National Convention 2022

This article is about a convention that has just concluded. Information is subject to change as additional information is still being added.

2022 Libertarian National Convention
Convention
Dates:	May 26-29
Location:	Sparks, Nevada (next to Reno)
Venue:	Nugget Casino Resort
← 2020 2024 →

The 2022 Libertarian National Convention was a biennial Libertarian Party National Convention. It was held in Sparks, Nevada (near Reno), from May 26, 2022, through May 29, 2022. The official web site for this convention can be found at https://lnc2022.com/

Minutes

• Final Minutes (info)

Summary of Business

The business session got underway at approximately 9:22am on Friday 27 May, with National Chair Whitney Bilyeu presiding.

After consideration of a disagreement about counting of alternates for the purpose of determining quorum and majority of the body, the Credentials Committee reported 893 delegates registered and in attendance; and a total of 997 including alternates. A motion to hear a minority report was defeated. A motion to strike the Pennsylvania delegation was defeated. A motion to replace the Massachusetts delegation with one that consists of the same people plus six others was withdrawn. The complete report was adopted without objection at approximately 11:16.

A motion to suspend the rules to remove the Chair and have the Vice-Chair run the meeting was defeated by a vote of 543 to 389 (2/3 required).

The proposed agenda was not adopted. A motion to suspend the rules to adopt an alternative agenda was deferred until after lunch.

Business began to sort of get started again a bit before 2:00pm. The motion to adopt an alternative agenda was adopted (at approximately 2:42) by a vote of 652 to 307.

Justin Amash gave a keynote address.

Updated numbers from the Credentials Committee announced at 3:40pm - a total of 1119 delegates and alternates registered, with a "voting population" of 1004.

Two candidates received enough "tokens" to participate in the Chair debate: Angela McArdle (544) and Steve Dasbach (101). A motion to also allow Tony D'Orazio (65) to participate failed. A motion to allow Chris Ehmling (8) to participate failed. A motion to move the debate to later in the evening, and allow additional time for submission of tokens, failed.

The Chair debate started at about 4:24pm, and the Friday session ended at about 5:02pm.

Business resumed Saturday at about 9:05am, with Ken Moellman chairing as Whitney Bilyeu was indisposed.

Angela McArdle, Steve Dasbach, and Tony D'Orazio were nominated for Chair.

Updated credential counts of 1129 total delegates and alternates registered, with 1005 eligible votes, were announced at about 9:30am.

After speeches for/by D'Orazio, McArdle, and Dasbach, motions to suspend the rules to allow a speech for NOTA failed. Spike Cohen spoke during the tallying of the votes.

Angela McArdle was elected Chair with 692 votes (69.55%). See Elections section below for details.

Caryn Ann Harlos and John Wilford were nominated for Secretary. Harlos was elected with 694 votes (70.82%).

Don Ernsberger, Geoff Neale, and Dave Walter were announced as winners of the "Hall of Liberty" award.

After lunch, Tim Hagan and Todd Hagopian were nominated for Treasurer. Hagopian was elected with 731 votes (76.07%).

Tony D'Orazio, Alex Flores, Joshua Smith, Christopher Thrasher, Erik Raudsep, and Joe Hauptmann were nominated for Vice-Chair. Jo Jorgensen spoke during tallying of the votes. No candidate received a majority on the first ballot.

A second round of voting for Vice-Chair was conducted. The rules were suspended to limit nomination speeches for LNC At Large and Judicial Committee to two minutes. The rules were suspended to limit any subsequent VC rounds to the top two plus NOTA.

A third round was conducted between Smith and Raudsep. Neither received a majority, so a fourth round was conducted between Smith and NOTA. Smith was elected with 599 votes (66.26%), and the convention adjourned for the day at approximately 7:12pm.

Business resumed Sunday at 9:04am, with nominations for LNC At-Large.

A "point of order" was made, and allowed by vote of the convention, that the removal of Caryn Ann Harlos as Secretary is "null and void", but a motion was then adopted to allow John Wilford to continue as convention secretary.

Speeches were made for/by 16 candidates for LNC At-Large, and voting was started.

Platform deletion token counts were announced - two planks received sufficient tokens to bring them up for a vote: Abortion (2252 tokens) and Rights and Discrimination (425 tokens).

Fifteen candidates were nominated for Judicial Committee before the lunch recess.

Business resumed at 1:30pm, with 1073 total registered and 976 eligible to vote, and it was announced that Dustin Blankenship, Richard Bowen, Bryan Elliot, Steven Nekhaila, and Michael Rufo had been elected as At-Large members of the LNC.

Speeches were made for/by the candidates for Judicial Committee and voting was started (and took a long time, during which various procedural motions relating to convention ending time were adopted).

In a vote starting at approximately 3:53pm, the Abortion plank was deleted by a vote of 512 to 268.

In place of a vote to delete the Rights and Discrimination plank, the rules were suspended to replace one sentence.

