The Libertarian Party is convening in Grand Rapids, Michigan, this week for its 2026 national convention. The event will run from Thursday, May 21, through Monday, May 25, at DeVos Place and the Amway Grand Plaza.
In keeping with tradition, Independent Political Report is hosting this open thread for readers following the convention from the floor, livestream, social media, group chats, or wherever else. If you are attending in person, feel free to share what you’re seeing or hearing between sessions.
A public livestream of the convention is also available through the Libertarian Party’s official YouTube channel. It is reshared below, along with other pertinent documents for easy access and reader context. As new streams are produced, this thread will be updated, with streams listed in order of the most current first.
IPR’s commenting guidelines still apply, though we may loosen moderation during parts of the convention so the conversation can move a little more naturally. Comments are typically held before publication, so please be patient if yours does not appear right away.
Independent Political Report is published by the Outsider Media Foundation, a nonpartisan 501(c)(3) nonprofit that seeks to expand public awareness and understanding of American third parties and independent candidates.
A list of state delegation allocations is available here. This data is based on calculations shared by the national party last year and does not include specific alternate totals.
Chair Candidates
Round 1 Vote
Round 2 Vote
Round 3 Vote
Evan McMahon
187
241
320
Wes Benedict
125
110
Eliminated
Rob Yates
42
Eliminated
Eliminated
Jeremy Kauffman
31
Eliminated
Eliminated
James Ostrowski
195
236
265
Stephen Phillips
5
Eliminated
Eliminated
Write-ins
2
12
1
NOTA
5
4
12
Vice Chair Candidates
Round 1 Vote
Round 2 Vote
Round 3 Vote
Jorge Besada
24
Eliminated
Eliminated
Charles Essner
166
216
259
Bryce Thon
23
Eliminated
Eliminated
Tony D’Orazio
113
100
Eliminated
Kevin Reed
35
Eliminated
Eliminated
Amanda Griffiths
202
261
297
Stephen Nass
23
Eliminated
Eliminated
Write-ins
3
1
0
NOTA
5
11
21
Secretary Candidates
Round 1 Vote
Round 2 Vote
Round 3 Vote
Lana Leguia
114
76
Eliminated
Theodore Zalesiak
86
Eliminated
Eliminated
Bryce Thon
153
200
199
Jonathan McGee
195
263
319
Write-ins
3
0
0
NOTA
11
16
23
Treasurer Candidates
Round 1 Vote
Douglas Knebel
311
Aaron Toman
159
Write-ins
0
NOTA
13
At-large Candidates
Round 1 Vote
Round 2 Vote
Post-convention Appointment
Nicholas Sarwark
130
Eliminated
Eliminated
Keith Thompson
273
Elected
Elected
Catrina Rocco
175
*
N/A
Steven Nekhaila
237
*
Appointed
Joe Weeks
140
Eliminated
N/A
Greg Deal
175
*
N/A
Leighton Radner
152
*
N/A
Charles Essner
198
*
N/A
Richard Longstreth
235
*
Appointed
Kelly Nguyen
276
Elected
Elected
Ed McLean
132
Eliminated
N/A
Blake Huber
114
Eliminated
N/A
Brittany Kosin
199
*
N/A
Tony D’Orazio
225
*
N/A
Bill Redpath
323
Elected
Elected
Rob Hodgkinson
119
Eliminated
N/A
Kevin Reed
138
Eliminated
N/A
Jocelyn Jeffries Fry
115
Eliminated
N/A
Pat Ford
204
*
N/A
Write-ins
10
*
N/A
NOTA
2
*
N/A
Judicial Committee Candidates
Round 1 Vote
Results
Mark King
79
Not Elected
Nick Ciesielski
212
Not Elected
Nathan Gage Madden
218
Not Elected
Andrew Chadderdon
166
Not Elected
Nolan Schmidt
138
Not Elected
Avens O’Brien
387
Elected
Mike Seebeck
267
Not Elected
Ken Krawchuk
246
Not Elected
Blay Tarnoff
235
Not Elected
Roger Roots
282
Not Elected
Ken Moellman
373
Elected
Charlie Larkin
163
Not Elected
Jake Porter
301
Not Elected
Hector Roos
215
Not Elected
Caryn Ann Harlos
215
Not Elected
Stephan Kinsella
275
Not Elected
Marc Montoni
224
Not Elected
Write-ins
9
Not Elected
NOTA
2
Not Elected
Proposals (In Numerical Order)
Outcome
Notes
Election of LNC Officers
Failed
*
Combine LNC Removal Process
Failed
*
Electronic Voting
Passed
*
Alt. Voting Procedures
Failed
*
Voting Procedures and Motions
Passed
*
Officer Membership Requirements
Failed
*
Debating and Voting on Bylaws
Failed
*
Restructure LNC
Failed
*
Ethics
Passed
Final version was amended
Expand Platform and Credentials Committee Working Windows
Presidential and Vice Presidential Nominations, NOTA Winning
Passed
Taken up on Monday
Limit Convention Committee Alternates
*
*
Judicial Committee Rules
*
*
Delegate Allocations and Deadlines
*
*
Differentiate Dues from Other Contributions
*
*
Raise Dues
*
*
Judicial Committee Appeals Procedure
*
*
Affiliate Parties
*
*
Application of Statement of Principles
*
*
Presidential and Vice Presidential Tokens
*
*
Life Memberships
*
*
Jordan Willow Evans
Jordan Willow Evans is an editor and policy analyst based in Goffstown, New Hampshire. She serves as managing editor of Independent Political Report and executive director of the Outsider Media Foundation, a nonprofit news organization focused on independent and alternative political movements. She has studied third parties and political outsiders since her student years.
Apologies for the delay. I will try to fill in the gaps this evening. For now, the newly elected Libertarian National Committee has voted to disaffiliate the Libertarian Party of New Hampshire. The vote was 15 in favor, two opposed, and one abstention. More details to come.
