Congratulations to Evan McMahon, who ran my 2018 campaign for Mayor of Phoenix, for leading the newly elected Libertarian National Committee to disaffiliate the Libertarian Party of New Hampshire, a group that has been dedicated to destroying the entire Libertarian Party since Jeremy Kauffman joined the Libertarian Party in 2021 and has controlled it’s direction ever since.
This last weekend in Grand Rapids, Michigan, hometown of Justin Amash (who gave an amazing dinner speech that was standing room only in which he hinted at 2028), Kauffman ran for Libertarian National Committee Chair against Wes Benedict, Evan McMahon, Jim Ostrowski, and a bigoted podcaster whose name I’ve already forgotten. Kauffman was running to completely dismantle the Libertarian Party, finishing the job that Michael Heise, Steven Nekhaila, Dave Smith, and Angela McArdle began in 2022 to end a political organization that has been part of American politics since 1971, when it was founded in response to the actions of a corrupt Republican president and the futility of working in a Republican party that would choose Nixon.
In his nomination speech, after being introduced by his wife, Rachel Goldsmith, Jeremy Kauffman told the assembled delegates that, “Nicholas Sarwark is the reason that I am in the Libertarian Party.” Delegates were shocked, and one of them came up to me as I was walking back from the bathroom, and said, “Are you the pedophile who believes children can consent? You were the reason I left the Libertarian Party in 2016, and Jeremy Kauffman is the reason I rejoined in 2022 to kick people like you out.” I replied to her that, “I was happy to see you leave and I’ll be happy to see you go leave again and go back to the GOP,” then proceeded to the center aisle directly in front of the podium, crossed my arms and looked Jeremy Kauffman straight in the eyes, standing next to my friend Randy Simbro from Texas, as Kauffman insulted the delegates and bragged about the number of armed men he could summon with a phone call.
“Nicholas Sarwark is the reason that I am in the Libertarian Party,” is not false, but it is a lie.
When our family moved to New Hampshire in 2019, we originally rented a small three-bedroom apartment that the great folks at Ledgeview Commercial Partners, LLC helped us find on very short notice, which fit our needs, but didn’t have enough room for me to have a dedicated office space.
Jeremy Kauffman’s company LBRY, which was subsequently shut down by the SEC, had a space at 99 Hanover Street, a walk across the bridge from our apartment, and he had a number of internal offices that were empty and offered to rent one to me. (Side note: that picture of me holding my head in my hands during the 2020 Libertarian Presidential Nominating Convention was taken while sitting in that office, with the rest of the New Hampshire delegation outside my door in the larger conference space in the suite. That office was also used for most Free State Project board meetings, since he was a board member).
My work in the office involved taking meetings with large donors who visited Manchester, and meeting with candidates to discuss campaign strategy, make fundraising calls, and do other consulting and legal work. That included internal Libertarian National Committee strategy, working with Daniel Fishman to make plans for obtaining ballot access and handle responding to the evolving COVID-19 pandemic. Everything I did for the Libertarian Party during that time period in that office was within earshot of Jeremy Kauffman.
In 2020, the Libertarian Party needed an attorney to be able to contest John J. Coughlin, Hillsborough County Attorney (who was running at the time in the Republican primary against a Republican Free State Project candidate for the chance to run against the incumbent Democrat in the general election). Jeremy asked if I would meet with the FSP Republican, because he had convinced many other movers not to run as Libertarian candidates, explaining that in New Hampshire, “Libertarian” was spelled “Republican,” because Free Staters had the most influence in that party.
One of my greatest political mentors was Don Gorman, who was head of the Libertarian caucus in the New Hampshire state house and proved that Libertarians could be elected in New Hampshire, so I knew that it used to be possible, but I agreed to meet with the other candidate anyway and hear him out before the convention.
That candidate met with me in the conference room and explained that he was going to spend ~$30K in the primary and was confident that he would win against John J. Coughlin, Hillsborough County Attorney, and I would split the FSP vote in November. Having just run an election in a city with a larger population than the entire state of New Hampshire, I told him I was confident in my chances in November and explained that he could lose his primary, but my nomination would guarantee I was on the general election ballot.
He lost his primary, I ran as a Libertarian and was on the general election ballot in November, covering the difference in vote total between the incumbent Democrat and John J. Coughlin, Hillsborough County Attorney, which resulted in my winning the Libertarian Party of New Hampshire “Candidate of the Year” award at the 2021 state convention in Concord.
That state convention was the first time that Jeremy Kauffman ever participated in the Libertarian Party of New Hampshire. At that convention, Justin O’Donnell, A.J. Olding, and Michael Heise (who had driven up from Pennsylvania) take over the state party with a group of Mises Caucus drones that joined the party just long enough to hijack it and neutralize it so it can’t threaten Republican control of state politics.
(Side note: The goody bags for the convention had boxes of .22LR ammunition in them, but many convention attendees don’t go through what’s in the bags until they get home. That’s not an issue for people who drove, but for those who flew, at least one told me the story of how she got to explain to a TSA agent why she was trying to conceal ammunition in her carry-on bag.)
In 2022, I not only put Kelly Halldorson on the ballot as a Libertarian candidate in the Governor’s race, to make sure that Granite Staters knew that there was another kind of Libertarian than LPNH-nominated Jeremy Kauffman, I also ran against John J. Coughlin, Hillsborough County Attorney again. In 2022, the Democrats didn’t field a candidate, so I was able to secure the Democratic ballot line as well as the Libertarian ballot line, which, based on the previous election results, would secure a win in November. Shortly before election day, Jeremy Kauffman publicly endorsed my campaign, with a picture of his sign and mine together that he had staged, and encouraged people to vote for me in the race.
That endorsement cost our campaign a full 3% of the general election vote, with Democrats crossing over to support an incumbent Republican against a former public defender nominated as a Democrat and a Libertarian.
When Jeremy Kauffman told the convention delegates in Grand Rapids that I was the reason he joined the Libertarian Party, he was manipulating the delegates into transferring their anger from him to his target, and based on the balloting for At-Large at convention, many delegates succumbed to that manipulation.
There are rumors that LPNH will file a lawsuit against the Libertarian National Committee for the disaffiliation that took place yesterday at Evan McMahon‘s first LNC meeting, and that wealthy donors are willing to pay for lawfare to drain what is left of the proceeds of Steven Nekhaila and Angela McArdle selling the permanent headquarters that Libertarian Party members paid for with contributions that were raised from 2014-2020, coincidentally my tenure as the longest-serving Chair in Libertarian Party history.
A lie is halfway around the world before the truth gets its pants on, but the truth will always out.
Jeremy Kauffman destroyed the FSP and destroyed the LPNH and is trying to destroy the LNC. He is close friends with Pat Ford, who managed the entire convention schedule and wasted more time of delegates who spent money and time to do the Libertarian Party’s business than any other convention organizer in the past 26 years I’ve attended Libertarian Party conventions.
The people who helped Jeremy Kauffman attack the party should repent, and the people who were fooled by him should learn from this experience.
Libertarians reject bigotry as irrational and repugnant, Jeremy Kauffman, his minions embrace it, and a whole lot of delegates at this last convention are “playing possum” and determined to stay silent until they can regroup. By their fruits, you know them.
Have they kicked you enough? Are you Wide Awake yet?
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