win. He tweeted following the Trump/L.P. convention booking that "I have the only plan to spoil this rotten election." He can tell he has gotten the Republican's attention, he says, because Trump's team has included him in internal polling where he's pulled about 1 percent. Mapstead has raised over $737,000 as of the beginning of May, around $719,000 of which came out of his own pocket.

"Mike ter Maat is that rarity, a Libertarian former cop (from Florida), though he stresses he was able to avoid vice squad duty or anything else that would cause him to violate libertarian principles. "You learn that your last line of defense of the Constitution is a cop in many cases," he says. In an L.P. nominating process that goes to as many rounds as it takes for someone to win a bare majority of the delegate vote, with the lowest-vote candidate dropped each round, ter Maat thinks his ability to "take support from every element of the Libertarian Party," from the Mises Caucus to the Classical Liberal Caucus to the Christian Caucus, makes him a strong contender. His large staff and "background in policy and public service" give him a combination of policy boldness and the credibility needed in a general election, he insists, where he intends to borrow as much money as necessary to run a campaign that can "disrupt American politics." Ter Maat has raised over $233,000 as of the start of May, with $209,000 of that loaned or donated by himself....

"[T]hough only Rectenwald supports the Trump appearance, the rest of the Libertarian presidential field does not seem inclined to whine about it, though all are full of comments about where they differ from Trump, from spending to trade to foreign policy to COVID lockdowns. Trump's appearance and the resulting publicity is 'something our candidate will have to overcome,' Oliver says. 'I want to be an extreme contrast to Biden and Trump, and send a loud and clear message that we are not the party of Trump.'"

Read more: https://reason.com/2024/05/24/inside-the-libertarian-partys-decision-to-host-a-trump-speech/

A brief guide to the Libertarian POTUS race

April 14, 2024 - With the U.S. Libertarian Party (LP) national convention just six weeks away, here is a quick look at the leading candidates for the LP presidential nomination. It has not been easy to find: unlike each of the past three POTUS elections, when online libertarians wrote about it extensively, there has been little written on this year's race; and most of that little has been devoted to someone who is not even a declared candidate. 

Wikipedia has a page on the 2024 party primaries with vote results, but little else. Per that source, only the following seven candidates have received 1% or more of the popular vote in Libertarian state primaries or caucuses. Note that all primary and caucus votes are non-binding, and the nominee will be determined solely by a free vote of the convention delegates    

Here are the 10 Libertarian candidates in the 2024 NC Presidential Primary | FOX Carolina:

March 5, 2024 "The Libertarian Party as a whole promotes the protection of civil liberties over government programs or intervention in almost all matters.... Below is a breakdown of the candidates....

"Charles Ballay is a doctor who has practiced in Texas and Louisiana. He grew up in New Orleans and said the diverse ethnic and cultural communities there shaped his perspectives. Key pillars of Ballay’s platform are reducing the national debt, reforming the tax code, implementing merit-based immigration, allowing state-level drug policy decisions, and simplifying healthcare regulations. Click here for more information.... 

"Jacob Hornberger is a Texas native who opened a law firm in Dallas and taught law and economics at the University of Dallas. He previously ran for the Libertarian presidential nomination in 2000 and 2020. Hornberger wants to abolish numerous government organizations including the CIA, the FBI, the NSA and the IRS. He wants to repeal programs like Social Security and Medicare, and believes in open borders. Click here for more information.... 

"Lars Mapstead is a tech entrepreneur who grew up in California. He co-created FriendFinder Networks, a group of adult entertainment and online dating websites, which was later purchased by Penthouse Media Group. His slogan is to 'unrig the system' by creating a voters’ bill of rights, shutting down the Federal Reserve, reducing federal healthcare spending and regulations, and limiting presidential powers. Mapstead, who has dealt with addiction in his own life, believes the country should be focused on a path of rehabilitation rather than criminalization for drug offenses. Click here for more information.... 

"Chase Oliver is a Libertarian activist living in Atlanta. He ran for U.S. Senate in 2022, receiving enough votes to force Herschel Walker and Raphael Warnock into a runoff race. He believes in abolishing the death penalty, simplifying the country’s immigration system and ending mandatory minimum sentencing. If elected, Oliver said he would immediately remove all federal laws criminalizing cannabis and de-schedule it. He is pro-choice and believes in protecting bodily autonomy but also wants to prevent federal funding from going toward abortions. Click here for more information.... 