* We’re back on bylaws, more specifically proposal 12. A vote is underway. Motion carries.
* The motion to consider the two amendments was defeated. It failed to reach a two-thirds majority.
* Business carries on. If the party runs past its 2:00p ET cutoff, it will start incurring additional venue costs. Delegates are voting on whether to suspend the rules to take up the eighth and ninth platform amendments. As a reminder, here is the Platform Committee Report.
* There is ANOTHER new livestream feed. The article has been updated once more to reflect the current stream.
* No recess for the hungry. Delegates are debating whether to set aside the orders of the day and power through. Some delegates want to take up the eighth and ninth platform amendments.
* There will be a second round of at-large voting. This round will exclude all candidates who fell under 150 votes during the first.
* New livestream is up! At-large results are also coming in. Delegates debated whether to simply accept the top five vote-getters, but the motion failed. Before this, delegates also voted on whether to take up the top five vote-getters in the Judicial Committee race after an appeal of the chair’s ruling. That appeal also failed.
* Chase Oliver, the Libertarian Party’s 2024 presidential nominee, delivered a speech to delegates. The feed has since been dropped with no updated stream yet available.
* Doug Knebel has been elected the next treasurer. There was a brief glimpse of individual state vote totals, which offered some interesting context. Several delegations had limited or no votes registered in the treasurer’s race, including Massachusetts and New Mexico. New Hampshire had only one voting delegate, who went for NOTA.
* A resolution is under consideration that would appoint the rest of the Judicial Committee based on the next-highest vote-getters. There is some question as to whether that is appropriate through a resolution. Chair Steven Nekhaila finds the resolution is not in order.
* At-large speeches are underway! They’ll be one minute each.
* Regarding yesterday’s incident involving Jeremy Kauffman, he shared a video and gave his account of what happened.
* Happy Memorial Day! Today is the final day of the Libertarian National Convention. If I correctly understood the credentials report, 627 primary delegates are accounted for today.
The Chair just asked Security to remove Jeremy Kauffman from the convention hall.
Dan Reale
May 24, 2026
I have to say this, as someone who Chaired a State Affiliate, ran a lot of campaigns, raised money, did actual party building stuff including get people in elected office…
Anyone seriously running for Chair to OF a political party TO disband that Party (a political party) is definitively far more schizophrenic and low IQ than the people he had recent road rage with. It is oxygen deprived brain damage to suggest that NOT nominating or running candidates furthers a political party’s interests. Anyone making that sort of pitch is too stupid to drive or safely interact with others, never mind knowing what room he belongs in. It is dumber than the CEO of WalMart telling customers to “Try Target”. When we let these type of people have any fiduciary role or power in any level of the LP, it’s because we are so open minded that our brains have fallen out, even entertaining it, only to drive away people that have spent, raised, given millions and many hundreds of hours of their lives, only to have THAT sort of person just rip it all apart by having a party megaphone/social media account. That’s precisely why we have these cycles of failure – we don’t show these clowns the door. The hell with that this time around.
Bad things happen when we give people who actively refuse to read a room any sort of position, and then claim they are entitled to self gratify themselves, in front of and in obstruction to people in the room to do productive things – and doing it in a manner that KEEPS Rs and Ds in power, the wars going and the inflation roaring more than ever. These types of people are too infantile and selfish to let us actually build a party in peace. They get off on this. There’s no principle to it. It’s just sadistic, bad human being stuff that doesn’t belong outside of the house.
And that sort of person needs to be asked why, especially if they just came a time zone away and several hundred miles to mentally pleasure themselves, why not just stay in the privacy of one’s home with a moist towel instead, and not show us your junk?
That sort of person and thing is a real buzzkill for someone who works hard and builds something meaningful over a long period of time. You’re out there slugging sigs, or trying to get people elected, but instead, wait for it:
– Some rando meme circulates from an affiliate about legalizing cocaine (as if it’s the most pressing, relevant thing anyone could come up with)
– Some party officer comes out, says let’s abolish age of consent laws, and he just killed your board of ed slate because your guy now has to convince people we’re not child dilders
– Some state affiliate is putting out dank memes about threats to whack the opposition in favor of property taxes (literally), so our candidates have to scramble and explain, “No, you can safely disagree with me. I don’t believe in solving political disputes by whacking people like Goodfellas.”
AND any of that is IF anyone seeings this repeating shit show even gives you the time of day and ISN’T so convinced you’re already nuts being affiliated with people who just plain don’t belong in any meaningful position in ANY political party.
There’s got to be a relevant, reasonable alt-middle we can do, and make libertarian stuff happen in office. We just seem to let the Woketarian COVID Cult or Professional Asshole Mises types grab the microphone (then use it to inflict punishment or mental masturbation or both at the same time), and it’s far more about the microphone than the boring stuff that actually gets people elected by building party machiner.
I’m already against the next faction warlords. They need to stay home and jerk off. Not a single one of them should have gotten remotely close to a debate stage with legitimate chair candidates who actually know how to build a party such that he could pleasure himself into as many pairs of eyes and ears observing it as humanly possible.
We have to screen for these people and boost them on day one. They serve nothing but their own impulse and gratification… so you can have more wars, more inflation and more crypto people in jail, etc. And not one iota of their lack of people skills or intentional lack of respect will get a single person out of jail or not put in jail, ever. Boost them on day one. They are that useless. Time to have standards, for once. We might risk growing the party that way.
VC Round 3 results
Amanda Griffiths 297 (51.47%)
Charles Essner 259 (44.89%)
NOTA 21 (3.64%)
Dan Reale
May 24, 2026
Wish I could have made this one – have a family emergency.
