The Libertarian National Committee has voted to disaffiliate the Libertarian Party of New Hampshire, making one of the newly seated committee’s first acts a break with an affiliate that had become a serious point of controversy inside the national organization.
The vote came during the LNC’s first meeting after the Libertarian Party’s national convention in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where delegates earlier in the weekend elected Evan McMahon as chair, Amanda Griffiths as vice chair, Jonathan McGee as secretary, and Douglas Knebel as treasurer. The committee voted 15 to 2, with one abstention, to disaffiliate the New Hampshire organization and require it to stop using the Libertarian Party’s name and logo.
That vote followed a failed attempt during the meeting to create an investigatory committee, which some members argued would have given the New Hampshire party a chance to respond and provided a more defensible process before the national party took the step of cutting off a state affiliate. Opponents of the idea pushed back on the grounds that the reasons for disaffiliation were already public and sufficient, making another layer of investigation unnecessary.
A recording of the meeting, though sometimes hard to hear, shows national committee members referencing the New Hampshire affiliate’s public endorsement of Donald Trump during the 2024 election, its criticism of Libertarian candidates, and what the national party called a repeated promotion of “anti-libertarian positions” at the national level. These points were brought up again in a statement Tuesday.
In the statement, published on social media, McMahon called the vote “the unfortunate culmination of years of behavior in violation of the Libertarian Party’s platform.”
“These violations reached an impasse, and the previous Libertarian National Committee was unable to reach an armistice with the LPNH,” McMahon said. “One of my top priorities coming into office was to make it clear that the LNC will adhere to the platform and determine who we will associate with based on those grounds.”
The Libertarian Party of New Hampshire was quick to reject the decision, launching a website to defend itself in the hours following. The affiliate argues that the LNC acted without notice and without its representatives present, as well as without evidence that its current leadership violated party bylaws or libertarian principles.
The New Hampshire party claims that its current executive committee did not vote to endorse Trump, arguing that the national party is attempting to punish the current organization for decisions made by a prior leadership team. It called the disaffiliation an “illegal coup” and said the LNC rejected a more deliberate process in the form of the investigatory committee before moving directly to a final vote.
”The real reason is they’re left-wing losers who can’t stand to see right-wing libertarians succeed,” the website states. “All we do is win, and it makes them so angry.”
The disaffiliation could go before the party’s newly elected Judicial Committee if the New Hampshire affiliate files a written appeal within the 30-day window under party rules. The seven-member committee currently consists of two members elected at the national convention, who may fill the remaining vacancies.
The LNC’s motion also leaves open the possibility of recognizing a new New Hampshire affiliate in the future. New Hampshire-based InDepthNH reported Tuesday, citing an anonymous source, that efforts are already underway to create “a new, Kauffman-free Libertarian party.”
This disaffiliation was a long time coming, well earned and an option of absolute last resort. Hopefully it remains a lesson that our job is to elect Libertarians, not embarrass them whole taking intentional acts to support Republicans by damaging the LP brand, reputation and good will.
“The affiliate argues that the LNC acted without notice and without its representatives present, as well as without evidence that its current leadership violated party bylaws or libertarian principles.”
Sounds like that’s a you problem, affiliate formerly known as the Libertarian Party of New Hampshire.
I’ve seen the Green Party and the Constitution Party disaffiliate state affiliates over less serious issues.
Then you have the exact opposite, where state organizations separate from the national organization. Example: Apparently, the Constitution Party of Illinois separated from the national party earlier this year. Which is funny, because that party has been relatively dead since 2020.
“The real reason is they’re left-wing losers who can’t stand to see right-wing libertarians succeed…”
What delusional thinking. I identify as ancap, but also share ideals with others within the libertarian right and some of the libertarian left. Unlike them, who pander exclusively to Republicans, I don’t have to pander to Democrats or Republicans to get elected to office.
I spent 9 1/2 years working in the Political Division of the Libertarian Party of Illinois, starting in candidate recruitment, eventually rising to Political Director in 2019, until I resigned weeks after the 2022 National Convention in Reno. Six months later, after the insistence of close friends within the party, I returned to my former role in January 2023. (Roughly six years in that position across two stints.) Why? Because we have a rare gem of ballot access in the most populous, yet most corrupt county in all of Illinois and possibly the entire Midwest: Cook County.
I’m an elected official in a rural area in south-central Illinois who was elected LAST YEAR in an uncontested bid, in which I’m responsible for being a fiscal steward for the township library’s $75,000 annual budget, relying on additional grant funding and philanthropic giving to cover any shortfalls for programs like our upcoming Summer Reading Program and the ongoing 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten program.
In my first full year in office, I have helped work on applying for various grants, including those made available through T-Mobile and other for-profit corporations wanting to give back to the rural communities that they serve. I’ve reached out to philanthropic organizations that have made donations to the library over the past 30 years to gauge their interest in contributing again. I helped kickstart the process of the library going solar, and I even drafted the grant application myself. I will continue applying until we get some kind of funding to make it happen. Why? Because a board of five trustees (when we should have seven) is in mutual agreement that utility prices through Ameren Illinois are too damn high.
What are they doing beyond pandering to Republicans and kissing up to Donald Trump? Nothing really. They try to block anyone wanting to run as a Libertarian, which is excessively obstructive in my opinion.
Sorry, but I have more success holding elected office as a Libertarian (although it’s a nonpartisan position) than LPNH under Jeremy Kauffman and his Kauffmanite clan of morons can ever claim.
And I sure as hell don’t have to resort to lies, propaganda, or NAP violations to get work done. And all this for an elected office that has an annual salary of $0, which is fine with me because I didn’t run for office to collect a paycheck, unlike a lot of those in the duopoly.