"Michael Rectenwald is an author and former professor at New York University. Rectenwald, who argues the country’s two-party system is totalitarianism, used the slogan 'Rec the Regime.' He believes in abolishing government agencies like the IRS, the FBI, the CIA, the Department of Education, ATF and TSA. He opposes emergency mandates issued during the COVID-19 pandemic and would seek to investigate all agencies involved in the response. He wants to eliminate Diversity, Equity and Inclusion criteria for federal jobs. [Note: Rectenwald has been endorsed by the LP Mises caucus, by far the largest party caucus.] Click here for more information.... 

"Joshua Smith is a veteran from California and former vice chair of the Libertarian National Committee. Smith believes in eliminating the Federal Reserve, all federal income taxes, the ATF, and the Department of Education. He describes the federal response to the COVID-19 pandemic as “tyranny” and calls for an investigation into members of the task force. Smith is pro-life and believes the government has a responsibility to protect the unborn. Click here for more information.... 

"Mike ter Maat is a former police officer from Florida and economist. He has a three-point plan for ending the Federal Reserve. He also wants to strengthen border protections while eliminating aid money sent overseas. The former officer advocates for private-sector policing organizations, arguing competition for government contracts could reform law enforcement. He calls for a complete separation of church and state and has expressed concerns about government use of artificial intelligence. Click here for more about Mike ter Maat’s campaign." 

Read more: https://www.foxcarolina.com/2024/02/29/here-are-10-libertarian-candidates-2024-nc-primary-election/

LP Mises Caucus opposed to Kennedy nomination

The Libertarian Party Mises Caucus, said to control a majority of delegates to the Libertarian Party's May national convention, has issued a statement opposing the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. 

RFK Jr.’s Libertarian play | Politico | Peder Schaefer:

February 15, 2024 - "[I]n recent weeks, [Robert F. Kennedy Jr.] has appeared on CNN to float interest in the [Libertarian] party, and appeared on the podcast of a popular libertarian comedian. He is planning on attending the California Libertarian Party convention at the end of February, where he’ll be on a panel with other possible nominees.... It’s sparked a backlash within the Libertarian Party, as both the electoral-focused 'prags' who have traditionally controlled the party [for example, former Libertarian National Committee chair Nicholas Sarwark - gd] and supported more mainstream presidential candidates ... and more subversive, ideologically rigid members of the Mises Caucus speak out against his name going at the top of the ticket.

"The Mises Caucus — a more radical libertarian faction organized around the work of Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises — has been a power center within the party since its endorsed candidate, Angela McArdle, won the national committee chairmanship in a 2022 landslide victory with nearly 70 percent of the vote. It controls the majority of the delegates who will vote on the party’s presidential nominee at the national convention in May.

"While McArdle has suggested that the party may be open to a Kennedy bid, last weekend the Mises Caucus came out formally in opposition to his candidacy, making it unlikely that Kennedy has a real shot at the nomination.... 

"Michael Heise, the founder of the Mises Caucus, said that while he’s open to Kennedy running for the nomination — he says it would raise the stature of Libertarian Party discourse — nominating the Kennedy family scion would be short-sighted, even if he performed well in the general election."

Read more: https://www.politico.com/newsletters/politico-nightly/2024/02/15/rfk-jr-s-libertarian-play-00141795

Should the Libertarian Party nominate RFK Jr.? | Mises Caucus blog | Aaron Harris:

February 11, 2024 - "Over the last couple of weeks, there has been considerable speculation about whether Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. will be seeking our party’s nomination for president—and about the Mises Caucus’ position on the matter. RFK himself raised the possibility first during a Jan. 27 interview.... Then, when discussing the matter on the Feb. 5 Timcast, Josh Smith intimated that the Mises Caucus leadership favored a plan to back an RFK Libertarian bid as a means to gain higher vote totals and thus better ballot access for the LP going forward.

"This is simply false. The Mises Caucus has endorsed Michael Rectenwald for president and Clint Russell for vice president and we are working hard to see that they are nominated by our party at the Libertarian National Convention (May 23–26 in Washington, DC).

"We firmly oppose any strategy that would 'rent out' our party’s place on any state’s ballot to RFK, or indeed any candidate who has so many disqualifying deviations from the essential principles of libertarianism....  