That said, all I’d have to add to the convention is this… a few things to share and ponder:
1. Do we believe in the free market? Good. Let’s go to what the free market (voters) are telling us…
2. The Party really needs to do some soul searching on getting serious. There needs to be a focus on what Parties do: (a) worker bees; (b) money; (c) ballot (ABC’s of Being a Party) access before ANY sort of position statements, issues positions (any stuff fixating on messaging) occurs. We candidates are getting knee capped before anything can take off, post Mises fallout. It’s only gotten worse. ALL OTHER EFFORTS are literally a waste until that gets cleaned up such that donors can justifiably return. As much as we’d all like a bottom up party, that damage starts at the top where the Convention must simply start the work to clean it up. If a particular action isn’t PROVEN to contribute to A, B or C without being a net detractor from A, B or C, then there’s just no plain business in even considering it at this point. Let’s stop ninnying about position statements about who should not be in jail, which only only got ONE person out of jail, ONE, in the Party’s entire history at the direct expense of changing laws and electing people to free millions… and the guy who gave us Ross Ulbrict back took damn near everything we had to offer in exchange.
3. We fail because we’re too nice to stupid stuff clearly known to NEVER work. To that end, I don’t think New Hampshire should be in the same room unless the affiliate can get its head straight. The news it’s been making (i.e. death threats on social media) has been terminally caustic to the Party moving forward. I wouldn’t even know how many crayons it could take to explain how far off the rails this has gotten. As much as I horribly detest property taxes, it’s never okay to go out and say people should get whacked for discussing such a horrible idea. Anyone saying people should literally get whacked for making public statements they disagree with truly doesn’t believe in their own argument against the public statements at issue. Such people have no right to complain that we are ineffective when their tactics are a direct proximate cause for such ineffectiveness at this point. And intentionally not nominating candidates for office in addition to those statements is an intentional disregard for the mission, function and purpose to the Libertarian Party. The affiliate’s present headspace is simply in the wrong room. Nothing wrong with saying to New Hampshire LP’s leadership that we disagree, we will never agree, and please LEAVE, QUIT, GO and find/found your own organization instead of making it a point to terminally impair ours. It’s a 100% right of free association to go out and do something better if one thinks they can advance the cause of liberty that way. Time to say, just respectfully, “Dude, you’re in the wrong room. Go to the room that does mental masturbation pretending it’s advancing freedom, because it’s not.” It’s totally a different matter to intentionally damage an organization and usurp a brand, its good will and its trademark because you disagree with the owner of that brand’s mission statement, function and purpose. Being in party leadership and a delegate is a privilege to serve the membership and the mission, not a right to convert party resources to yell whatever whack-a-loon screed it may cathartically bleat invective nonsense. The privilege of serving comes with fiduciary responsibility and obligation to further the mission – get Libertarians elected to do Libertarian stuff in public office. There’s a point where the edge lording tactics were demonstrated to be caustically and terminally ineffective, which we have long since passed. It is time for people who do not want Libertarians elected or to take adult steps (those ABCs) to get them in fact elected to simple admit the fundamental disagreement and just leave in peace.
4. Thomas Massie is gone. And the Tea Party Republicans never panned out on spending either. And… Trump… Having beaten that horse in to the glue factory sans Ron Paul Revolution after Barry Goldwater, that discussion is over. Time to get over it… and NEVER try that again.
Just food for thought. Just the same points that have been raised, re-raised, and to which no belaboring would serve any further constructive purpose.
Good luck, have fun, make friends and find productive points of agreement.
Darryl: I’ve been following all weekend, and they haven’t done so yet. There’s still a business session Monday, so maybe there’s a chance?
——–
* Amanda Griffiths has defeated Charles Essner to become the next vice-chair of the Libertarian National Committee. Totals pending. Other officer candidate speeches beginning.
* There is a motion to suspend the rules to take up a resolution remembering the fourth anniversary of the Uvalde school shooting. That motion fails.
* Foundation plug: If you’re enjoying this thread or finding it useful, please consider supporting this work with a donation to the Outsider Media Foundation.
* The party choir keeps trying to sing during the downtime while voting takes place, and they keep getting turned down. 🙁
* First-round vice chair results are in, with Essner, D’Orazio, and Griffiths as the top three. Vote totals are pending. A vote is underway on whether the second round will be limited to those three candidates.
* While voting is happening, awards are being distributed. They are as follows:
– Samuel Adams Activism Award: Pat Ford, Bob Johnston
– Thomas Paine Communication Award: Michael Munger, Cara Schulz
– Benjamin Franklin Candidate Award: Aaron Starr, Jim Turney
– Patrick Henry Candidate Award: Tom Pruss
– Thomas Jefferson Leadership Award: Michael Pakko
– 2026 Hall of Liberty: Justin Amash, Paul Jacob, Jo Jorgensen
* Vice chair candidates have been nominated. Kevin Reed of Massachusetts, who participated in the pre-nomination debate, was not among them.
* Evan McMahon has defeated Jim Ostrowski to become the next chair of the Libertarian National Committee. Totals pending.
* Vice chair debate is underway! Second rounds results for chair are up. Wes Benedict drops out to endorse Evan McMahon.
* The motion fails. It had a majority but not two-thirds.
* A motion is put forward by Scott Horton to withdraw the Libertarian Party from the International Alliance of Libertarian Parties (also sometimes called Libertarian International). He wants the motion to be considered during the period that vote tabulations are being conducted.
* The motion initially passed, prompting calls for division. Kauffman remains a credentialed delegate but is not allowed in the main room. On division, Chair Steven Nekhaila finds the motion fell short of the two-thirds threshold, meaning Kauffman was not ejected from the convention.
* A vote is underway on whether to remove Jeremy Kauffman from the convention room over remarks he made after conceding the chair race (he also “endorsed” Evan McMahon). Removal of his wife is also mentioned. Voting underway.
