National Convention 2018

2018 Libertarian National Convention
Convention
I'm THAT Libertarian!
Dates:	June 30—July 3, 2018
Location:	New Orleans, Louisiana
Venue:	Hyatt Regency
Media
Website:	Website
Facebook:	Facebook
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The 2018 Libertarian National Convention was held from June 30th through July 3rd, 2018 at the Hyatt Regency in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Overview

The 2018 convention considered proposals to amend the Libertarian Party bylaws and platform, and elected party officials for the coming two-year term. Delegates were selected by each of the 51 Libertarian Party affiliates.

Additionally, the convention included seminars, forums, debates, discussion groups, and an exhibition hall, as well as many parties, caucus events, off-site events and demonstrations.

Marc Allan Feldman's "I'm that Libertarian" speech title was chosen as the Convention slogan in a poll wherein participants voted by donating money in support of the slogan(s) of their choice, with the slogan raising the most money selected.

Business Overview

The Bylaws, Credentials, and Platform Committees each held meetings prior to the convention and final meetings at the convention site on Saturday 30 June.

The business session of the convention opened on Sunday morning 1 July with 697 credentialed delegates. The delegates heard the Audit Committee report and the Treasurer's report, and began work on the Bylaws Committee report. At the beginning of the afternoon session, it was reported that 770 delegates were registered, along with 22 alternates, with a total of 780 possible votes. The delegates continued work on the Bylaws Committee report and began work on the Platform Committee report.

The Monday morning session started with 799 delegates and 21 alternates registered, with a total of 806 possible votes. The delegates continued work on the Platform Committee work. At the start of the afternoon session, there were 808 delegates, 21 alternates, and a total of 813 possible votes. The delegates began the work of formally electing officers, re-electing Nick Sarwark as national Chair and conducting a first round of voting for Vice-Chair.

Business resumed Tuesday morning, with 771 delegates and 18 alternates, for a total of 778 possible votes, with continuation of the election for Vice-Chair and election of the other officers. Business Tuesday afternoon included election of the at-large members of the LNC, and of the Judicial Committee.

Non-Business Overview

Caucus Meetings

The following Libertarian Party caucuses are known to have hosted events, parties, and/or meetings at or in conjunction with the convention:

• Audacious Caucus
• Mises Caucus
• Outright Libertarians
• Povertarian Caucus
• Pragmatic Caucus
• Radical Caucus
• Secular Caucus (founding meeting)

Off-Site Events

Convention attendees took part in the following off-site demonstrations, protests, or other activism:

• Dead Veterans March (organized by Adam Kokesh to draw attention to suicides of former U.S. government military personnel)

• Families Belong Together protest (one of a series of nationwide protests held June 30 in opposition to President Donald Trump's anti-immigrant policy of separating undocumented parents arriving in the U.S. from their children)

• Tom Woods (unofficial off-site event "Take Human Action Bash" sponsored by the Libertarian Party Mises Caucus)

Vendor area outside main meeting hall.

Vendor/Information Booths

The following groups and individuals are known to have sponsored information booths/tables at the convention:

Headquarters membership booth.

Internal Party Entities:

• national headquarters - Membership
• national headquarters - Affiliate Support
• national headquarters - LP Store
• Historical Preservation Committee

Several causes sharing a booth.

Other Groups:

• Freedom Works
• Libertarian Socialist Caucus
• The Mad Statist
• Pragmatic Caucus
• Libertarian Party Radical Caucus
• Roads To Freedom Foundation
• Pro-Choice Libertarians
• Muslims4Liberty
• National Association of Parliamentarians
• Approval Voting USA
• Audacious Caucus
• Outright Libertarians
• Libertarian Statue Press / Signs of Texas Liberty PAC
• Porcfest / Free State Project
• FairVote
• Taggart Trading
• Secular Libertarians
• Ending Addiction
• Our America PAC
• Grassroots Leadership Academy

A candidate booth in Storyville Hall.

Candidates and Other Individuals:

• Caryn Ann Harlos (candidate for LP national Secretary)
• Mary Ruwart (author, "Healing Our World")
• Nicholas Sarwark (candidate for LP national Chair, candidate for Phoenix Mayor)
• Robin Koerner
• Craig Bowden (Utah candidate for US Senate)
• Howard Kearney (Louisiana candidate for US House)
• Matt Waters (Virginia candidate for US Senate)
• Joshua Smith (candidate for LP national Chair)
• Jeff Hewitt (candidate for Riverside County Supervisor)

Bylaws Proposals

Bylaws Committee meeting to finalize their report.