"[O]ur goal as Libertarians must be to convince as many of our fellow men as possible of the moral and practical superiority of liberty. We can’t do that if we muddy our message to chase votes. ory supports this analysis: Gary Johnson’s strong electoral showings harmed our brand and left our active membership stagnant, while Harry Browne’s anemic vote totals resulted in the greatest period of sustained growth in the LP’s history.

"Another reason that the RFK gambit is a foolish idea is that it might actually work. If he did occupy the Libertarian ballot line and win five or even ten percent of the popular vote, millions of Americans will forever associate the LP with RFK’s policies. This would empty the LP of a large number of its most committed activists while attracting an influx of those with little or no regard for the Non-Aggression Principle.

"For this election cycle and the foreseeable future, the only sound presidential election strategy for the LP must be to nominate candidates who will present an undiluted decentralist libertarian message in hopes of awakening the remnant who favor liberty over tyranny. Among those presently willing to take up that task, Michael Rectenwald and Clint Russell are clearly the most capable."

Read more: https://lpmisescaucus.com/blog/should-the-libertarian-party-nominate-rfk-jr/

Libertarian Marc Victor polling at 15% in Arizona

In Arizona, Libertarian Party Senate Candidate Polls at 15 Percent | Reason - J.D. Tuccille:

October 14, 2022 - "Are Americans getting tired of the 'choice' between dictatorial Democrats and control-freakish Republicans? Many of us would like to think so, and evidence from the crucial Arizona U.S. Senate race suggests that at least some voters are looking for an option that doesn't represent a competing brand of authoritarianism. In that contest, Libertarian Party nominee Marc Victor is polling at 15 percent and may get a further boost from his appearance in a well-timed televised debate.

"'Live and let live. That's my position on every issue,' Marc Victor introduced himself during his opening statement at the October 6 debate, which was broadcast by PBS. 'Live your life however you choose, just let other people do the same thing'.... In a phone conversation this week, Victor expressed disappointment that he didn't get as much airtime as incumbent Sen. Mark Kelly (the Democrat in the race) and Republican challenger Blake Masters. But his appearance was enough for The New York Times to note 'he held his ground Thursday night, insisting that the moderator allow him to answer all the same questions as Mr. Kelly and Mr. Masters.' 'There could be a receptive audience for that message,' Jennifer Medina and Jack Healy added for the Times. "Roughly a third of Arizona's voters are not registered as Republicans or Democrats, and many view themselves as moderates or describe themselves as leaning libertarian." 

"In appealing to those voters, Victor, who also represented the Libertarian Party in the 2012 Senate race ultimately won by Republican Jeff Flake, emphasized the inclusive 'live and let live' message with which he opened.... 'We have the best message,' Victor told me. 'There's absolutely no question in my mind that if you are interested in freedom, in peace, in raising standards of living, we have the right message. So, I sit and scratch my head and say I've been a libertarian 30 years, why are we still in the minority?...  So, my mission, as a libertarian, has been to reboot the libertarian message. And I've done that, I've reformatted it into what I call the live-and-let-live message.'

"Ironically, one prominent Libertarian Party figure was turned off anyway. During the debate, Victor complained that 'our big problem with voting is that everything is up for a vote' and pointed to age of consent laws along with legislative representation as examples of the few issues that should be subject to political decision making. In response, Dave Smith, widely considered a contender for the 2024 Libertarian Party presidential nomination as part of the now-dominant Mises Caucus, endorsed one of Marc Victor's opponents. 'JFC,' tweeted Smith. "This guy is a clown who has absolutely nothing to do with us. He went outside the party and got the signatures to be on the ballot. Stupid AZ laws. I support Masters'....

"'If you want to see what's wrong with the Libertarian Party, look at what's going on now,' Victor told me of Smith's attack, and the prominent Mises Caucus figure's support for the very unlibertarian Masters (at last month's National Conservatism Conference in Miami, Blake Masters sniped 'Libertarianism doesn't work'). 'This is the kind of chaos that we need to get away from, and it only makes me want to separate from the Libertarian Party'....

"But, while Marc Victor is concerned about the political party, he hasn't lost faith in libertarian ideas. 'I'm putting out a very hardcore, pro-libertarian position in a very agreeable, non-threatening kind of a way,' he told me of his efforts through the campaign, which he intends to continue with a separate Live and Let Live organization. 'I think the future of this movement, whether you want to call it classical liberalism, the enlightenment, libertarianism, voluntaryism, anarcho-capitalism, whatever, I think it will be live-and-let-live-ism and that's what I'm trying to promote.'