Ben Weir, the current alternate for Region 6, said the following on social media about the earlier mentioned assault claim:
From an eyewitness of the Allgood altercation at the Libertarian National Convention:
LNC delegate Alexa Maffei was caught stealing entire stacks of a Free State Food network magazine that was left out by another New Hampshire delegate to promote his business.
She was confronted by Andrew Allgood and one other NH delegate, when suddenly Allgood assaulted Ms. Maffei by hitting her across the face. Allgood swung with so much force that his hand followed through and also hit the NH delegate in the face, causing them to lose their glasses. An eyewitness said that there was an immediate attempt at narrative control, saying “this is what happens when you steal things.”
A shouting match ensued and Allgood was promptly detained and arrested by local police.
Allgood does not belong in the Party and should be expelled from both LPNH and National membership. It is absolutely unacceptable that Moffei was stealing literature as well, and that should be dealt with in an appropriate manner too.
The escalation to physical violence is unnecessary… especially given that it was a male hitting a female. (Yes, this matters.)
At this point, anyone defending Allgood is manipulating you. Don’t listen to them.
When coming together for official Party business, we should act and dress like responsible adults. We should be allowed to have civil discourse over the direction we want our Party to go without resorting to stealing or violence.
This shouldn’t need to be said, but apparently it does.
* Ford gave his keynote speech. Chair results coming soon.
* A delegate from Pennsylvania is arguing that the vote should be held so that the delegate who was slapped is able to cast her vote. There are mentions on the livestream of her needing an ambulance.
* It’s roughly 10:30a ET, and a delegate is claiming there was an assault and battery incident in the lobby that culminated in an arrest. The alleged incident reportedly involved someone from New Hampshire slapping a woman. That person is facing a credentials challenge and has now been decredentialed by the body. Someone else claimed the woman took something from the New Hampshire resident prompting the incident.
* Chair elections are underway. A table has been added above. There’s a question of whether Jeffrey Kauffman was intentional or an accident.
* O’Brien and Moellman are the winners of the JC vote. They will fill the other five seats through a future caucus. This was challenged by delegates, but Chair Steven Nekhaila ruled there would be no second round. Appeals of his ruling are attempted.
* While the main focus this weekend is the convention, other party business is also taking place during the off-hours. If you’ve checked the public Business List recently, you may have seen that a new Mid-Atlantic Region has been organized, consisting of Virginia, North Carolina, Maryland, South Carolina, West Virginia, and Washington, D.C. Another new region, called the Badland Region, has been established and will consist of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Dakota, and South Dakota. The former has not yet said who will represent it, while the latter has named Joe Hannoush of Florida as its regional representative and Omar Recuero of Florida as alternate.
* It’s now Sunday! We’re waiting on an updated convention stream. The Outsider Media Foundation’s own Ford Fischer is one of the speakers this morning and will be talking about his media organization News2Share and the significance of independent journalism. He was also involved in an earlier morning panel.
Andy
May 23, 2026
It’s Roger Roots, with an s at the end of his last name, not Root.
* Judicial Committee elections are beginning. I will attempt to track results above. I’m sure I’m doing unspeakable things to the spelling of some names, but I will correct them when I’m on my laptop.
* The Bylaws Report is tabled for now to allow for delegates to take up Judicial Committee elections.
* As of 2:40p ET, 606 primary delegates and 18 alternates are present.
* Justin Amash delievered his keynote speech. Business has resumed.
* The convention has adjourned for lunch. I believe it’s until 2:00p ET.
* In the interest of ease, I have moved the table of results to the body of the article instead of constantly updating my response from yesterday.
* Paulie: Good to see you! Believe it or not, someone mentioned your name during today’s bylaws amendment discussion. Praise to your petitioning skills.
* As of 11:30a ET, 604 primary delegates and 16 alternates are present. Delegates are actively being added.
* A lot has happened in this debate, more than I can summarize cleanly in a few bullet points. But Kauffman just made a reference to something that recently played out in New Hampshire, which people outside the state may not immediately recognize. For those who followed the affiliate’s state convention, Corcoran was also its keynote speaker.
* The debate for chair of the Libertarian National Committee is now. Candidates participating include James Ostrowski, Jeremy Kauffman, Steven (sp?) Phillips, Evan McMahon, Wes Benedict, and Rob Yates. Video is in the article above.
* I didn’t mean to cause so much confusion over my Barr comment, lmao. What I meant was that a delegate invoked him as an example of why the party needs officer membership requirements. I was just surprised to see him used as the example, since it’s been two decades since he served on the LNC.
* I’m not sure who is participating in the chair debate, but Jeremy Kauffman said on X that he would be one of the candidates after all
* It’s Saturday! The chair debate is expected to begin in roughly 10 minutes (9:30a ET). If it’s anything like it has been so far, the next livestreams will go up on the party’s YouTube channel around the same time business begins.
Paul Frankel
May 23, 2026
I tried to comment on Jake Porter’s substack and my comment was rejected because allegedly my email is not valid. It is valid. It works. Try it. [email protected] and I no longer check any other email except maybe once or twice a year if that but that one forwards the emails to my SMS text messages which I actually do get from which I reply to your email and that is where you get it. Rinse Leather repeat.
Anyway I have to post it here so hopefully he sees it.
I used to actually care. Now I just rubberneck at the pile up wreck every once in a while for old times sake.
—
Apparently I can’t get back to what my comment for the porter blog was but the jist was a suggestion to pin the live blog article at least for the duration of the meshuggeneh big tent circus / revival since I’d just about given up looking for it before spotting it pinned under three older articles.
My additional comment for ipr
“Bob Barr catches a stray from a delegate.
^^
What does that mean?”
I’m also mildly curious as to what that might mean. Not curious enough to watch the videos.
All in all, it was a pleasant and harmonious day. Not quite everyone got their way on everything but debate was rational and polite.
