New Coalition Looks To Alert the Republican Party About the Free State Project

By ZACH LAIRD, InDepthNH.org

A new coalition of concerned citizens has entered the scene in New Hampshire, with the goal of waking up others to the negative impact it says the Free State Project has had on the Republican party.

The head of the Free Staters Eric Brakey insists it is not a political organization.

Republicans Against the Free State Agenda is a coalition of citizens whose “goal is to break the hold the Free State Agenda has on the Republican Party by providing Republican voters with straightforward facts to evaluate independently,” per the organization. The Free State Project was started in 2001 with the idea of a “mass migration to concentrate libertarians in one small state,” and now has between 6,000-10,000 participants.

“We knew there were a bunch of great organizations getting the word out about the Free State Project, but it didn’t seem to penetrate with the Republicans… We thought it was an important issue for the Republican party to sort out, and if they didn’t sort it out, they’d be defined by it. The campaign is for the Republican party, it’s just for getting the truth out there, getting the facts out there; Republicans can make their own decisions,” Spokesperson Jennifer Peabody said.

Peabody said there are about a dozen concerned citizens in the coalition working on the campaign, which she said will be geared toward social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and X.com (formerly known as Twitter) to help spread awareness of the cause. The coalition will make regular posts several times each week until the election in November.

Peabody noted the group is made up of Republicans, moderate Democrats, and independents “trying to make the Republican party aware of what’s happening.”

“It’s not a threatening thing, it’s meant to be a help so that they (Republicans) can decide if they want their party to be defined according to the Free State agenda, and if they want their state to be defined by the Free State agenda.”

Eric Brakey, executive director of the Free State Project, said his project is a nonpartisan 501(c)(3) educational organization and they “do not run candidates, endorse candidates, or financially support candidates, and we are not an arm of the Republican Party or any other political party.”

“Free Staters who live in New Hampshire are individual citizens with their own political views and are free to participate in civic life, support candidates, run for office, and advocate for policies just like anyone else,” Brakey said.

Brakey continued that the coalition referred to the “Free State Agenda,” but added that it “doesn’t actually define that term or identify specific factual claims for us to respond to.”

“If this group publishes specific claims about the Free State Project, I’m happy to address them on the facts,” Brakey said.

Rep. Dan McGuire, R-Epsom, who moved from Washington state to New Hampshire for the Free State Project back in 2005, said he feels the project hasn’t had a big influence on the Republican party.

“It’s not the Free State Project, per say, that has any kind of political influence; it’s people who have moved to New Hampshire as a result of the Free State Project prompting them — such as myself, my wife (Carol McGuire, R-Epsom) — who had individually become involved in politics, become state representatives, or other offices and have had an influence, yes,” McGuire said.

McGuire said when he moved to New Hampshire and joined the Republican party that he didn’t feel out of place after getting involved.

 “I don’t feel like I was somehow different or out of step with other Republicans,” he said.

Peabody said that she was born in Generation X, and that former President Ronald Reagan was the first influential president to her during her formative years. She said as a lifelong Republican, she feels that Reagan “would have rejected the Free State agenda as anti-American.”

Peabody cited things like dreams of secession from the Union, drug decriminalization, foreign policy isolation, and radical cuts to law enforcement and public schools and said “it seems as though it was going completely against what me and a lot of my associates have always thought the Republican party represents.”

The coalition’s logo, a German Shepard named “Dutch” (after Reagan’s childhood nickname) has a porcupine — which has become a mascot for the project — hanging from its mouth. Peabody stated it’s not meant to reflect violence and that the porcupine is the dog’s squeaky-toy.

Another aspect that Peabody highlighted was the controversy in 2022 surrounding Gunstock Mountain Resort in Gilford. She called it “a prime example of an ideological crusade trying to dismantle a cherished, county-owned community asset under the guise of dogma.”

“In 2022, a coalition led by then state Representative and Free Stater Mike Sylvia attempted a libertarian takeover of the Belknap County Delegation and the Gunstock Area Commission,” Brian Beihl said. “Gunstock Ski Area was almost run into the ground, despite providing hundreds of jobs and hundreds of thousands in county revenue,” Beihl, organizer for Citizens for Belknap, said in a press release.

Aside from passing out information to Republicans until election day in November, some of the Republicans Against the Free State Agenda’s other goals are to:

• Raise awareness among Republicans about the impact the Free State Project’s agenda has on their Party.
• Provide a clear distinction between the core ideological differences between a Free State Agenda and a Republican Agenda.
• Encourage Republicans to consider voting for candidates not aligned with the Free State Agenda in the November midterm election.
• Support legislators who vote their constituents’ interests over the Free State Agenda.
• Support legislators and officials who speak out about the threat to their party even at the risk of facing marginalization, party censure, or political retaliation.

The post New Coalition Looks To Alert the Republican Party About the Free State Project appeared first on InDepthNH.org.