On Shifting Focus – Opinion by Tom Rowlette

Last updated on February 28, 2026

On Shifting Focus

Hello Libertarians. This is the twelfth of a series of opinion articles I’ll be privileged to write for you once per month on an “inside baseball” topic for the Libertarian Party. I encourage everyone who has an opinion on whatever we’re talking about this month to comment or send phillies@4liberty.net your longer editorials, which may well be published.

You don’t always know when one era is ending and another is beginning. The members of the Libertarian Party in September 1986 did not know that August had been the low point of the entirety of LP history, and that from then on they would be on a bumpy path upwards for about fifteen years. The members of the LP in January of 2009 did not know that December 2008 had marked another, less serious low point for the party, and that they were about to experience another ten years of solid growth and success.

And I don’t think that most members of the LP today realize that we have just now turned a corner, and that we’ll likely see the results of it soon.

This article, for February, is coming late in the month, but for good reason. The minutes of the convention of the LP of California are available, and after analyzing them (and the returns of other state conventions) I have come to a conclusion. To the best of my knowledge, the Mises caucus cannot now earn a majority at the next convention unless they win more than 68% of all remaining delegate spots still available, and also convince every current uncommitted delegate to support them. Basically, the fight is over.

I’ve written before that last year’s California convention was also a turning point. For anyone reading this article years from now, July 2025 was the month that the Mises caucus not only lost control of the largest state affiliate in the country, but also that the most toxic members of the current national committee left and the new board started acting more reasonably and responsibly.

So if we’re marking turning points, July ‘25 was the biggest shift in momentum at the end of the Mises era, and February ‘26 was when the final nail was driven into the coffin. May ‘26 is when the age will officially end.

Now that the internal battles are mostly concluded, we should ask ourselves what the next steps are. It will be tempting over the next few months to hurl fire against defeated opponents, but it would be a more productive use of our time to get prepared for what comes after Grand Rapids. We will be judged over the next two years on what we accomplish, not on how much we can blame others for our crappy starting position.

In the past there are a few traits that LNCs have had and actions they have taken which have made for good years. The first is having an early and fairly intense focus on ballot access in states where action can be taken to secure it before it becomes an emergency. The second is having a hard-nosed approach with the budget, keeping us from operating at a financial loss month-over-month. The third is making sure that the few employees the party still has are paid appropriately and treated with respect.

The future of the Libertarian Party will soon be in new hands.