The Bylaws Committee provided a written report. The report was presented to the convention with the following changes made by the Committee after publication of the report: Proposals G and H were withdrawn, Proposals Q and P were repositioned for consideration, in that order, after Proposal E.

Proposal A relating to the platform deletion "token" system was considered but not adopted.

Proposal W relating to the time allowed for LNC mail ballots was adopted.

Proposal Q relating to preserving the 7/8 protection of the Statement of Principles was adopted.

Proposal B relating to election of the Judicial Committee was adopted.

Proposal C relating to the schedule for appointing convention committee members was adopted.

Proposal D relating to removal of LNC regional alternates was adopted.

Proposal E relating to the Membership article was adopted.

Proposal P relating to the Purposes article was amended (to retain the existing language up to "by") and adopted.

Proposal L relating to the order of business was adopted.

Proposal F relating to automatic delegate status for certain elected officials was postponed indefinitely.

Proposal I relating to the term of the Judicial Committee was adopted.

Time for the Bylaws Committee report ran out, so the remaining proposals were not considered.

Platform Proposals

Platform Committee meeting to finalize their report.

Based on the "token" system for proposing deletion of existing planks, the Abortion plank (having received 608 tokens) was considered but not deleted.

The Platform Committee provided a written report, along with a supplement containing an additional proposal "AA", a replacement wording for the second minority report on proposal "G", and noting a change in support for another minority report.

Proposal N relating to Free Trade and Migration was adopted.

Proposal AA relating to Parental Rights was adopted.

Proposal A relating to Licensing was adopted.

Proposal B relating to Government Finance and Spending was adopted.

Proposal C relating to Internal Security and Individual Rights was adopted.

Proposal D relating to the Preamble was adopted.

Proposals E and F relating to Personal Liberty were adopted.

The second minority proposal G (new version, text differs from original report), relating to Sex Work, was adopted with an amendment.

The minority proposal H relating to Personal Relationships was adopted.

Proposal I relating to Crime and Justice was adopted with amendments.

Proposal L relating to Money and Financial markets was adopted.

Proposal J relating to Expression and Communication was considered but not adopted.

Time for the Platform Committee report ran out, so the remaining proposals were not considered.

A mark-up of the adopted changes can be found here.

Conventioneering

2018 is historically significant for the successful effort at protecting the Statement of Principles with the Close the Back Door initiative. The New Orleans Accord which was categorized as an effort to unify the left-libertarian and right-libertarian quadrants in one form of the political compass was unsuccessful after multiple attempts.

Also notable was one of the candidates for party chair being a self-identified communist who wore a Mikhail Bakunin t-shirt on-stage during the chair's debate. He was booed by delegates on several of his points.

Elections

Sunday evening debate among candidates for Vice-Chair.

Debates were held Sunday evening 1 July for candidates for Chair and Vice-Chair. Participation in the debates was restricted via a controversial "token" system, which ended up excluding multiple candidates, including Matthew Schutter who ran for chair, and James Weeks and Matthew Geiger who ran for vice-chair. (In the actual election, Weeks outpolled one of the candidates who had taken part in the vice-chair debate.)

The candidates in the debate for Chair were Christopher Thrasher, Matthew Kuehnel, Nicholas Sarwark, and Joshua Smith. The candidates in the debate for Vice-Chair were Alex Merced, Arvin Vohra, Joseph Hauptmann, Sam Goldstein, and Steve Scheetz.

The formal election process, with nominating speeches and voting, began Monday afternoon and ran through Tuesday afternoon.

Chair

Nicholas Sarwark was re-elected on the 1st Round.

Nicholas Sarwark	517
Joshua Smith	175
Christopher Thrasher	46
NOTA	33
Matthew Kuehnel	13
Matthew Schutter	7
John Keil	4
write-in	1
Daniel Behrman	0

Vice-Chair

1st Round (no candidate received a majority)

Alex Merced	260
Joseph Hauptmann	180
Sam Goldstein	119
Arvin Vohra	66
James Weeks II	44
Steve Scheetz	43
Matthew Geiger	11
NOTA	8
write-in (Geoff Neale)	1

2nd Round (no candidate received a majority)

Alex Merced	251
Joseph Hauptmann	159
Sam Goldstein	80
Arvin Vohra	43
James Weeks II	29
NOTA	4
write-in	3

Unusual procedure - because things were running late, voting for three officer positions was done in a single round of voting.