"Arizonans, at least, seem receptive to that message. 'If the elections were held today, incumbent Democrat Mark Kelly sits at 46% support among likely voters, Republican Blake Masters at 33%, and Libertarian Marc Victor at 15%,' reports the Arizona Public Opinion Pulse Poll conducted by OH Predictive. 'Victor's 9% jump from the previous poll in early September, highly driven by Republican support, could be due to Blake Masters' struggle with his candidate image among likely voters,' add pollsters.

"The latest poll was conducted ... October 4-6, mostly before the televised debate took place.... The appearance should raise his profile, but third-party candidates tend to show up better in polling than they do on Election Day. Still, ballots are already being mailed to voters, and 89 percent of voters chose to vote early during the 2020 general election. That means Marc Victor may be gaining prominence at just the right moment to maximize support in a race that could decide control of the currently evenly divided U.S. Senate."

Read more: https://reason.com/2022/10/14/in-arizona-libertarian-party-senate-candidate-polls-at-15-percent/ 

Mises Caucus wins control of US Libertarian Party

Mises Caucus Takes Control of Libertarian Party | Reason - Brian Doherty: 

May 29, 2022 - "A four-year battle for control of the Libertarian Party (L.P.) ended Saturday in Reno with a victory for the Mises Caucus at the party's national convention. The faction's chosen candidate for chair of the party's national committee, Angela McArdle, won on the first round of balloting.... McArdle, a paralegal and current chair of the Libertarian Party of Los Angeles County, said in her speech to the convention Friday that the government response to COVID has left many working-class Americans thirsty for personal liberty, and 'we don't want to ignore them.' They have, she argued, 'low-resolution views of freedom…and we need to bring that vision into focus by communicating our message clearly and by supporting our candidates and affiliates.'

"While McArdle was the Mises Caucus candidate, the behind-the-scenes mastermind of its victory was caucus founder and leader Michael Heise. His disapproval of William Weld, Gary Johnson's running mate in 2016, was an initial inspiration for the caucus' launch.... The caucus's official platform is plumb-line libertarian, but its foes say that too many Mises Caucus members and fans downplay libertarian positions that might offend the right, are intentionally obnoxious and bullying...., The sense the caucus is soft on or actively encourages racism attracted the attention of the Southern Poverty Law Center just before the convention began, which aired the concerns in a story reported with cooperation from many Libertarian Party members upset with the Mises Caucus. Both Heise and Mises Caucus stalwart Joshua Smith, who won the vice-chair election Saturday, denied the charges of racism. 

"Heise said in a phone interview prior to the convention that the basic vibe they are seeking is online youths into edgy comedic podcasts, a new counterculture for whom the old L.P. holds little appeal. Heise believes that the current rumored frontrunner for a Mises Caucus–approved presidential nominee in 2024, comedian and podcaster Dave Smith, is so well-connected to the Joe Rogan world that legacy respectable mainstream media will be meaningless for party messaging moving forward.

"In his nominating speech for McArdle before the vote, libertarian antiwar author and podcaster Scott Horton insisted that he's seen thousands of new convention-attending members energized by the Mises Caucus in the last couple of years.... Meanwhile, during that same period, fierce factional dueling has played out in hundreds of hours of podcasts, hundreds of thousands of words of tweets and Facebook threads, and often on the business listserv of the Libertarian National Committee (LNC) itself. One such fight, summed up at length in Reason in June, involved a faction of non-Mises libertarians in New Hampshire attempting to create a new L.P. affiliate so that the national party could disaffiliate the Mises-dominated one and recognize the new one. The gambit, which ultimately failed, led to the resignation of then-national chair Joe Bishop-Henchman and caused one of the party's few elected officials, Dekalb, Illinois, City Clerk Sasha Cohen, to quit in protest as well, saying 'we are a big tent party, but no tent is big enough to hold racists and people of color, transphobes and trans people, bigots and their victims.'

"Despite bad blood, I detected no booing or walkouts today when McArdle's victory made the caucus' victory manifest. None of the anti–Mises Caucus delegates or supporters that I have spoken to at the convention — including people from Illinois, Florida, Texas, Massachusetts, and even Mises stronghold New Hampshire — said that this takeover would make them walk. Two former significant donors to the L.P., Kyle Varner and Michael Chastain, both with decadeslong history in the party, did say in phone interviews that the Mises turn, which they see as importing a level of racist edgelording they have no taste for, has made them stop funding L.P. candidates.... Varner and Chastain see a distinctly right-wing culture and policy bent from the Mises faction.... 

