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March 2026 Monthly Open Thread

For over a decade, Independent Political Report has hosted a Monthly Open Thread, providing readers with a dedicated space to share news tips, opinion pieces, and articles on topics related to American third parties, independent candidates and movements, ballot access challenges, and similar subjects looking beyond the two-party system.

Grassroots participation is a vital component of most third party and independent political movements, and IPR believes that the decentralized sharing of information in these threads plays a similarly important role in having a true understanding of such movements. Readers are also invited to provide direct updates on relevant third party events in their area.

We ask all readers participating in our Monthly Open Threads to remain respectful of others and to review the site’s Comment Policy. The editorial team may remove irrelevant or spam content at its discretion.

Please note that the views expressed in these threads are solely those of the individual commenters and do not represent Independent Political Report or its publishing organization, the Outsider Media Foundation. Information or news articles shared by the editorial team are provided for educational purposes and to enrich conversation.

5 Comments

  1. DarkStar March 15, 2026

    Somebody thoroughly researched the funding mechanism behind the lobbying of age verification laws. I think sharing/discussing this fits with this website as many third-parties are vehemently against these laws because of their inherent privacy infringing properties.

    Spoiler – Biggest funders are Meta and the Heritage Foundation.

    https://tboteproject.com/

  2. Jordan Willow Evans March 14, 2026

    LPNH 2026 State Convention Mini-Liveblog

    The Libertarian Party of New Hampshire is hosting its 2026 annual state convention today in Manchester. The event will feature leadership elections, the selection of the party’s state delegation to the Libertarian National Convention, and a keynote speech by state Rep. Travis Corcaron.

    I am not attending this event in person. Updates and details below come from individual delegates and other participants on site who have voluntarily reached out and should be understood as their accounts of what’s happening at the convention.

    • The Libertarian Party of New Hampshire’s annual state convention will begin shortly (11:00 AM). According to the agenda, it is scheduled to run until 5:00 PM.

    I’m told there may be an attempt to rearrange the agenda to place leadership elections first. More clarity on the proposed revisions. A photo of the proposed agenda is available here.

    • One prospective delegate claims the building is over capacity. They estimate 120 people inside and several dozen more outside. There are no more seats, so folks are left standing.

    • The convention is finally beginning (11:40 AMish).

    • A delegate tells me the credentials report shows 130 delegates in attendance. The report passes.

    • Receiving claims from multiple delegates that children were credentialed.

    • Delegates voted to delegate chair duties to Jeremy Kauffman for the convention. It’s worth noting that Kauffman is also seeking the party’s chair position today. Vote totals were not provided.


    To provide context, there will be challengers to current party leadership today. A candidate slate circulated online earlier in March. The slate includes the following members:

    – Kevin Wilk for Chair
    – Rachel “Blackfyre” Danner for Vice Chair
    – Steve Villee for Treasurer
    – Adam Cahoon for Secretary
    – Angela Pence for At-large
    – Conrad Nelson for At Large


    • Kauffman has defeated Wilk for the chair position. Totals haven’t been confirmed, but I’m told that a credentialed majority was 66 and Wilk received 40 votes.

    • Blackfyre states on social media that she was threatened with removal by the convention chair over making “basic points of order.” There have been no recent updates on results.

    • Blackfyre was unsuccessful in her bid for the vice chair position. Not yet sure of the name of the other candidate.

    • A delegate told me that the entire challenging slate was unsuccessful. The full delegation slate going to Grand Rapids is also sympathetic to the current state party leadership.

    • Someone who participated took video footage, including of several incidents between delegates. I will attempt to get footage.

    • There may be a challenge to the state delegation going to Grand Rapids. More on that likely won’t be in this thread.

  3. Jordan Willow Evans March 14, 2026

    I was informed last night that Brian Doherty of Reason Magazine has passed away. I’ve also seen this stated by several others individuals since then, though nothing has been confirmed.

    Update: Reason has confirmed Doherty’s passing, writing:

    We are sad to report that Senior Editor Brian Doherty has died. Brian wrote six books, including “Radicals for Capitalism,” a seminal history of the modern American libertarian movement. He had an inspiring commitment to covering the ways free people choose to live their lives, and he will be missed.

    A full obituary will appear soon at reason.com.

  4. NewFederalist March 11, 2026

    Looks like a GOP hold.

  5. Jordan Willow Evans March 11, 2026

    Georgia held a special election yesterday for its vacant 14th congressional district, sending Democrat Shawn Harris and Republican Clay Fuller to a runoff. Seventeen candidates appeared on the ballot, including Libertarian Andrew Underwood and independent Rob Ruszkowski.

    Unofficial results from the Georgia Secretary of State’s office as of this comment are below:

    Candidate NameBallot DesignationVote TotalVote Percentage
    Star BlackRepublican4730.41%
    Reagan BoxRepublican3460.30%
    Beau BrownRepublican9260.80%
    Eric CunninghamRepublican4040.35%
    Jim DavisDemocratic1,7721.53%
    Clay FullerRepublican40,38834.87%
    Tom GrayRepublican4,0783.52%
    Shawn HarrisDemocratic43,24137.33%
    Jonathan HobbsDemocratic1,0980.95%
    Nicky LamaRepublican1,3641.18%
    Colton MooreRepublican13,47211.63%
    Rob “Rush” RuszkowskiIndependent2810.24%
    Brian StoverRepublican5,4184.68%
    Megahn StricklandRepublican2960.26%
    Jim TullyRepublican1,3091.13%
    Jenna TurnipseedRepublican6330.55%
    Andrew UnderwoodLibertarian3210.28%

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