Andrew Kolstee: Difference between revisions

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.