"The caucus also wants to completely eliminate any mention of abortion.... A document of internal Mises Caucus strategizing that began circulating before the convention explicitly said ... that 'one of the major goals of the Mises Caucus is to make the LP appealing to the wider liberty movement that is largely not currently here with us. That movement strongly rejects wokeism and the word games associated with it. This along with the deletion of the abortion plank will display that there are serious cultural changes in the party that are more representative of that movement'.... (Disgruntled non–Mises Caucus libertarians in Pennsylvania have left the L.P. and formed the new Keystone Party.)...

"Heise wrote on Facebook Friday night that his faction already controls a majority of the LNC, having swept the votes for regional representatives to the LNC in meetings Friday night.... Mises Caucus favorite Caryn Ann Harlos, who was booted by the LNC from her elected secretary position over Mises-related faction fights, re-won her elected position Saturday as well.

"The Mises Caucus people often dub themselves the revival or continuation of the Ron Paul revolution of libertarian ideas in the GOP's 2008 and 2012 presidential races. (Paul spoke at a party the caucus hosted Friday night.)... In those 2008 and 2012 races, however, Paul studiously avoided anything that might be construed as 'anti-woke' and generally avoided talking to his campus audiences about abortion and immigration, where he was at odds with many other libertarians. While the Mises Caucus might argue that the threat of progressive woke thought control was less severe then, the podcaster/memelord edgy-offensive-insult-comedy stance they often embrace is entirely opposite to how Ron Paul presented himself and won his huge audience as a presidential candidate."

Read more: https://reason.com/2022/05/29/mises-caucus-takes-control-of-libertarian-party/ 

LPNH state conflict takes down LP national Chair

The unraveling of the Libertarian Party of New Hampshire - New Hampshire Bulletin - Annmarie Timmins:

June 22, 2021 - "The war within the state’s Libertarian Party ... played out on Twitter, Facebook, and even on a nationally known podcast. It spurred allegations of data theft and prompted the party chair to secretly register a dueling Libertarian Party with the Secretary of State’s Office. It also led to the resignation Friday of Joe Bishop-Henchman, chair of the Libertarian National Committee. The national party’s regional representative for New Hampshire has also stepped down.... 

"The unraveling of the party is so complicated, several party members responded similarly when asked to explain it: 'How much time have you got?'.... This is an abridged version.

"The pandemic lockdowns ordered by Gov. Chris Sununu last year led a number of Republicans to file liberty-minded legislation seeking to restrain the governor’s emergency powers.... To some New Hampshire Libertarians, the state party did too little to oppose restrictions and champion that liberty-focused legislation. The lockdowns revealed a similar dispute over messaging that has been dividing Libertarians nationally for a few years, said Ben Richards, party member and state organizer of a subgroup within the party called the Mises Caucus.... 

"'The Libertarian Party, according to many people, has been very weak and tepid for many, many years,' Richards said. 'We want to bring the Ron Paul revolution ... to the party.' Richards said that kind of enthusiasm from the Mises Caucus has grown party membership in New Hampshire.... 'They barely had 100 members in the entire party at the state convention in March,' Richards said. 'We’ve brought in close to 30 in just the last few months, and it’s growing'.... Membership is now at about 160 people.

"During the state’s March convention, three members from each viewpoint were elected to the executive committee. Both sides have since accused the other of failing to work together. The committee had become so factionalized by June that Jarvis registered what she considered to be the new official Libertarian party with the state. She wrote new bylaws and membership rules [including a new membership oath - gd]

"Jarvis did not return a request for an interview. During questioning by national party leadership in mid-June, Jarvis said toxic messaging and efforts by other committee members to take complete control of the party led her to quietly register a new Libertarian Party. She said she believed she had the go-ahead from Bishop-Henchman because he had written her a letter recognizing her as the head of the official state party. She also acknowledged removing party property from its Manchester storage shed, and locking the rest of the state party’s executive committee out of its website and social media accounts.

"Nolan Pelletier, then the vice chair of the committee, ... filed a police report for the items missing from the storage shed, and Richards started an online fundraiser to pay for what they expected would be a drawn-out fight to reclaim their property and online access. Jarvis has since returned the items and access to the online accounts, Pelletier said. Richards said he has refunded the donations to the defense fund.

