A mass migration across the United States in pursuit of political freedom sounds more like a description of historical events such as the 1847 Mormon migration to Utah, not a modern movement. However, the Free State Project is a modern political migration organization seeking to relocate liberty-minded individuals to New Hampshire. On Tuesday, the project reached its goal of gathering 20,000 signers pledging to move to the Granite State within the next five years.
Government professor Jason Sorens founded the project in 2001 as a Ph.D. student at Yale University. He published an article in The Libertarian Enterprise that highlighted the failure to elect libertarian candidates to federal office and outlined ideas for a secessionist movement.
New Hampshire was chosen among ten states as a final migration location after the project reached 5,000 signatures, Soren said.
Currently, close to 2,000 libertarian individuals have moved to New Hampshire, in addition to 2,500 friends of the Free State Project who already live in the state, Soren said. These in-state friends are not part of the 20,000 signers.
Sorens said that despite reaching the goal of 20,000 signers ahead of schedule, the project initially had difficulty recruiting, with only 8,000 signatures as recently as 2008.
“What really energized the Free State Project and brought in a lot of new members was that some of the early movers had started to accomplish things that we could advertise,” Sorens said.
Such accomplishments included the election of the first “Free Stater,” Joel Winters, to New Hampshire legislature in 2006, as well as three additional “Free Stater” candidates who were elected in 2008, Sorens said. Ron Paul’s campaign for presidency as a libertarian candidate in 2008 and 2012 also brought young people to work on his campaign, some of whom stayed in New Hampshire after learning of the Free State Project.
“Even if [members of Ron Paul’s campaign] didn’t stay, they signed up, and the word got out that something was happening here,” Sorens said.
Sorens said that participants of the Free State Project are expected to exert their fullest practical effort toward the creation of a society where the maximum role of government is protection of an individual’s rights to life, liberty and property. Because Free Staters cover a wide range in political philosophy, from moderate classical liberalism to anarchism, the project does not take a specific political stance but instead focuses on such issues as removing barriers to business entry.
Examples of the work Free Staters have done in New Hampshire included passing a bill in the 2011-2012 legislature that eliminated the certificate of need requirement for new hospital construction, which was a way for hospitals to shut out competition, Sorens said.
Another example was the battle over Uber in Portsmouth, Sorens said, where a Free State Project early mover, Christopher David, left his employment at Uber because the company supported a bill in New Hampshire legislature that would require every transportation network to carry $1 million in liability insurance on every driver — an expensive coverage that Uber already provided. In response, David founded his own decentralized transportation company, Arcade City, which will be launching this month.
Other issues that concern members of the Free State Project include criminal justice reform, privacy issues and drug policy reform, Sorens said. Free Staters were also instrumental in legalizing micro and nano breweries and passing a bill to allow jury nullification, where juries may judge not only the defendant but the law itself.
On a more entrepreneurial front, Free Staters are active in starting businesses and participating in social community building efforts, Sorens said. One example are community market days in Manchester, started by Free Staters, where community members can bring produce and other goods for purchase.
“These are a few examples of things that Free Staters and local allies have begun in New Hampshire since we chose New Hampshire and had close to 2,000 participants move to the state,” Sorens said. “It’ll be interesting to see what’ll happen with 20,000 movers in the next five years.”
Despite efforts for positive change, the project has been met with some resistance, Sorens said. One area of such resistance includes school choice programs, including one where Free State Project early mover and chair of Croyden’s school board Jody Underwood decided that parents had the right to send children to non-religious private schools or public schools after grade four. While initially approved by state government, the decision has come under pressure by the board of education who lobbied the attorney general to get involved in attempting to shut down the school choice program.
“You’ll always find a few people who are opposed, politically, to what we’re doing,” Sorens said. “We expect to encounter disagreement, but we hope to promote our ideas and show people that they work, and build win-win solutions to policy problems. We don’t expect disagreement to go away, but we hope people will understand where we’re coming from, and why we’re doing what we’re doing and engage in a dialogue.”
While the project has been successful at receiving 20,000 signatures, they will continue to recruit until 20,000 movers have arrived at New Hampshire, Sorens said. At the current rate, 30,000 people will have signed up to move by the next year. Once 20,000 people move to New Hampshire, the Free State Project will shut down, Sorens said.
Co-president of the College Libertarians Latrell Williams ’16 said that the Free State Project focused more on state and local politics than national politics, and that state politics ultimately decided more of everyday life for citizens. He said that he had been taken to a Free State Project conference by Sorens, and had been able to meet members of the community behind the project.
“The community there was very interesting,” Williams said. “They were a very close group and they had bonded over the fact that they had the same political views. It was just very interesting to see this group of people freely decide to be part of this state and just be with each other and live together.”
Brian Chen ’17, co-president of the College Libertarians and self-described friend of the Free State Project, said that he felt, upon meeting participants of the project, that they were very committed individuals who would bring in jobs and other benefits to the state of New Hampshire.
“The reason why New Hampshire has persistently been so successful at the state [level] is because it’s been very hard for the government to implement bad things,” Chen said. “I have full confidence that Free Staters will continue the greater New Hampshire tradition and continue to limit the size of government when other states are rapidly expanding the size of their governments.”
