The Libertarian Party of New Hampshire was kicked out of its national affiliation after leaders claimed those in the Granite State violated the party’s rules and ideals.
The decision, approved on a 15-2 vote by the Libertarian National Committee at its convention in Michigan over the weekend, followed a scathing speech and years of racist, threatening and controversial online commentary from the state party and Jeremy Kauffman, who was recently elected to chair it.
“Are you guys stupid? Genuinely, like are you dumb?” Kauffman said. “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.”
Language from the 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.” It did not list specific grievances, though Kauffman has repeatedly criticized the national party as ineffective and argued for its dissolution.
National leaders also took issue with the state party’s endorsement of Trump for president in 2024. Affiliated state parties aren’t allowed to endorse non-Libertarian candidates, according to the bylaws.
“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,” said Evan McMahon, who chairs Indiana’s state party and was elected at the convention to head the national party, in a statement to the Monitor. “These violations reached an impasse, and the previous Libertarian National Committee was unable to reach an armistice with the LPNH.”
Kauffman, who campaigned unsuccessfully at the convention to chair the national party, gave an excoriating speech that disparaged the Libertarian Party’s effectiveness. He mocked fellow candidates and accused leaders of selling “false hope” without winning elections or providing results.
He did not respond to an interview request from the Monitor.
In New Hampshire, home to one of the highest concentrations of Libertarians in the country, many Libertarian-leaning candidates run for state office as Republicans. Several are participants of the Free State Project, a nonprofit that seeks to drive migration and create a stronghold of Libertarians. State legislators aligned with the coalition are responsible for repealing mandatory car inspections and the state’s interest and dividends tax, among other policies.
As audience members heckled Kauffman, he touted New Hampshire’s Libertarian bent and argued for the dissolution of the national party. He urged leaders there to forgo pie-in-the-sky ideals for more reasonable goals. He said he wanted to “cleanse the party of you losers.”
“I go to the mat every day, all of the time, for what’s right and what’s true, and you guys, you freaks, see someone who can do things that you can’t, and it makes you so angry and so bitter,” Kauffman said. “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.”
The state party is still using a website and social media accounts with the Libertarian Party of New Hampshire and is fundraising for a legal defense against the disaffiliation.
This isn’t Kauffman’s first time being rebuked by his own political faction, or the state party’s first time under fire. The party posted a death threat to Andru Volinsky, a former executive councilor, online after he proposed an income tax earlier this year.
Kauffman, once a leader of the Free State Project, was ousted in 2023 for his online posts and has had several run-ins with the law. Most recently, he was arrested at a Market Basket in Manchester after a fender bender resulted in Kauffman yelling racist statements and telling a bystander to “go back to Africa.” Police charged him with misdemeanors of disorderly conduct and obstruction of government administration. His trial is scheduled for July.
The current leader of the Free State Project, Eric Brakey, declined to weigh in on the state party’s forced disaffiliation, saying in a short statement that the organization “does not wade into the internal politics of the Libertarian Party.”