"What had been a state-level squabble led to national implications late last week when the national party leadership had to decide which of the two Libertarian parties to recognize as its affiliate. The vote played out over two days on a publicly available email thread that at times became petty.... The vote to 'disaffiliate' the long-standing state party did not go as Jarvis had hoped. She has not submitted a resignation letter, Pelletier said, but she had said she’d resign if she lost. 

"Pelletier is now acting [state] chair. He’s turned his attention to PorcFest and the party’s goal of registering loads of new members and thinks this flap may be a draw."

Read more: https://newhampshirebulletin.com/2021/06/22/the-unraveling-of-the-libertarian-party-of-new-hampshire/ 

Hornberger's narrative of wins

Hornberger's narrative of wins

by George J. Dance

May 20, 2020 - Things have certainly changed since my last post on the Libertarian Party (LP) presidential contest, back in April, just after Justin Amash had launched his exploratory committee. I concluded that post by writing: "The 2020 race for the LP nomination has not turned into a coronation of Amash. But it is now no longer a coronation of Hornberger, either. For the first time, it has become a real contest worth paying close attention to."

With Amash deciding not to run, the LP POTUS race is still worth paying attention to. However, there is a danger that it is back to being a coronation of Jacob Hornberger. Hornberger is the wrong messenger, with - not exactly the wrong message, but the wrong strategy of campaigning on that message. Despite his differing background and a belief in limited government, his is essentially the Abolitionist strategy of Murray Rothbard: the wrong strategy, out of sync with the public at large, potential libertarian voters, the majority of registered libertarians, and even (I believe) the majority of party members. Hornberger will have no easier a time getting his message across with his strategy than Vermin Supreme would; if the former gets media coverage at all, it will be only as a scary caricature.

At the same time, Hornberger could be the candidate the membership wants. After all, the LP has run three Gradualist campaigns in a row; why shouldn't the Abolitionists get a turn? Also, many vocal members, from Dave Smith to Tom Woods to the Mises Caucus to Hornberger himself, have spent the last 4 years trying to frame Gary Johnson's last campaign - the one that gave the party a record number of both voters and registrants - as a failure and even a betrayal. Finally, a different sort of framing has also been going on, with Hornberger cast as the rank-and-file members' choice opposed only by the party elite, the LP's very own Ron Paul or Bernie Sanders.

That last picture has been built through a constructed narrative that Hornberger overwhelmingly won the LP primaries. He and his supporters can be expected to puff up his record this way; but even non-Abolitionists like those at Reason have gotten in on the act. For instance, the headline of Reason's story on the Super Tuesday primaries (only one of which he won) began: "Libertarian Super Tuesday: Big Night for Jacob Hornberger...," telling those of use who might have missed it that "the trend line is unmistakable — the Libertarian front-runner at this point is longtime libertarian-movement hand and Future of Freedom Foundation founder Jacob Hornberger,"  adding for good measure at the end that, "for the moment, Jacob Hornberger is your Libertarian front-runner."

After Amash jumped into the race, Reason ran an article which told us in its second paragraph: "Hornberger, the 70-year-old founder of the Future of Freedom Foundation, has, after all, won a clear majority of the party's presidential primaries and caucuses, nonbinding though they may be."  The next day, when Amash jumped back out, Reason told us: "Jacob Hornberger has won by far the most of the party's nonbinding primaries and caucuses."

To evaluate that narrative requires examining the primary and caucus results in more detail; so let us do so. 

Hornberger won a clear majority vote in only two states, Missouri (in which he was the only person on the primary ballot) and Minnesota (after 7 rounds of instant-runoff caucus voting). He also won 47% in Iowa - a genuinely impressive win which began the narrative. He won 2 primaries - Ohio and Connecticut - with less than a third of the vote, and another - California - with less than 20%. And he won New York with no votes at all: that state's Secretary of State disqualified all the candidates but Hornberger, cancelled the LP primary, and simply declared him the winner.

Against these 7 wins we have to balance Hornberger's 4 losses, winning just under 25% in Nebraska, 9.6% in both North Carolina and Massachusetts, and no votes, again, in Maine.

Even throwing out the New York travesty, that gives the man 6 wins and 4 losses; so he definitely won a majority; possibly even a "clear majority" (of states, not of votes, or even of votes in most of the states he won). But the winner "by far'? That sounds as if the LP, in violation of all social distancing guidelines, has clutched Hornberger and Abolitionism to its bosom; which is not what the vote results look like to me at all.