Credentialing was largely straightforward. Someone tried to sneak nine Michiganders, including Mr. Chadderdon, into the convention as New Mexico delegates. The bylaws require that any delegation must include at least one New Mexico delegate, but none were present, so their presence as delegates was rejected. Then someone tried to introduce a person as a New Mexico delegate, but it was observed that the person had attended the New Mexico State convention and specifically rejected as a delegate, so he was ineligible under state bylaws. The DC delegation, all two people, was ineligible for the same reason, a detail that needed later correction.
The agenda was adopted more or less as presented. We advanced to bylaws amendments. Many of them were rejected. Debate was civil at more or less all times. The floor’s two serious users of Roberts Rules of Order, Mr. Starr, and Ms. Harlos, both played polite and entirely positive roles in advancing debate. Our keen observer of the Mises caucus observed that they appeared to have lost more or less all votes on which there was plausibly a faction position.
The motion on honesty and use of titles for raising money by LNC members was discussed and found to need a bit more polishing. We return to that tomorrow. The motion on seasoning as passed, appeared to require that officers be sustaining members for at least two years before being elected. Note that bylaws debates on the live stream can be a bit obscure, so I may be in error.
There were a few negatives. Morning started an hour late. Afternoon started 20 minutes late. There were reports that the LNC had not paid for livestreaming, so there would be none, but in the end there was livestreaming. The two keynote speakers were Ammon Bundy and an advocate, so far as I could tell, for the Free State Project. Attendance was small a bit over 500. Mr. Martin was brought to order twice in a short period of time and warned that if it happened again the chair would ask the convention what should be done. [Addendum; Jeremy Kauffman spoke and was roundly booed until the national convention was brought to order.]
* An Arkansas delegate has been moved to Oklahoma. Bylaws compliance is expected.
* The motion to decredential the D.C. affiliate’s delegates has failed.
* Credentials have been brought back up. D.C. is again facing a challenge over whether its delegates can be seated, as both are from outside the district.
* Credentials report update has the convention at “578 primary delegates.”
An updated livestream is now above! The credentials report is currently being discussed.
——-
* The convention is in recess until 2:00p ET.
* The credentials report has been adopted. The agenda is up next and has been adopted.
* The D.C. delegation has also come up, as both of its delegates are from out of state. Delegates are questioning whether D.C.’s delegation can be seated if New Mexico’s delegates cannot be.
* Other state delegations are looking to add members, including to Ohio, Oregon, and New Mexico once again.
* A discussion is underway over whether New Mexico can seat several delegates from Michigan. Unsure of the specifics leading up to this current moment. The motion is ruled out of order.
I’m trying to locate a current one! Last night’s session was posted to YouTube shortly after someone from OMF asked whether there would be streaming this year, so I’d take that to mean the party plans to do the same for the other days. I just haven’t found today’s stream yet.
Aloysius
May 22, 2026
Is there a live stream or are they going to destroy the party in darkness?
J. M. Jacobs
May 21, 2026
Proposal 9, as worded, would prevent things like someone using “Go Fund Me” to get to LNC meeting would violate this bylaw, if adopted.
Give me that old fashioned purging
Give me that old fashioned purging
Give me that old fashioned purging
It’s good enough for me
If it’s good enough for Evan
If it’s good enough for Evan
If it’s good enough for Evan
It’s good enough for me
The Libertarian National Committee sings Wonderwall
https://youtube.com/shorts/I2dbDxUUs8o?si=6mrDirHuE9mmT1bd
Apologies for the delay. I will try to fill in the gaps this evening. For now, the newly elected Libertarian National Committee has voted to disaffiliate the Libertarian Party of New Hampshire. The vote was 15 in favor, two opposed, and one abstention. More details to come.
* We’re back on bylaws, more specifically proposal 12. A vote is underway. Motion carries.
* The motion to consider the two amendments was defeated. It failed to reach a two-thirds majority.
* Business carries on. If the party runs past its 2:00p ET cutoff, it will start incurring additional venue costs. Delegates are voting on whether to suspend the rules to take up the eighth and ninth platform amendments. As a reminder, here is the Platform Committee Report.
* There is ANOTHER new livestream feed. The article has been updated once more to reflect the current stream.
* No recess for the hungry. Delegates are debating whether to set aside the orders of the day and power through. Some delegates want to take up the eighth and ninth platform amendments.
* There will be a second round of at-large voting. This round will exclude all candidates who fell under 150 votes during the first.
* New livestream is up! At-large results are also coming in. Delegates debated whether to simply accept the top five vote-getters, but the motion failed. Before this, delegates also voted on whether to take up the top five vote-getters in the Judicial Committee race after an appeal of the chair’s ruling. That appeal also failed.
* Chase Oliver, the Libertarian Party’s 2024 presidential nominee, delivered a speech to delegates. The feed has since been dropped with no updated stream yet available.
* Doug Knebel has been elected the next treasurer. There was a brief glimpse of individual state vote totals, which offered some interesting context. Several delegations had limited or no votes registered in the treasurer’s race, including Massachusetts and New Mexico. New Hampshire had only one voting delegate, who went for NOTA.
* A resolution is under consideration that would appoint the rest of the Judicial Committee based on the next-highest vote-getters. There is some question as to whether that is appropriate through a resolution. Chair Steven Nekhaila finds the resolution is not in order.
* At-large speeches are underway! They’ll be one minute each.
* Regarding yesterday’s incident involving Jeremy Kauffman, he shared a video and gave his account of what happened.
* Happy Memorial Day! Today is the final day of the Libertarian National Convention. If I correctly understood the credentials report, 627 primary delegates are accounted for today.
The Chair just asked Security to remove Jeremy Kauffman from the convention hall.
