‘The fringe has become the fabric’: Facing opposition, Free Staters seek to build on legislative momentum

Since Daniel Gialanella moved to New Hampshire from New Jersey last summer, he expects to save hundreds of dollars a month in taxes. He and his wife homeschool their kids and the state’s Education Freedom Accounts will defer some of their living costs.

But their main reason for relocating to the Live Free or Die state wasn’t financial. It was social and political.

“Just for more freedom and liberty up here,” Gialanella said. “Less of an authoritarian government up here, from a state standpoint.”

Gialanella came to New Hampshire as a participant of the Free State Project, an organization that recruits “liberty-minded” people to move here with the goal of creating a concentrated population of Libertarians to pursue the expansion of personal freedoms.

Gialanella, who lives in Chester, ventured to Concord this weekend for the New Hampshire Liberty Forum, a gathering of Libertarians and Free Staters that sought to draw new members and build on the project’s momentum. For him, it was a chance to get more involved with the community that drew his family here after they first learned of the Free State Project over a decade ago.

The event drew roughly 250 people to the Grappone Conference Center, according to the organization, where they attended a full slate of sessions that explored ways to build New Hampshire’s independence from the federal government.

Leaders of the movement celebrated what they view as legislative wins, cutting taxes and dismantling government regulations. They also grappled with where New Hampshire is headed, 25 years after the Free State Project’s founding by Jason Sorens.

In the past quarter-century, an estimated 6,000 to 10,000 people have moved to New Hampshire as participants of the project, according to the organization. That has not come without resistance, as many residents object to disruptions to long-running government functions, like public education.

At the forum, some discussions focused on cryptocurrency and precious metals as the foundation for a new currency system, should New Hampshire decide to secede from the United States — something several Free Staters said they like the idea of, though they’re not sure it’s plausible. Others tackled issues like energy, housing and healthcare.

Top of mind for Gialanella is “education freedom” and trying to stop federal use of the New Hampshire National Guard after troops were activated to serve in Iran last week. The state Senate recently voted down a bill, sponsored by Pelham Rep. Tom Mannion, which would’ve required a declaration of war by Congress for the National Guard to serve overseas.

Still, he’s optimistic that New Hampshire is moving the needle toward what he sees as individual liberties, like repealing mandatory car inspections, a new law that’s still tied up in court.

“Giving that personal responsibility back to people — you’re responsible for yourself, your own stuff,” Gialanella said. “Sounds like not a big deal, but at the same time, any little chip away… More freedom, encouraging personal responsibility, I think, is good.”

Paul Chauvin of Manchester agreed. He belongs to a sector of the group that jokingly calls themselves “pre-Staters” — people who already lived in New Hampshire but align with the Free State Project’s values — and said he watched with interest and excitement when the movement chose New Hampshire as its target.

“There’s definitely signs that we’ve been moving in the right direction,” Chauvin said. “There’s always going to be work to do, and there’s always going to be the next corner that we turn that things could change and start regressing, so we have to keep freedom on the forefront, keep paying attention and stay alert.”

Others argue that the growing influence of Libertarians in Concord degrades local communities. Seth Wheeler of Meredith, who attended a protest of the Free State Project last week, said he was motivated to run for state representative to protect public education from threats like the state’s Education Freedom Account program.

“All of that didn’t sit well with me,” Wheeler said. “I feel like that kind of New Hampshire we used to have is going away.”

The Free State Project as a ‘political machine’

In his “State of the Free State” address, Executive Director Eric Brakey said the project doesn’t have a central agenda but that it encourages individual action toward a common goal. At least half a dozen people affiliated with the movement now hold elected office in the state Legislature — and several of them have significant influence in the Republican Party.

House Majority Leader Jason Osborne, for example, took a victory lap at the conference, celebrating recent legislative wins like ending mandatory car inspections, repealing the state’s interest and dividends tax and establishing and expanding Education Freedom Accounts. He also sought to motivate people to run for office, though he made no bones about the personal concessions he said are required to make political progress.

More than 100 people protested the Free State Project at the State House on Thursday, led by local activists who urged non-Free Staters to run for local and statewide office.

The policies championed by lawmakers who align with the Libertarian group pose a threat to New Hampshire by prioritizing the individual over group well-being, said Louise Spencer, a co-founder of the Kent Street Coalition.

“This mentality, this attempt to change the culture of New Hampshire, is why we’re here today and what we aim to stop,” Spencer said. Protesters held signs that read, “NH is NOT your Free State Project.”

In Osborne’s eyes, the resistance to the Free State Project means his coalition has the upper hand.

“Make them call you a Free Stater … It’s not a setback, that means you’ve won. It’s not a smear anymore, it’s a description of where the center of New Hampshire political thought is today,” Osborne told the crowd on Friday. “There’s no difference between you and every sane, normal Granite Stater. That is victory. Take the win.”

That momentum, as leaders framed it, brings a new question to the forefront for the Free State Project: Where do we go from here?

Having brought thousands of people to the Granite State since 2003, fueled by the Ron Paul brand of Libertarianism and frustrations with COVID-era restrictions, speakers at the forum focused on how to grow the Free State Project, make tangible change and track its progress.

What was once on the sidelines, Brakey said, is now a “political machine.”

“They once called us a fringe movement,” he said, “but where we stand today, I’d say the fringe has become the fabric.”

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