Which is precisely the misleading picture this narrative of wins seems designed to convey. It sends exactly the wrong message to those who haven't chosen Hornberger: that the rest of the party has. I expect Hornberger to last until the final ballot; as other candidates drop off, and their supporters lose their own preference, they may be tempted to vote for Hornberger in the belief that they will be putting the party's interests first.

They will not. This man has trouble getting even libertarians to vote for him; and I expect him to be a disaster as a candidate. But let that wait for the morrow. 

Hornberger says US government already socialist

An Interview With Libertarian Presidential Candidate Jacob Hornberger - Gary Doan, Libertarian Republic:

February 4, 2020 - "The day of the Iowa Caucuses ... I had a chance to talk to Jacob Hornberger. He’s the president and founder of the Future of Freedom Foundation, and is currently running for the Libertarian presidential nomination with the backing of the Mises Caucus....

"TLR: I’m talking with you the day of the Iowa caucus, a contest that Bernie Sanders could actually win. As such, I’d like to start with a couple of questions about socialism. In your presidential campaign announcement video, you called the following things socialism: Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, public schooling, educational grants, farm subsidies, corporate bailouts and foreign aid to dictators. What does the US government currently do that you don’t think is socialism?

"JH: Very little, in that the primary source, the driving force in the federal government is to take care of people through the coercive apparatus of the state. It seizes money from people to whom it belongs, and it gives it to people to whom it does not belong. That is classic socialism. It embodies the Marxian principle, from each according to his ability to each according to his need.

"And many of these socialist programs came into existence as a direct result of socialists in Germany advocating them. Social Security is a primary example. The idea originated among German socialists. It was adopted by Otto von Bismarck, the so-called Iron Chancellor of Germany. It was imported to the United States and they became part of our laws in the 1930s. And it’s the same thing as socialized medicine, Medicare and Medicaid… public schooling was another German socialist idea. So whenever you have coercive redistribution of wealth or central planning [–] That’s another central feature of socialism [–]. You have socialism, even when it’s run by Americans....

"Socialism is the opposite of libertarianism, because socialism is based on coercion....

"TLR: I’d like to switch to something more specific about the nomination you’re running for and, more importantly, the purpose of running for it. What’s more important: spreading the message or getting a higher vote total?

"JH: Really, neither. I think what’s much more important is that we fight for a free society. And that’s what our goal is. We want to be free. That’s my goal.... And I’m one of those who strongly believes that there is a very realistic and distinct possibility of winning our freedom. So I see these kind of races as a way to achieve our freedom.

"Now, in the process, you have to make the case for freedom.... Reform is not freedom. You’ve got to dismantle abridgments on freedom. In the campaign ... I would be making the case for liberty ...  what we need to do to achieve a free society [and] why a free society is worth going for....  So in the process, you’re educating people."

Read more: https://thelibertarianrepublic.com/lp-presidential-candidate-jacob-hornberger/
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Libertarian Party Mises Caucus forms PAC

Mises PAC Launches to Support Libertarian Candidates Across the U.S. · 71 Republic - Michael Heise:

April 30, 2019 - "While some people counted out the Libertarian Party Mises Caucus after the 2018 national convention, we have been working diligently to grow our influence and our body of work. Spurred on by an endorsement by Ron Paul, and a slew of popular libertarian podcasters joining the LP, the LPMC now boasts over 40 organizers across the country.

"These organizers have worked hard to get several members elected as party officers at all levels of the LP, creating county affiliates where they hadn’t existed prior, creating the first-ever blockchain committee, supporting candidates such as Chad Williams, who was recently elected to city council of Choctaw City in Oklahoma, and supporting Decriminalize Denver’s effort to decriminalize psilocybin mushrooms in the city of Denver....

"Today they are unveiling their biggest project yet: Mises PAC. The Mises PAC is a hybrid political action committee that will use one bank account to donate to primarily local and county level Libertarian candidates around the country. The other account, a Super PAC, will primarily start or support already-existing ballot initiative efforts where possible and utilize issue-based coalitions to lobby at the local to state level where initiatives are not available in partnership with the fine folks at the 10th Amendment Center. In short, we are fomenting a decentralized revolution across the country.....