I have to say this, as someone who Chaired a State Affiliate, ran a lot of campaigns, raised money, did actual party building stuff including get people in elected office…
Anyone seriously running for Chair to OF a political party TO disband that Party (a political party) is definitively far more schizophrenic and low IQ than the people he had recent road rage with. It is oxygen deprived brain damage to suggest that NOT nominating or running candidates furthers a political party’s interests. Anyone making that sort of pitch is too stupid to drive or safely interact with others, never mind knowing what room he belongs in. It is dumber than the CEO of WalMart telling customers to “Try Target”. When we let these type of people have any fiduciary role or power in any level of the LP, it’s because we are so open minded that our brains have fallen out, even entertaining it, only to drive away people that have spent, raised, given millions and many hundreds of hours of their lives, only to have THAT sort of person just rip it all apart by having a party megaphone/social media account. That’s precisely why we have these cycles of failure – we don’t show these clowns the door. The hell with that this time around.
Bad things happen when we give people who actively refuse to read a room any sort of position, and then claim they are entitled to self gratify themselves, in front of and in obstruction to people in the room to do productive things – and doing it in a manner that KEEPS Rs and Ds in power, the wars going and the inflation roaring more than ever. These types of people are too infantile and selfish to let us actually build a party in peace. They get off on this. There’s no principle to it. It’s just sadistic, bad human being stuff that doesn’t belong outside of the house.
And that sort of person needs to be asked why, especially if they just came a time zone away and several hundred miles to mentally pleasure themselves, why not just stay in the privacy of one’s home with a moist towel instead, and not show us your junk?
That sort of person and thing is a real buzzkill for someone who works hard and builds something meaningful over a long period of time. You’re out there slugging sigs, or trying to get people elected, but instead, wait for it:
– Some rando meme circulates from an affiliate about legalizing cocaine (as if it’s the most pressing, relevant thing anyone could come up with)
– Some party officer comes out, says let’s abolish age of consent laws, and he just killed your board of ed slate because your guy now has to convince people we’re not child dilders
– Some state affiliate is putting out dank memes about threats to whack the opposition in favor of property taxes (literally), so our candidates have to scramble and explain, “No, you can safely disagree with me. I don’t believe in solving political disputes by whacking people like Goodfellas.”
AND any of that is IF anyone seeings this repeating shit show even gives you the time of day and ISN’T so convinced you’re already nuts being affiliated with people who just plain don’t belong in any meaningful position in ANY political party.
There’s got to be a relevant, reasonable alt-middle we can do, and make libertarian stuff happen in office. We just seem to let the Woketarian COVID Cult or Professional Asshole Mises types grab the microphone (then use it to inflict punishment or mental masturbation or both at the same time), and it’s far more about the microphone than the boring stuff that actually gets people elected by building party machiner.
I’m already against the next faction warlords. They need to stay home and jerk off. Not a single one of them should have gotten remotely close to a debate stage with legitimate chair candidates who actually know how to build a party such that he could pleasure himself into as many pairs of eyes and ears observing it as humanly possible.
We have to screen for these people and boost them on day one. They serve nothing but their own impulse and gratification… so you can have more wars, more inflation and more crypto people in jail, etc. And not one iota of their lack of people skills or intentional lack of respect will get a single person out of jail or not put in jail, ever. Boost them on day one. They are that useless. Time to have standards, for once. We might risk growing the party that way.
VC Round 3 results
Amanda Griffiths 297 (51.47%)
Charles Essner 259 (44.89%)
NOTA 21 (3.64%)
Wish I could have made this one – have a family emergency.
That said, all I’d have to add to the convention is this… a few things to share and ponder:
1. Do we believe in the free market? Good. Let’s go to what the free market (voters) are telling us…
2. The Party really needs to do some soul searching on getting serious. There needs to be a focus on what Parties do: (a) worker bees; (b) money; (c) ballot (ABC’s of Being a Party) access before ANY sort of position statements, issues positions (any stuff fixating on messaging) occurs. We candidates are getting knee capped before anything can take off, post Mises fallout. It’s only gotten worse. ALL OTHER EFFORTS are literally a waste until that gets cleaned up such that donors can justifiably return. As much as we’d all like a bottom up party, that damage starts at the top where the Convention must simply start the work to clean it up. If a particular action isn’t PROVEN to contribute to A, B or C without being a net detractor from A, B or C, then there’s just no plain business in even considering it at this point. Let’s stop ninnying about position statements about who should not be in jail, which only only got ONE person out of jail, ONE, in the Party’s entire history at the direct expense of changing laws and electing people to free millions… and the guy who gave us Ross Ulbrict back took damn near everything we had to offer in exchange.
3. We fail because we’re too nice to stupid stuff clearly known to NEVER work. To that end, I don’t think New Hampshire should be in the same room unless the affiliate can get its head straight. The news it’s been making (i.e. death threats on social media) has been terminally caustic to the Party moving forward. I wouldn’t even know how many crayons it could take to explain how far off the rails this has gotten. As much as I horribly detest property taxes, it’s never okay to go out and say people should get whacked for discussing such a horrible idea. Anyone saying people should literally get whacked for making public statements they disagree with truly doesn’t believe in their own argument against the public statements at issue. Such people have no right to complain that we are ineffective when their tactics are a direct proximate cause for such ineffectiveness at this point. And intentionally not nominating candidates for office in addition to those statements is an intentional disregard for the mission, function and purpose to the Libertarian Party. The affiliate’s present headspace is simply in the wrong room. Nothing wrong with saying to New Hampshire LP’s leadership that we disagree, we will never agree, and please LEAVE, QUIT, GO and find/found your own organization instead of making it a point to terminally impair ours. It’s a 100% right of free association to go out and do something better if one thinks they can advance the cause of liberty that way. Time to say, just respectfully, “Dude, you’re in the wrong room. Go to the room that does mental masturbation pretending it’s advancing freedom, because it’s not.” It’s totally a different matter to intentionally damage an organization and usurp a brand, its good will and its trademark because you disagree with the owner of that brand’s mission statement, function and purpose. Being in party leadership and a delegate is a privilege to serve the membership and the mission, not a right to convert party resources to yell whatever whack-a-loon screed it may cathartically bleat invective nonsense. The privilege of serving comes with fiduciary responsibility and obligation to further the mission – get Libertarians elected to do Libertarian stuff in public office. There’s a point where the edge lording tactics were demonstrated to be caustically and terminally ineffective, which we have long since passed. It is time for people who do not want Libertarians elected or to take adult steps (those ABCs) to get them in fact elected to simple admit the fundamental disagreement and just leave in peace.