Alex Merced was elected on the 3rd Round.

Alex Merced	333
Joseph Hauptmann	193
Arvin Vohra	68
Sam Goldstein	57
NOTA	5
write-in	2

Secretary

Caryn Ann Harlos was elected.

Caryn Ann Harlos	372
Alicia Mattson	235
Jeff Wood	38
NOTA	12

Treasurer

Tim Hagan was re-elected.

Tim Hagan	441
Drew Layda	131
Robert Paulson	32
Brad Thomas	21
NOTA	23
write-in	4

LNC At-Large

This election was conducted initially by "approval voting" in which each delegate could vote for any number of candidates. The numbers shown in the table below are the results of that vote. Because in that vote only the top two received support of a majority of those voting, a separate vote was held to confirm majority support for the next three, resulting in the election of the top five.

Sam Goldstein	327
Joe Bishop-Henchman	312
Joshua Smith	269
Bill Redpath	267
Alicia Mattson	231
Steve Scheetz	230
Daniel Hayes	227
Joe Buchman	215
Reza Khosh-Sirat	203
Christopher Thrasher	184
Ernest Hancock	120
Arvin Vohra	115
Heide Alejandro-Smith	113
Brian Ellison	113
Michael Pickens	110
Justin O'Donnell	102
Ben Farmer	97
Mike Shipley	90
Jesse Fullington	83
James Weeks II	80
Drew Layda	75
Clayton Hunt	70
Tyler Danke	55
Traci Baker	53
Brian Slowinski	52
Marc Padilla	51
Andy Jacobs	51
Caitlin Cloven	46
Susan Overeem	39
Ben Leder	30
Victor Kocher	20
Tony D'Orazio	20
Matt Schutter	19
Joe Paschal	15
Steven Brenize	10
write-in	9
NOTA	4

Judicial Committee

A single "approval voting" ballot was held, with the results shown below. However, because none of the candidates received a majority and the tally was not done until after adjournment of the convention, so there was no opportunity for the convention to further express its intentions, the legitimacy of this election has been questioned.

D. Frank Robertson	204
Chuck Moulton	192
Darryl Perry	182
Ruth Bennett	177
Geoff Neale	158
Jim Turney	157
Tricia Sprankle	155
Tom Knapp	142
Mark Hinkle	140
Roger Roots	133
Andy Craig	131
David Demarest	117
A. Blair Dunn	114
Ted Brown	112
Robert Murphy	99
Michael Kielsky	88
Elisheva Levin	85
Suzanne Gilmore	67
Greg Hertzsch	56
Chris Wiest	55
Dan Reale	41
write-in	25
NOTA	11

Pre Convention LNC Candidate Polling

Chair

Poll source	Sample size	Date(s)	Dearn	Kuehnel	Sarwark	Schutter	Smith	Others
The Libertarian Vindicator	134	February 2018	—	—	47.01%	—	28.36%	24.63%
Libertarian Party USA (Unofficial)	99	February 4—28, 2018	—	—	59.60%	—	16.16%	24.24%
Libertarian Party USA (Unofficial)	27	March 9—15, 2018	7.41%	—	27.93%	—	55.56%	11.11%
LP 2018 Delegates - unofficial	232	March 10—15, 2018	15.52%	3.45%	36.64%	2.16%	31.47%	10.76%

Vice-Chair

Poll source	Sample size	Date(s)	Goldstein	Hauptmann	Merced	Paschal	Porter	Scheetz	Somes	Weeks	Vohra	Others
The Libertarian Vindicator	248	January 2018	—	5.65%	46.37%	3.63%	8.06%	6.05%	19.76%	—	10.48%	N/A
Libertarian Party USA (Unofficial)	126	February 4—28, 2018	—	3.97%	71.43%	1.59%	—	2.38%	—	5.56%	6.35%	8.73%
Libertarian Party USA (Unofficial)	35	March 8—15, 2018	2.86%	2.86%	74.29%	0.00%	—	2.86%	—	5.71%	8.57%	2.86%

