The Libertarian Policy Institute gives us its start-of-July report.
The temperatures are heating up and so are the campaigns of LPI’s recruited candidates. Here’s a snapshot of what’s happening across the country.
Mark Tashjian – Candidate for Congress in Massachusetts’ 6th Congressional District
Mark Tashjian of Beverly, Massachusetts will officially launch his congressional campaign on July 11, 2022. A small business owner who owns and operates a polo club just outside of Boston, Mark understands the challenges that small business owners face today. He understands that communities need robust solutions to their problems, ones that come outside of the Republican and Democratic parties.
To learn more about Mark and his campaign, visit www.marktashjian.com.
Kevin Kahn – Candidate for U.S. Senate, New Hampshire
Kevin Kahn, a longtime supporter of the Libertarian Party, left his home in Ohio last month to relocate to New Hampshire and pursue a run for U.S. Senate. He announced his campaign on June 7, 2022.
Prompted by a terrifying interaction with U.S. Customs and Immigration on a return trip from abroad, Kevin immediately decided to run for office on a platform to reform our country’s archaic immigration and naturalization laws.
Since announcing, Kahn has amassed a robust team of political professionals to run his campaign. Cara Schulz, longtime campaign advisor to the Libertarian National Committee, was appointed as campaign manager; Sam Robb, a Carnegie Mellon alum and interim vice-chair for People for Liberty, Inc., is serving as policy chair; and Helen Gilson, a business intelligence strategist and marketing professional is serving on the communications team.
To learn more about Kevin and his campaign, visit www.kahn4senate.com.
Ricky Harrington – Candidate for Arkansas Governor
Harrington continues to make a name for himself in the Natural State as the clear and reasonable choice for governor. Opponent Sarah Huckabee Sanders continues to face backlash this month after a poorly worded campaign promise. The Democratic opponent, Chris Jones, is drawing equal ire from voters for his kitschy policy points on education.
In order to take advantage of his opponents’ gaffes, Ricky has (turned over another burn) in his campaign by submitting topical op-eds to both statewide and national newspapers. The campaign hopes to jockey him into a position where he is seen as the preferred candidate and the only one who can be trusted with their future.
Looking ahead to this month, the campaign plans to push more media appearances and interviews. Talks are in the works for Ricky to get his own podcast.
All Eyes on Iowa
The Libertarian Policy Institute has been working in targeted states around the country to recruit candidates to provide political competition and choice to those voters who would otherwise have no candidate worth voting for in November. We are working hard to eliminate the worst kind of “wasted vote” problem, that of a voter wanting to vote for change and not having a candidate to champion that change on their ballot. This year, we launched candidate recruitment drives in both Alabama and Arkansas and our efforts afforded us much success. In Alabama, we recruited 54 top-level candidates. In Arkansas, we recruited 56.
In Iowa, incumbent politicians moved up the deadline to file for office as a Libertarian, making it prohibitively early in the year in order to prevent candidates from filing to run. They preserved the later deadlines for Republicans and Democrats. Jake Porter, the former candidate for Governor of Iowa and senior advisor for the Libertarian Policy Institute, filed a lawsuit against this discriminatory policy and won. The court pushed the candidate deadline back to August, giving us a limited window of opportunity to execute a statewide candidate recruitment drive in Iowa like the ones we have successfully completed this year in Arkansas and Alabama.
The entire recruitment drive in Iowa must be completed in the next month. We need a budget of $20,000 to do it.
We expect to recruit a similar or larger number of candidates in Iowa as we did in our other target states, bringing the cost per candidate recruited down to under $400. This is an incredible value to ensure that all Iowans have multiple Libertarian candidates on their ballot to vote for this November. Please consider helping us recruit a slate of high-quality, viable candidates who will fight for freedom in the Hawkeye State. To find out how you can help, please contact Tara DeSisto today at [email protected]
Libertarian Policy Institute members have exclusive membership benefits, such as exclusive access to Edward Snowden’s presentation at the 2022 Libertarian National Convention. It’s a must-see and just one of the many benefits we hope to roll out this year.
The Team at LPI
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