Free State Project

The Free State Project (FSP) is an American political migration movement founded in 2001 to recruit at least 20,000 libertarians to move to a single low-population state to make the state a stronghold for libertarian ideas. New Hampshire was selected in 2003 for this purpose.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The New Hampshire Union Leader reports that the Free State Project is not a political party but a nonprofit organization.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Participants in the FSP signed a statement of intent declaring that they intended to move to New Hampshire within five years of the drive reaching 20,000 participants. The statement of intent was intended to function as a form of assurance contract. Template:As of, 20,000 people had signed this statement of intent,<ref name=membership>Template:Cite web</ref> completing the original goal, and 1,909 people were listed as "early movers" to New Hampshire on the FSP website, saying they had made their move prior to the 20,000-participant trigger.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In the 2017–2018 term of the 400-member New Hampshire House of Representatives, 17 seats were held by Free Staters.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The FSP is a social movement generally based upon decentralized decision making. The group hosts various events, but most of FSP's activities depend upon volunteers and no formal plan dictates to participants or movers what their actions should be in New Hampshire.

As of May 2022, approximately 6,232 participants have moved to New Hampshire for the Free State Project.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Eric Brakey is the Executive Director of the FSP as of 2024.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Intent

The FSP mission statement, adopted in 2005, states: Template:Cquote

"Life, liberty, and property" are rights that were enumerated in the October 1774 Declaration and Resolves of the First Continental Congress<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and in Article 12 of the New Hampshire Constitution.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

To become a participant of the Free State Project, a person is asked to agree to the Statement of Intent (SOI): Template:Cquote

The FSP is open to people with a minimum age of 18. United States citizenship is not required. People who promote violence, racial hatred, or bigotry are not welcome in the FSP.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

History

The Free State Project was founded in 2001 by Jason Sorens, then a Ph.D. student at Yale University.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Sorens published an article in The Libertarian Enterprise highlighting the failure of libertarians to elect any candidate to federal office and outlining his ideas for a secessionist movement, calling people to respond to him with interest.<ref name="tlesoren">Template:Cite journal</ref> Sorens soon published a follow-up article<ref name="sorensfollowup">Template:Cite journal</ref> backing away from secession, "and it never played a role in the FSP’s philosophy from then on."<ref name="fsphistory">Template:Cite web</ref> Sorens has stated that the movement continues an American tradition of political migration, which includes groups such as Mormon settlers in Utah, Amish religious communities,<ref name="guardian">Template:Cite web</ref> and the "Jamestown Seventy",<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> an earlier effort to influence the politics of a particular state through deliberate migration.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

The organization began without a specific state in mind. A systematic review started by narrowing potential states to those with a population of less than 1.5 million, and those where the combined spending in 2000 by the Democratic and Republican parties was less than the total national spending by the Libertarian Party in that year, $5.2 million. Hawaii and Rhode Island were eliminated from this list because of their propensity for centralized government.<ref>Joseph Spear, "An Experiment in Civic Engagement: The Free State Project" Template:Webarchive, Oklahoma Policy Studies Review, Vol. 5, No. 1.</ref>

In September 2003, a vote was held, and participants voted using the minimax Condorcet method to choose the state that they were to move to.<ref name="upandcoming">Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> New Hampshire was the winner, with Wyoming coming in second by a 57% to 43% margin.<ref name="upandcoming" /><ref name="cspan">Template:Cite AV media</ref> Alaska, Delaware, Idaho, Maine, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Vermont were also on the list.<ref name="guardian"/> New Hampshire was chosen because the perceived individualist culture of the state was thought to resonate well with libertarian ideals.<ref name="boston"/>

In 2004, following the selection of New Hampshire, a splinter groupTemplate:Citation needed called the Free Town Project formed to move to the small town of Grafton and advocate for legal changes there.<ref name="vox">Template:Cite news</ref> Grafton's appeal as a favorable destination was due to its absence of zoning laws and a very low property tax rate.<ref name="grafton">Template:Cite web</ref> Additionally, it was the home of John Babiarz, a prominent member of the Libertarian Party who had twice run for Governor.<ref name="atavist">Template:Cite magazine</ref> Though no records were kept of the number of Free Town Project participants who moved to Grafton, the town's population grew from 1,138 in 2000 to 1,340 in 2010.<ref name="grafton"/> Nearly all of the newcomers were men.<ref name="newrepublic" /> Project participants fashioned homes out of yurts, recreational vehicles, trailers, tents, and shipping containers. The changes they voted in included a 30% reduction in the town's already-small budget,<ref name="newrepublic" /> denying funding to the county's senior-citizens council.<ref name="atavist"/> The libertarian newcomers additionally increased the city's costs by filing lawsuits against it in an attempt to set legal precedents.<ref name="newrepublic" /> The project has been associated with an increase in the number and aggressiveness of black bears in town, including entering homes, mauling people, and eating pets.<ref name="newrepublic" /> A single, definitive cause for the abnormal behavior of the bears has not been proven, but it may be due to libertarian residents who refuse to buy and use bear-resistant containers, who do not dispose of waste materials (such as feces) safely, or who deliberately put out food to attract the bears to their own yards, but do not feel any responsibility for how their behavior affects their neighbors.<ref name="newrepublic" />