4. Thomas Massie is gone. And the Tea Party Republicans never panned out on spending either. And… Trump… Having beaten that horse in to the glue factory sans Ron Paul Revolution after Barry Goldwater, that discussion is over. Time to get over it… and NEVER try that again.
Just food for thought. Just the same points that have been raised, re-raised, and to which no belaboring would serve any further constructive purpose.
Good luck, have fun, make friends and find productive points of agreement.
Darryl: I’ve been following all weekend, and they haven’t done so yet. There’s still a business session Monday, so maybe there’s a chance?
——–
* Amanda Griffiths has defeated Charles Essner to become the next vice-chair of the Libertarian National Committee. Totals pending. Other officer candidate speeches beginning.
* There is a motion to suspend the rules to take up a resolution remembering the fourth anniversary of the Uvalde school shooting. That motion fails.
* Foundation plug: If you’re enjoying this thread or finding it useful, please consider supporting this work with a donation to the Outsider Media Foundation.
* The party choir keeps trying to sing during the downtime while voting takes place, and they keep getting turned down. 🙁
* First-round vice chair results are in, with Essner, D’Orazio, and Griffiths as the top three. Vote totals are pending. A vote is underway on whether the second round will be limited to those three candidates.
* While voting is happening, awards are being distributed. They are as follows:
– Samuel Adams Activism Award: Pat Ford, Bob Johnston
– Thomas Paine Communication Award: Michael Munger, Cara Schulz
– Benjamin Franklin Candidate Award: Aaron Starr, Jim Turney
– Patrick Henry Candidate Award: Tom Pruss
– Thomas Jefferson Leadership Award: Michael Pakko
– 2026 Hall of Liberty: Justin Amash, Paul Jacob, Jo Jorgensen
Did they not get to the Platform Committee Report?
* Vice chair candidates have been nominated.
Kevin Reed of Massachusetts, who participated in the pre-nomination debate, was not among them.* Evan McMahon has defeated Jim Ostrowski to become the next chair of the Libertarian National Committee. Totals pending.
* Vice chair debate is underway! Second rounds results for chair are up. Wes Benedict drops out to endorse Evan McMahon.
* The motion fails. It had a majority but not two-thirds.
* A motion is put forward by Scott Horton to withdraw the Libertarian Party from the International Alliance of Libertarian Parties (also sometimes called Libertarian International). He wants the motion to be considered during the period that vote tabulations are being conducted.
* The motion initially passed, prompting calls for division. Kauffman remains a credentialed delegate but is not allowed in the main room. On division, Chair Steven Nekhaila finds the motion fell short of the two-thirds threshold, meaning Kauffman was not ejected from the convention.
* A vote is underway on whether to remove Jeremy Kauffman from the convention room over remarks he made after conceding the chair race (he also “endorsed” Evan McMahon). Removal of his wife is also mentioned. Voting underway.
Ben Weir, the current alternate for Region 6, said the following on social media about the earlier mentioned assault claim:
* Ford gave his keynote speech. Chair results coming soon.
* A delegate from Pennsylvania is arguing that the vote should be held so that the delegate who was slapped is able to cast her vote. There are mentions on the livestream of her needing an ambulance.
* It’s roughly 10:30a ET, and a delegate is claiming there was an assault and battery incident in the lobby that culminated in an arrest. The alleged incident reportedly involved someone from New Hampshire slapping a woman. That person is facing a credentials challenge and has now been decredentialed by the body. Someone else claimed the woman took something from the New Hampshire resident prompting the incident.
* Chair elections are underway. A table has been added above. There’s a question of whether Jeffrey Kauffman was intentional or an accident.
* O’Brien and Moellman are the winners of the JC vote. They will fill the other five seats through a future caucus. This was challenged by delegates, but Chair Steven Nekhaila ruled there would be no second round. Appeals of his ruling are attempted.
* While the main focus this weekend is the convention, other party business is also taking place during the off-hours. If you’ve checked the public Business List recently, you may have seen that a new Mid-Atlantic Region has been organized, consisting of Virginia, North Carolina, Maryland, South Carolina, West Virginia, and Washington, D.C. Another new region, called the Badland Region, has been established and will consist of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Dakota, and South Dakota. The former has not yet said who will represent it, while the latter has named Joe Hannoush of Florida as its regional representative and Omar Recuero of Florida as alternate.
* It’s now Sunday! We’re waiting on an updated convention stream. The Outsider Media Foundation’s own Ford Fischer is one of the speakers this morning and will be talking about his media organization News2Share and the significance of independent journalism. He was also involved in an earlier morning panel.
It’s Roger Roots, with an s at the end of his last name, not Root.
* Judicial Committee elections are beginning. I will attempt to track results above. I’m sure I’m doing unspeakable things to the spelling of some names, but I will correct them when I’m on my laptop.
* The Bylaws Report is tabled for now to allow for delegates to take up Judicial Committee elections.
* As of 2:40p ET, 606 primary delegates and 18 alternates are present.
* Justin Amash delievered his keynote speech. Business has resumed.
* The convention has adjourned for lunch. I believe it’s until 2:00p ET.
* In the interest of ease, I have moved the table of results to the body of the article instead of constantly updating my response from yesterday.
* Paulie: Good to see you! Believe it or not, someone mentioned your name during today’s bylaws amendment discussion. Praise to your petitioning skills.
