Austen Givens
| Austen Givens | |
| Temporary County Chair Oneida County Libertarian Party | |
| February 11, 2018—March 4, 2018 | |
| Predecessor: | Charles Millar |
| Successor: | Craig Miles |
| Personal Details | |
| Party: | Republican |
Austen Givens was Temporary County Chair for the Oneida County Libertarian Party from February 11—March 4, 2018.
Political Views and History
Givens entered the political arena in 2003 when he was selected for an undergraduate fellowship at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a neoconservative-aligned research institution in Washington, DC, while he was a student at the University of Virginia. At UVA he published columns in the student-run publications The Virginia Advocate and The Cavalier Daily pressing for hawkish U.S. foreign policy positions that vigorously pursued the elimination of terrorists in Afghanistan and Iraq. He was a staunch and public supporter of George W. Bush’s 2004 Presidential campaign and the U.S.-led war in Iraq.
After graduation, Givens served briefly as an intern in the Capitol Hill offices of then-Representative John Boozman (R-AR) and the late Jo Ann Davis (R-VA). In late 2004 he left Capitol Hill to take an entry-level job in the international trade division of Wiley, Rein & Fielding LP, a law firm co-founded by Reagan White House Counsel Fred Fielding.
From 2004-2015 Givens largely avoided politics to focus on career development and education. He published a letter to the editor of National Review in 2006 calling for Saddam Hussein to be tried in Iraq, rather than in an international tribunal, for crimes against the Iraqi people. In a April 2008 column in The Richmond Times-Dispatch he advocated for U.S. nuclear sanctions against Iran to be linked to Tehran’s international support of terrorist organizations.
In 2015, troubled by the ascendance of then-Presidential candidate Donald J. Trump within the Republican Party, he reached out to Charlie Millar, then-TCC for Oneida County, to gather more information about the Libertarian Party. In 2016, he began to publicly criticize what he saw as abuses of power within the Trump administration. During a lengthy November 30, 2016 interview on WUTQ, Givens lamented what he saw as troubling early indications about the incoming Trump administration’s approach to immigration. He also disclosed on the air that he was a registered Republican. In early 2017, he posed a hypothetical question on WUTQ insinuating that Trump might be working as an agent of the Russian government.
In 2018 he agreed to succeed Charlie Millar as TCC, but stepped down after less than one month.
Givens has since backed Marc Molinaro’s 2018 campaign for Governor of New York State and remains a registered Republican.
Organizational Positions
- Temporary County Chair (February 11, 2018—March 4, 2018)
[[Category:New York Local Party Chairs]