The Liberal Party USA has published its updated agenda for its inaugural national convention in early December. The event will feature a keynote address by former Illinois Congressman Joe Walsh, along with discussions from various classical liberal advocates.
Earlier this year, Independent Political Report reported on the Liberal Party USA’s plans for its first national gathering. The party announced that the event, later named the Live Life Liberally Conference, would be held in Houston, Texas, from December 6 – 8, 2024. It was learned that the convention would address the formal adoption of the party’s bylaws, including its processes for establishing state affiliates and selecting a national presidential ticket.
Since the initial announcement, the party has released additional details about the convention on its website, including a full agenda highlighting speakers and activities over the three-day event, as well as a series of updates over social media beginning this week.
On Saturday, Trish Butler, the party’s former vice presidential candidate and current interim chair, will deliver the conference’s opening remarks. The afternoon’s first panel discussion will address the revival of liberalism within the United States, and will feature nonprofit group Project Liberal’s Joshua Eakle and Tyler Harris. The conversation will be moderated by Andy Craig.
Former Republican Congressman and 2020 presidential candidate Joe Walsh will deliver the conference’s keynote address later that same afternoon. Following him, another discussion is scheduled between several former elected officials, including Butler—who also served as a Clarksville City Councillor in Tennessee, former Nebraska State Senator and 2024 presidential candidate Laura Ebke, and former New Hampshire legislator Kevin Craig. That panel will be moderated by former town councilmember Apollo Pazel of Coppertown, Utah.
Utah State Auditor John Dougall is also scheduled to address delegates later on Saturday, although the party has not yet shared what his speech will address. Dougall, a Republican who was first elected to the role in 2012, was most recently reelected in 2020 but opted not seek reelection this year to unsuccessfully run for the Republican nomination in Utah’s third congressional district.
Sunday’s programming will include a presentation on the party’s electoral strategy moving forward, delivered by Pazel, and a panel on state party organizations featuring Butler, Jen Moore of Pennsylvania, Daryl D’Angelo of New Hampshire, and Schuyler Windham of Nebraska. Former Libertarian National Committee Chair Whitney Bilyeu of Texas was later added to the panel, according to the Liberal Party USA website. The convention will conclude with a breakout session for delegates to discuss paths forward for the party.
Editorial Note: Independent Political Report is owned and supported by the Outsider Media Foundation, a nonprofit organization currently chaired by Whitney Bilyeu. Andy Craig is a former contributor to Independent Political Report. Neither individual was contacted for nor contributed to this article.
I really don’t mind another political party showing up but, who came up with the name?
I have been in the Libertarian Party since 2009 (2010 dues paying member) and I have wasted so much time having to explain the Libertarian isn’t the crazy left “Liberal” part of the Democrats. Since so many voters stop reading after Lib of Libertarian.
@Bill
“Essentially, a group of left wingers. So glad they left the LP.”
The party whose presidential candidate was Laura Ebke is a group of left wingers, but the party whose presidential candidate was Chase Oliver aren’t? I’m sorry, but that’s going to need some explaining – How can that be? Were either or both nominations uncharacteristic of the party? Did they swap candidates? Or what?
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@Stewart Flood
“I would challenge anyone who believes in the corrupt mises caucus leadership on whether they are actually libertarians or fascists in disguise.”
The Mises Caucus is the most libertarian and least fascist – or perhaps more accurately, the least anti-libertarian and most anti-fascist – faction of the Libertarian Party. What am I being challenged to exactly? A debate? A duel? A hotdog eating contest? Saying the Greek alphabet backwards while hanging upside down in a swing carousel?
If you check your history books, you will find that the people who survived the Titanic left before it went under. I left a little bit over four years ago. No one would accuse me of being a “left winger“. Liberal party USA is not a “left winger“ party, no matter what bile spews out of your keyboard claiming it is.
In fact, I would challenge anyone who believes in the corrupt mises caucus leadership on whether they are actually libertarians or fascists in disguise. Or worse. Trump Republicans.
Essentially, a group of left wingers. So glad they left the LP.
@Steven Berson cc. NewFederalist
The word “liberal” needs to be taken back from the totalitarians. And anyone who is both so ignorant as to not know what liberalism actually means, yet simultaneously so narrow-minded and disinterested in becoming less ignorant as to shut their eyes/ears as soon as they see/hear the word “liberal”, would never have been open to hearing the message of (classical) liberalism anyway. Nor are they the type whose fickle support one should want to have, much less seek to win.
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@Andy
Joe Walsh has his share of problems and then some – very unreliable, including outside of politics; constantly flip-flopping to play to his perceived electorate; crazy enough to not only preemptively endorse “whoever the Democrats run against Trump” in both 2020 and 2024, but then stick with that endorsement in both the case of Biden and of Harris – but the same can be said for most Libertarian Party candidates. Certainly Walsh would have been a less bad presidential nomination for the Libertarians Part than Johnson, Jorgensen and Oliver – just like he is a less inappropriate speaker for this convention than, say, cultural marxist LINO Bilyeu.
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Are these people who wanted to cram Joe Walsh down our throats for the Libertarian Party’s presidential nomination? Fortunately he got run out.
The word “liberal” needs to be taken back from the totalitarians. People who are both so ignorant as to not know what liberalism actually means, i.e. classical liberalism, yet also so narrow-minded that they will shut their ears in reaction to the word, are not people who would ever be open to hearing the message of (classical) liberalism, nor people who’s fleeting support one should desire.
The name is only part of their problem
https://thirdpartywatch.com/2024/10/21/opinion-the-era-of-parties-is-over/
I totally agree! Liberal is DOA! Perhaps Federal Party since the idea is to promote government at three levels and that is the textbook definition of federal.
For this group to have any traction at all beyond a very small niche that read Bastiat and knows what a “classical liberal” is – they need a rebrand asap – because so many people that would otherwise possibly be open to hearing the message this nascent party is trying to convey will just shut their ears as soon as the word “liberal” is seen. Not quite sure what would be the best name for it, but it should include both freedom and responsibility in its wording, and it needs to roll off the tongue easily.