"The Mises Caucus hopes to bring back some of what made the Ron Paul revolution so special. Anybody that experienced it knows what I’m talking about. The energy, the cohesion, the passion, but most of all the hope that something can be done about the state and its infringements on our liberties. That can occur most effectively within our own communities to insulate ourselves from the tyranny of the federal government....

"This is a long-view game, but it can be done. Several states have legalized gold and silver as money. Several more have legalized the permitless carrying of firearms. Marijuana is now recreationally legal in 10 states and Washington DC. Alabama’s Senate recently passed a bill to remove government from marriage altogether. Psilocybin looks to be the next domino in the drug war between the Decriminalize Denver effort and Oregon’s effort to pass a medical shroom program at the state level.

"Many members of the Libertarian Party rightly complain that there is a lack of infrastructure. It’s true.... But now we have something that can support our candidates and causes wherever in the country they may be. We can’t do this alone. We need volunteers, we need money, and we need you to spread the word. Please consider signing up as a monthly supporter for as low as $5.00 a month, or signing up as a volunteer to create some new county LP affiliates, support a candidate or cause. Join our email list. It’s going to take sustained, purposeful action by a tireless minority to carry out our big break-up with the federal government.... #TakeHumanAction."

Read more, see videos: https://71republic.com/2019/04/30/mises-pac-support-libertarian-candidates/
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Sarwark re-elected Libertarian chair in landslide

Libertarian Party Rebuffs Mises Uprising - Hit & Run : Reason.com - Matt Welch:

July 4, 2018 - "The Libertarian Party on Monday afternoon re-elected in a surprising first-ballot landslide incumbent Chair Nicholas Sarwark to an unprecedented third consecutive two-year term. In doing so, the nation's third-largest political party swatted down what was supposed to be the most contentious challenge at its biannual national convention — to a leadership that was considered by various critics to be too operationally incremental, too ideologically tepid, and too (in the words of Ludwig von Mises Institute Senior Fellow and popular podcaster Tom Woods at a nearby New Orleans rally Saturday) 'SJW-friendly.'

"Sarwark's main opponent, the Mises Caucus-endorsed Joshua Smith, stumbled badly in a defensive debate performance at the New Orleans Hyatt Regency Sunday night, and ended up Monday on the business end of a 65 percent-22 percent rout. In the vice chair race, two-term incumbent Arvin Vohra, who has become a lightning rod over the past year-plus for intentionally provocative public comments such as 'Bad Idea: School Shootings. Good Idea: School Board Shootings,' was resoundingly drummed out of office, never receiving more than 11 percent of the vote in three rounds of balloting that ended Tuesday with a positivity-exuding 33-year-old finance/tech/consulting guy named Alex Merced squeaking past the 50 percent finish line.

"'What I think the race shows is that if you want to change the direction of the Libertarian Party, if you have new ideas about how we can grow and reach new members, the election of Merced to vice chair shows that the delegates want that kind of change,' Sarwark told me Tuesday afternoon. 'If your campaign is seen, or has themes of trying to kick people out, of trying to attack people like Gov. Weld, or... basically anyone — if your campaign was seen as trying to drive people out of the party, the delegates soundly rejected that. And I think that that is the biggest takeaway from the convention.'

"Weld, the controversial-within-the-party 2016 vice presidential nominee and former moderate Republican Massachusetts governor who is laying the groundwork for a possible 2020 presidential run (and was everywhere to be seen at the convention, amiably taking on all skeptical comers), played a pivotal role in the decisive debate. Candidates had the opportunity to ask their opponents one question, and when it was Smith's turn, a delegate in the audience shouted out, 'What do you think about Bill Weld?!' (Weld-heckling was a sporadic feature throughout the three-day event.) Smith decided to make that his question.

"'What I think about Bill Weld," Sarwark started slowly, building into a feisty crescendo, 'is that he is still in the Libertarian Party, while many of his opponents are not. [He's been] raising money for and endorsing Libertarian candidates. He is fundraising for us. And the exposure of Bill Weld to the Libertarian Party has not made the Libertarian Party more like an establishment Republican, but has made Bill Weld a lot more like a Libertarian....He knows something about winning public office, and [we need to] learn how to do that from anybody who will help us, anybody who will join us. And we should not PUSH PEOPLE OUT who are willing to help!'

"As New York gubernatorial candidate and popular party organizer Larry Sharpe, who had backed Smith, commented later, after that exchange it was 'game over'."

Read more: https://reason.com/blog/2018/07/04/libertarian-party-rebuffs-mises-uprising
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