Andrew Kolstee: Difference between revisions

'''Andrew Martin Kolstee''' (born May 11, 1991) is a Libertarian Party activist. He is the current Secretary of the [[Libertarian Party of New York]], having been elected in 2024. He has also been the Chair of the [[Chautauqua County Libertarian Party]] since 2024 and Treasurer since 2017. He previously served as the county Chair (2015-2022) and Secretary (2022-2024). He is also a member of the [[Libertarian Party of New York]] State Committee and served as Communications Director (2017—2019), Secretary (2020—2022), and Chair (2022—2024) as well as in numerous other capacities. e became an enrolled Libertarian in 2009 and joined National in 2014 and the [[Libertarian Party of New York]] in 2015.  

Kolstee has an interest in history and genealogy. He served on the Board of Trustees at his local history center, the Fenton History Center from 2015 to 2022, in which also served as Secretary (2017-2021; 2022) before he began work there as Office Manager in 2022. Since 2013, he has been a member of the Chautauqua County Genealogical Society, of which he served as Trustee from 2018 to 2024. He has given several presentations on genealogical research and also runs his own freelance genealogical research business, The Family Historian. He was also active in his church until 2019, and volunteered in the church's media department from 2014 to 2019 and with the youth group from 2009 to 2019. He also operates a digital marketing business, Kolstee Media, since 2015.

Kolstee had been somewhat interested in politics in High School, but had not yet looked into the Libertarian Party while following the 2008 Presidential election. He first heard about the Libertarian Party because his maternal grandfather, John Widegren (1940-2021), was an enrolled member of the party, after learning about the party at a gun show. Kolstee registered to vote in 2009 and enrolled a member of the Libertarian Party. The 2010 election was the first election in which he voted, in which New York was holding its gubernatorial election. When researching for that election, he learned more about the Libertarian Party when he followed the Libertarian Party's candidate, [[Warren Redlich]], and then voted for the Libertarian Party slate. After the 2010 election, he didn't pay much attention to politics. In 2012, Kolstee's interest in libertarianism increased when he started to follow the Presidential campaign of [[Ron Paul]]. When Paul didn't get the Republican nomination, Kolstee threw his support behind [[Gary Johnson]] and from that point forward, he began to learn more about libertarianism and the Libertarian Party, especially learning about Austrian Economics through Learn Liberty videos. As early as 2013, he thought about getting more involved in the party.

In 2015, Kolstee first got involved in the Libertarian Party of New York when he attended the state convention in Rochester in April 2015. There, he met several party members of the [[Libertarian Party of New York]]. The first person he met was [[Jim Rosenbeck]] who was running for Vice-Chair. He also met [[Mark Glogowski]], who was running for Chair. He learned that they were working to establish local affiliates in unreached counties, such as Kolstee's home county of Chautauqua. He met [[Edward Garrett]], who was working to form a chapter in western New York. The [[Western New York Libertarian Party]] was a proposed regional chapter, which turned into a plan to create three separate chapters in western New York, with Kolstee working on Chautuauqa, Garrett on Erie, and [[Kim Ruff|Kim Richards]] on Niagara. In October 2015, Kolstee attended a training held by the National Party at a hotel, and also incuded a social event at the Libertarian National Headquarters.  

Kolstee attended the 2016 LPNY Convention in Manhattan where a Presidential debate was held. Kolstee designed the LPNY backdrop used on the debate. He was a delegate to the 2016 national convention. He voted for [[Austin Petersen]] for President and [[Larry Sharpe]] for Vice President. Following the convention, he served as Southwestern New York Area Field Director for the [[Gary Johnson]] 2016 Presidential campaign.