* As of 11:30a ET, 604 primary delegates and 16 alternates are present. Delegates are actively being added.
* A lot has happened in this debate, more than I can summarize cleanly in a few bullet points. But Kauffman just made a reference to something that recently played out in New Hampshire, which people outside the state may not immediately recognize. For those who followed the affiliate’s state convention, Corcoran was also its keynote speaker.
* The debate for chair of the Libertarian National Committee is now. Candidates participating include James Ostrowski, Jeremy Kauffman, Steven (sp?) Phillips, Evan McMahon, Wes Benedict, and Rob Yates. Video is in the article above.
* I didn’t mean to cause so much confusion over my Barr comment, lmao. What I meant was that a delegate invoked him as an example of why the party needs officer membership requirements. I was just surprised to see him used as the example, since it’s been two decades since he served on the LNC.
* I’m not sure who is participating in the chair debate, but Jeremy Kauffman said on X that he would be one of the candidates after all
* It’s Saturday! The chair debate is expected to begin in roughly 10 minutes (9:30a ET). If it’s anything like it has been so far, the next livestreams will go up on the party’s YouTube channel around the same time business begins.
I tried to comment on Jake Porter’s substack and my comment was rejected because allegedly my email is not valid. It is valid. It works. Try it. [email protected] and I no longer check any other email except maybe once or twice a year if that but that one forwards the emails to my SMS text messages which I actually do get from which I reply to your email and that is where you get it. Rinse Leather repeat.
Anyway I have to post it here so hopefully he sees it.
Name:
Clown Show Calls
Email:
[email protected]
Handle:
Clown Show Calls
Biohazard:
I used to actually care. Now I just rubberneck at the pile up wreck every once in a while for old times sake.
—
Apparently I can’t get back to what my comment for the porter blog was but the jist was a suggestion to pin the live blog article at least for the duration of the meshuggeneh big tent circus / revival since I’d just about given up looking for it before spotting it pinned under three older articles.
My additional comment for ipr
“Bob Barr catches a stray from a delegate.
^^
What does that mean?”
I’m also mildly curious as to what that might mean. Not curious enough to watch the videos.
All in all, it was a pleasant and harmonious day. Not quite everyone got their way on everything but debate was rational and polite.
Credentialing was largely straightforward. Someone tried to sneak nine Michiganders, including Mr. Chadderdon, into the convention as New Mexico delegates. The bylaws require that any delegation must include at least one New Mexico delegate, but none were present, so their presence as delegates was rejected. Then someone tried to introduce a person as a New Mexico delegate, but it was observed that the person had attended the New Mexico State convention and specifically rejected as a delegate, so he was ineligible under state bylaws. The DC delegation, all two people, was ineligible for the same reason, a detail that needed later correction.
The agenda was adopted more or less as presented. We advanced to bylaws amendments. Many of them were rejected. Debate was civil at more or less all times. The floor’s two serious users of Roberts Rules of Order, Mr. Starr, and Ms. Harlos, both played polite and entirely positive roles in advancing debate. Our keen observer of the Mises caucus observed that they appeared to have lost more or less all votes on which there was plausibly a faction position.
The motion on honesty and use of titles for raising money by LNC members was discussed and found to need a bit more polishing. We return to that tomorrow. The motion on seasoning as passed, appeared to require that officers be sustaining members for at least two years before being elected. Note that bylaws debates on the live stream can be a bit obscure, so I may be in error.
There were a few negatives. Morning started an hour late. Afternoon started 20 minutes late. There were reports that the LNC had not paid for livestreaming, so there would be none, but in the end there was livestreaming. The two keynote speakers were Ammon Bundy and an advocate, so far as I could tell, for the Free State Project. Attendance was small a bit over 500. Mr. Martin was brought to order twice in a short period of time and warned that if it happened again the chair would ask the convention what should be done. [Addendum; Jeremy Kauffman spoke and was roundly booed until the national convention was brought to order.]
Bob Barr catches a stray from a delegate.
^^
What does that mean?
* Bob Barr catches a stray from a delegate.
* Voting on the Bylaws Report is underway. Vote tabulation totals moved into article body for easier reading.
More livestream issues. After coming back from recess, a new stream was started, but dropped after five minutes. That snippet is available here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yk3H3OpwMyk
——
* An Arkansas delegate has been moved to Oklahoma. Bylaws compliance is expected.
* The motion to decredential the D.C. affiliate’s delegates has failed.
* Credentials have been brought back up. D.C. is again facing a challenge over whether its delegates can be seated, as both are from outside the district.
* Credentials report update has the convention at “578 primary delegates.”
An updated livestream is now above! The credentials report is currently being discussed.
——-
* The convention is in recess until 2:00p ET.
* The credentials report has been adopted. The agenda is up next and has been adopted.
* The D.C. delegation has also come up, as both of its delegates are from out of state. Delegates are questioning whether D.C.’s delegation can be seated if New Mexico’s delegates cannot be.
* Other state delegations are looking to add members, including to Ohio, Oregon, and New Mexico once again.
* A discussion is underway over whether New Mexico can seat several delegates from Michigan. Unsure of the specifics leading up to this current moment. The motion is ruled out of order.
I’m trying to locate a current one! Last night’s session was posted to YouTube shortly after someone from OMF asked whether there would be streaming this year, so I’d take that to mean the party plans to do the same for the other days. I just haven’t found today’s stream yet.
Is there a live stream or are they going to destroy the party in darkness?
Proposal 9, as worded, would prevent things like someone using “Go Fund Me” to get to LNC meeting would violate this bylaw, if adopted.
It is a good idea, but it needs a redraft.
A public livestream of the convention is now available through the Libertarian Party’s official YouTube channel. It has been added to this thread.
I’m glad the Bylaws Committee has FINALLY proposed a Conflicts of Interest provision!
PROPOSAL #9: Ethics