Speakers

• Amaryllis Fox, Keynote
• Jim Cantrell
• Colin Cantrell
• Naomi Brockwell
• Jeffrey Tucker
• David Guilford
• Gil Hildebrand
• Edward Trosclair
• Larry Sharpe
• Brett Pojunis
• Matt Simon
• Hesham El-Meligy
• David Spencer
• R.J. Lyman
• Judge Jim Grey
• Avens O'Brien
• Bill Weld
• Boomer Shannon
• Jeff Hewitt
• Mary Ruwart
• Robin Koerner
• Sara Daggers Stewart
• Tim Moen, Libertarian Party of Canada chair
• Tracy Ryan, Hawaii LP chair
• Valerie Sarwark
• Howard Wetsman MD video

Delegate Allocation

Following are the number of delegates that were allocated to each affiliate for the 2018 Libertarian National Convention. The affiliates are listed in groups according to the LNC regions which were in effect through this convention; region groupings for the upcoming term may be different.

2018 Libertarian National Convention delegate count by state.

LNC Region 1 Delegates

Affiliate	Delegate Allocation
Alaska	7
Arizona	23
Colorado	34
Hawaii	5
Kansas	11
Montana	7
Utah	8
Washington	35
Wyoming	3

LNC Region 2 Delegates

Affiliate	Delegate Allocation
Florida	53
Georgia	30
Tennessee	24

LNC Region 3 Delegates

Affiliate	Delegate Allocation
Indiana	29
Kentucky	11
Michigan	36
Ohio	41

LNC Region 4 Delegates

Affiliate	Delegate Allocation
California	109
Nevada	11

LNC Region 5 Delegates

Affiliate	Delegate Allocation
Delaware	4
Maryland	21
North Carolina	28
Pennsylvania	39
Virginia	41
Washington D.C.	4
West Virginia	5

LNC Region 6 Delegates

Affiliate	Delegate Allocation
Illinois	40
Iowa	11
Minnesota	19
Missouri	20
Nebraska	8
North Dakota	5
Wisconsin	21

LNC Region 7 Delegates

Affiliate	Delegate Allocation
Alabama	14
Arkansas	7
Louisiana	15
Mississippi	6
Oklamhoma	14
Texas	73

LNC Region 8 Delegates

Affiliate	Delegate Allocation
Connecticut	13
Maine	7
Massachusetts	22
New Hampshire	11
New Jersey	21
New York	44
Vermont	3

States without Regions Delegates

Affiliate	Delegate Allocation
Idaho	6
New Mexico	12
Oregon	15
Rhode Island	3
South Carolina	16
South Dakota	4

Documents

• Bylaws and Convention Rules 2016 (in effect for this convention)
• Platform 2016 (base for updated Platform)
• 2018 Delegate Allocation and Region Formation Manual
• 2018 Delegation Chair's Manual
• Final Delegate List
• 2018 Treasurer's Report
• 2018 Bylaws and Rules Committee Report
• 2018 Minority Reports of the Bylaws and Rules Committee

Photos

• Joe Dehn's Facebook albums (mostly business meetings)
  • Saturday
  • Sunday
  • Monday
  • Tuesday
• Avens O'Brien's Facebook album (mostly portraits)

Award Recipients

• Benjamin Franklin Award (local candidate): Jeff Hewitt
• Patrick Henry Award (federal/state candidate): Mark Miller
• Thomas Paine Award (communications): Carla Howell
• Sam Adams Award (activism): Joe Johnson, Alicia Mattson
• Thomas Jefferson Award (leadership): Julie Fox

Facilities

Elevators were assigned by a computer system that sometimes responded "no database" when things got busy.

The convention was held at the Hyatt Regency hotel, 601 Loyola Avenue, in the Central Business District area of New Orleans, near the Superdome.

The center of convention business was on the third floor. The business meetings and candidate debates took place in the Celestin Ballroom. The registration area was in the nearby Storyville Hall. Vendor booths were mostly in the hallway/foyer in front the Celestin Ballroom, with some in Storyville Hall.

Breakout sessions, committee meetings, and caucus meetings were held mostly in meeting rooms on the second and fourth floors. Meal events were in the Elite Hall on the first floor.

Minutes

• Minutes of the 2018 Convention

Profits

Number delegates registered onsite: 819 (+ 24 alternates)
Number hotel room-nights booked in block: 1784
profit/loss excluding banquet: $26,382.54
profit/loss including banquet: $ 84,542.54

Videos

Day One
Day Two
Day Three