Free Town Project

Template:Main In 2005, members of the Free Town Project were also briefly involved with Mentone, Texas. Mentone is in Loving County, at the time the least populous county in the United States.<ref name="nytimes_mentone">Template:Cite news</ref> Three men, Lawrence Pendarvis, Bobby Emory, and Don Duncan, claimed to have bought 126 acres (51 ha) of land and registered to vote there,<ref name="freetownproject">Template:Cite web</ref> although the sheriff determined that the land was not sold to the group, as no deed had been filed at the county courthouse. He contacted the sellers, who said that the land had been sold to other buyers, after which the sheriff filed misdemeanor charges against the three men and threatened to arrest them if they returned.<ref name="nytimes_mentone"/>

On February 3, 2016, the Free State Project announced via social media that 20,000 people had signed the Statement of Intent.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In a press conference later that day, then FSP president Carla Gericke officially announced that the move had been triggered and that signers were expected to follow up on their pledge.<ref name="presscon">Template:Cite web</ref> This concluded the Free Town Project,<ref name="vox"/><ref name="book">Template:Cite book</ref> and the Free State Project organization changed focus from recruiting signers to encouraging them to move to New Hampshire, stating "we want 20,000 movers".<ref name="presscon" />

Electoral activity

The Free State Project is not aligned with any political party and has no official position for or against any issues or candidates.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> That said, however, the Free State Project is defined as a movement that seeks to relocate people of broadly libertarian ideals, specifically.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> It receives its funding from individual donors interested in moving as part of the FSP or in attending one of their annual events.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The FSP is a tax-exempt nonprofit educational organization, falling under category 501(c)(3), so all donations since July 20, 2009, are tax-deductible.<ref>FSP Newsletter, July 2014, From the President's Desk</ref>

Several early movers have been elected to the 400-member New Hampshire House of Representatives. In 2006, Joel Winters became the first known Free Stater to be elected, running as a Democrat.<ref name="boston">Template:Cite news</ref> He was re-elected in 2008 but defeated in 2010.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2010, 12 Free Staters were elected to the New Hampshire House of Representatives, all of them as Republicans.<ref name="nationaljournal">Template:Cite web</ref> In 2012, 11 more were elected.<ref name=Hayward>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2012, elected participants wrote and passed House Bill 418 which would require state agencies to consider open source software and data formats when making acquisitions;<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> However, the bill died in the State Senate.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 2014, 17 Free Staters were elected.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2016, 15 of 32 Free Stater candidates were elected.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2017, there were 17 Free Staters in the New Hampshire House of Representatives,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and, in 2021, the New Hampshire Liberty Alliance, which ranks bills and elected representatives based on their adherence to what they see as libertarian principles, scored 150 representatives as "A−" or above rated representatives.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Participants of the FSP also engage with other like-minded activist groups such as Young Americans for Liberty<ref>Template:Cite press release</ref> and Americans for Prosperity.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 2022, the Croydon school board president and her husband, members of the Free State Project, attempted to cut the school budget by half in a surprise but licit maneuver on the day of the vote, in a district with typically low attendance for votes. The plan that passed offered students online learning from a facilitator or $9,000 to go to an alternate public or private school. This plan was claimed to satisfy the requirement of New Hampshire's constitution to provide an adequate education. In response, local residents organized to overturn the budget. They needed more than half of the eligible voters to vote in a special town meeting, and a majority of those voters to vote for the fully-funded budget. The new school budget was overruled 377 to 2, with just under two-thirds of eligible voters voting, and the original budget was restored. (The lopsided vote was because the strategy of supporters of the change was to refrain from attending the meeting, to deny it a quorum.) <ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Annual events

The Free State Project organizes two annual events in New Hampshire:

• The New Hampshire Liberty Forum, a convention-style event with a wide variety of speakers, dinners and events.
• The Porcupine Freedom Festival, commonly abbreviated to just "PorcFest",<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> a weeklong summer festival that takes place at a campground. It was described by Libertarian philosophy professor Roderick Long as "like Woodstock for rational people".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Responses

Support

On February 17, 2006, economist Walter Block publicly expressed his support for the FSP and was quoted as saying: Template:Blockquote

Jeffrey Tucker reflected about his experiences at the New Hampshire Liberty Forum in Nashua, saying in part: "If you are willing to look past mainstream media coverage of American politics, you can actually find exciting and interesting activities taking place that rise above lobbying, voting, graft and corruption".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The project was endorsed by Ron Paul<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and Gary Johnson.<ref>Template:Cite webTemplate:Cbignore</ref> In 2010, Lew Rockwell from the Mises Institute endorsed the project and referred to the city of Keene, New Hampshire as "the northern capital of libertarianism".<ref>Template:Cite webTemplate:Cbignore</ref> In 2011, Peter Schiff said he had considered moving to NH at one point.<ref>Template:Cite webTemplate:Cbignore</ref>

Some Republicans have responded more favorably to the project.<ref name="Boston">Template:Cite news</ref> In September 2014, Republican Party Senate nominee Scott Brown, a former United States Senator from Massachusetts, said his election campaign needed "Freestaters" to support him in his one-minute closing statement at the Granite State Debate.<ref>Template:Cite webTemplate:Cbignore</ref>

Maine state senator Eric Brakey partially attributed the Republican Party's 2020 election gains to the Free State Project.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Criticism

Critics argue that the Free State Project is "radical",<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> a "fantasy",<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> or that they "go too far" in seeking to restrict government.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The project has drawn criticism from some New Hampshire residents concerned about population pressure and opposition to increased taxation.<ref name="Boston" /> In December 2012, state representative Template:Interlanguage link (D-Keene) said, "Free Staters are the single biggest threat the state is facing today. There is, legally, nothing we can do to prevent them from moving here to take over the state, which is their openly stated goal. In this country you can move anywhere you choose and they have that same right. What we can do is to make the environment here so unwelcoming that some will choose not to come, and some may actually leave. One way is to pass measures that will restrict the 'freedoms' that they think they will find here".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

During and shortly after the Free Town Project was active in Grafton County, there were three bear attacks.<ref name="nhmagazine">Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Several media outlets have said that there was a relationship between the Free Town Project and the bear attacks, and a book was written on the subject by local state reporter Matt Hongoltz-Hetling.<ref name="vox"/><ref name="book"/><ref name="nhmagazine" /><ref name="newrepublic">Template:Cite magazine</ref>

In 2012, the Concord Police Department applied for $258,000 in federal government funding to buy a Lenco BearCat armored vehicle for protection against terrorist attacks, riots, or shooting incidents. The application mentioned "Free Staters" alongside Sovereign Citizens and Occupy New Hampshire as groups that "are active and present daily challenges". The grant from the United States Department of Homeland Security was successful, but the Concord City Council revised the application to remove references to those political movements before unanimously approving of the grant.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

A 2022 survey found relatively little awareness of the Free State Project in New Hampshire but generally negative opinions among those familiar: 49% of respondents had heard of the project, while 10% expressed a favorable view and 26% an unfavorable one.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Media coverage

The Free State Project was the centerpiece of the 2011 documentary film Libertopia<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> as well as the 2014 crowdfunded documentary 101 Reasons: Liberty Lives in New Hampshire.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 2023, NBC Boston produced and released a docu-series about the Free State Project titled Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of New Hampshire,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> which includes interviews from members, supporters, and critics of the Free State Project.

See also

• Adelsverein
• American Redoubt
• Anarcho-capitalism
• Foot voting
• Free West Alliance
• Fusionism
• Jason Sorens
• Libertarian conservatism
• Libertarian Republican
• Libertarian Party of New Hampshire
• Libertarianism in the United States
• New Hampshire Liberty Alliance
• Night-watchman state
• Objectivism
• Paleolibertarianism
• Politics of New Hampshire
• Right-libertarianism
• Voluntaryism

Further reading

• Template:Cite magazine
• Template:Cite news
• Template:Cite news
• Template:Cite news

External links

• Free State Project official website
• Template:Webarchive
• Organizational Profile Template:Webarchive – National Center for Charitable Statistics (Urban Institute)
• Template:YouTube
• Free State Project A Libertarian Testing Ground magazine article