The Libertarian Party of New Hampshire has been thrown out of its national affiliation following years of controversy and a scorched-earth speech at the national convention by the state party’s newly elected chair. The Libertarian National Committee voted 15-2 over the weekend to disaffiliate New Hampshire, marking a dramatic rupture between one of the country’s highest concentrations of Libertarian activists and the national organization that is supposed to represent them.
According to reporting by Charlotte Matherly of the Concord Monitor, the split was years in the making, but the convention in Michigan served as the breaking point. Jeremy Kauffman, who was recently elected to chair the Libertarian Party of New Hampshire, took the stage and proceeded to mock the national organization in front of its own delegates, calling it ineffective, accusing its leaders of selling “false hope,” and urging them to dissolve the entire national structure.
The crowd heckled him. He kept going.
A Speech That Ended an Affiliation
Kauffman’s remarks were simultaneously a provocation and a call to action. He touted New Hampshire’s political record, arguing that Granite State Libertarians win elections and accomplish real policy goals while the national party fails to deliver results. He accused fellow candidates for national party leadership of being incapable of building something successful.
“Are you guys stupid? Genuinely, like are you dumb?” Kauffman said from the convention podium. “The Libertarians in New Hampshire are not dumb. We win all the time. We have a strategy that works. We know how to be team players.”
As audience members heckled him, Kauffman urged national leaders to abandon what he called pie-in-the-sky ideals and focus on achievable goals. He said he wanted to “cleanse the party of you losers.” In another passage, he told the assembled delegates: “You are loser apes who can’t stand to see someone with abilities that you don’t have, and nothing successful can be built with people with this psychology and this attitude.”
Kauffman did not respond to a request for comment from the Concord Monitor.
The language in the formal motion to disaffiliate New Hampshire cited actions that “crudely and repeatedly undermined our own candidates and have espoused numerous anti-libertarian positions on a National level.” The motion did not enumerate specific grievances beyond that description. Separately, national leaders pointed to the state party’s endorsement of Donald Trump for president in 2024, which violated Libertarian Party bylaws that prohibit affiliated state parties from endorsing non-Libertarian candidates.
Evan McMahon, who chairs Indiana’s state Libertarian party and was elected at the convention to lead the national organization, offered a measured statement after the vote. “The resolution to disaffiliate the Libertarian Party of New Hampshire was the unfortunate culmination of years of behavior in violation of the Libertarian Party’s platform,” McMahon said. “These violations reached an impasse, and the previous Libertarian National Committee was unable to reach an armistice with the LPNH.”
A Complicated Figure at the Center of the Fracas
Kauffman himself is a polarizing figure even within the state’s Libertarian community. He had previously been a leader of the Free State Project, the nonprofit organization dedicated to driving migration to New Hampshire and building a critical mass of liberty-minded residents who can influence state politics. But the Free State Project ousted Kauffman in 2023 over his online posts, which had drawn accusations of racism and threats.
His online commentary has been a recurring flashpoint. The Libertarian Party of New Hampshire posted what was characterized as a death threat against Andru Volinsky, a former executive councilor, after Volinsky proposed a state income tax. The post generated significant controversy and added to the growing unease within national Libertarian circles about the direction of the state party under its current leadership.
Most recently, Kauffman was arrested at a Market Basket grocery store in Manchester following a minor fender bender. According to police, Kauffman shouted racist statements during the confrontation and told a bystander to “go back to Africa.” He was charged with misdemeanors of disorderly conduct and obstruction of government administration. His trial is scheduled for July.
Despite that history, Kauffman was elected to chair the New Hampshire Libertarian party earlier this year, and then traveled to Michigan to campaign for the chairmanship of the national Libertarian organization. He did not win that race. Shortly after losing, the national committee voted to sever ties with his state party entirely.
What the Free State Project Built
The context for understanding why this matters requires some background on how New Hampshire became such fertile ground for Libertarian politics in the first place.
The Free State Project launched in the early 2000s with the explicit goal of concentrating liberty-oriented migrants in a single state, giving them enough political influence to enact meaningful policy changes. New Hampshire was selected as the target state after a vote among early members, and over the following two decades, thousands of people relocated to the Granite State specifically because of the project’s mission.
The strategy has produced measurable results. Legislators aligned with the Free State Project and Libertarian principles have been credited with repealing New Hampshire’s mandatory vehicle inspection program and eliminating the state’s interest and dividends tax. These are not trivial accomplishments, and they reflect the genuine influence that concentrated Libertarian activists can have in a small state legislature.
Many Libertarian-leaning candidates in New Hampshire run for office as Republicans rather than as formal Libertarian party members, which allows them to compete in primaries and win general elections in a two-party system that is hostile to third-party candidates. That practical approach has arguably been more successful than running under the Libertarian banner.
Eric Brakey, the current leader of the Free State Project, declined to weigh in on the national disaffiliation. In a brief statement, Brakey said the organization “does not wade into the internal politics of the Libertarian Party.”
The Party Presses On
Despite being formally ejected from the national organization, the Libertarian Party of New Hampshire is continuing to operate. The state party is still using its existing website and social media accounts with the Libertarian Party of New Hampshire branding, and it has been fundraising for a legal defense against the disaffiliation.
Whether that effort succeeds or fails, the episode illustrates the fractious nature of third-party politics, even in a state as Libertarian-friendly as New Hampshire. The national Libertarian Party has itself been the subject of internal conflict for years, cycling through factions and leadership disputes that have made it difficult to present a coherent public identity.
Kauffman’s argument, delivered in characteristically blunt terms at the convention, was that the national party is the problem, not the solution. From his perspective, New Hampshire’s approach, running candidates who win, passing legislation that reduces government, building real coalitions at the local level, is the only model that works. The national party disagreed, and used the disaffiliation vote to make that disagreement final.
The split leaves New Hampshire’s Libertarian activists in an unusual position heading into a significant election year. With competitive races up and down the ballot this fall, including a contested U.S. Senate race that has attracted national attention and a U.S. House race in the First Congressional District where seven Democrats are competing for their party’s nomination, the presence or absence of a functioning Libertarian ballot line could affect margins in close races.
New Hampshire’s political calendar has also shifted significantly this year. The state moved its primary from September to June starting in 2028, a change that will reshape how all parties, including third parties, organize and campaign in future cycles.
For related coverage, see our reporting on Claremont Mayor Dale Girard Switches Party Affiliation From Democrat to Repub….