It was announced that Blay Tarnoff, Rob Stratton, Mike Seebeck, Stephan Kinsella, Ken Krawchuk, Marc Montoni, and Rob Latham were elected to the Judicial Committee.

Proposals from the Platform Committee report were considered without debate. Proposals 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13 were adopted.

An amendment from the floor to plank 2.1, adding language regarding aggression, was adopted.

With the PA system being disassembled, requiring the chair to preside using a bullhorn, the convention adjourned at approximately 5:22pm.

Convention Officers

The Bylaws of the national Libertarian Party provide that the National Chair shall preside at the convention, and that the National Secretary shall serve as secretary of the convention. However, unusual circumstances affected both of these roles at this convention:

Chair: National Chair Whitney Bilyeu called the convention to order on Friday morning, and presided over business for the rest of that day. During that session, a motion was made to remove her from that role, with National Vice-Chair Ken Moellman to take over as convention chair. That motion was defeated, but Bilyeu became ill that evening, so Moellman ended up chairing the business sessions on both Saturday and Sunday anyway. (Neither Bilyeu or Moellman were candidates for National Chair for the upcoming term.)

Secretary: Caryn Ann Harlos, who was elected National Secretary at the previous convention, was the subject of an action by the LNC to remove her from that position, and the LNC selected John Wilford as her replacement, but Harlos contended that her removal was improper and styled herself "Secretary in Exile" during the intervening period. On the basis of his appointment by the LNC as National Secretary, the convention began with Wilford serving as convention secretary. On Sunday morning, a "point of order" was made that the removal of Harlos as National Secretary was "null and void", and this point was sustained by a vote of the convention, with the apparent intended meaning being that Harlos had never been removed and so was still National Secretary. However, Harlos then moved that Wilford continue serving as, and retain the title of, convention secretary. That motion was adopted, and Harlos and Wilford worked together congenially for the entire convention. (Harlos and Wilford were candidates for National Secretary for the upcoming term, and Harlos was re-elected.)

Reports

• 2022 Treasurer's Report (info)
• Platform Committee Report (info)
• Final Report of Bylaws and Rules Committee (info)
• Minority Report of Credentials Committee (info)
• Second Minority Report of Credentials Committee (info)

Recordings

• [Friday business session]

• [Saturday business session]

• [Sunday business session]

• [Sunday business session - last twelve minutes]

• [Post-Convention LNC Meeting (Sunday evening)]

Elections

Summary of Results

• Chair: Angela McArdle
• Vice-Chair: Joshua Smith
• Secretary: Caryn Ann Harlos
• Treasurer: Todd Hagopian
• LNC At-Large: Dustin Blankenship, Richard Bowen, Bryan Elliot, Steven Nekhaila, Michael Rufo
• Judicial Committee: Blay Tarnoff, Rob Stratton, Michael Seebeck, Stephan Kinsella, Ken Krawchuk, Marc Montoni, Rob Latham

Chair

Token Counts for Chair Debate (Friday)

• 544 Angela McArdle
• 101 Steve Dasbach
• 65 Tony D'Orazio
• 36 Whitney Bilyeu
• 15 Adam Kokesh
• 12 Sarwark
• 8 Ehmling
• 3 NOTA
• 2 Portillo
• 2 Jones
• 1 Raudsep
• 1 Hagan
• 1 Moellman
• 1 Thrasher

Election Ballot for Chair

692	Angela McArdle
151	Steve Dasbach
103	Tony D'Orazio
47	NOTA
1	Adam Kokesh
1	Tiffany De Leon

Vice-Chair

Token Counts for Vice-Chair Debate (Friday)

• 350 Joshua Smith
• 214 Erik Raudsep
• 87 Joe Hauptmann
• 70 Flores
• 5 Valerie Sarwark
• 3 Nick Sarwark
• ... others

First Ballot for Vice-Chair

376	Joshua Smith
349	Erik Raudsep
73	Joe Hauptman
51	Alex Flores
43	Chris Thrasher
39	Tony D'Orazio
36	NOTA
3	Carter Fanning
1	Gary Alvstad
1	Duke Leto Atreides
1	Danny Bedwell
1	Orange Cassidy
1	Steve Dasbach
1	Harambe
1	Jeremy Kaufman
1	Lars Mapsted
1	James Ogle
1	Craig Shute
1	Joseph Smith
1	Donald Trump
1	Jeff Wood
1	abstain

Second Ballot for Vice-Chair

434	Joshua Smith
388	Erik Raudsep
45	Joe Hauptmann
37	Alex Flores
32	Christopher Thrasher
25	NOTA
2	Carter Fanning
1	Eric July
1	Michael Malice
1	Barry Macokiner
1	Norm McDonald
1	Mimi Robson
1	Sarwark
1	Randy Savage

Third Ballot for Vice-Chair

468	Joshua Smith
429	Erik Raudsep
56	NOTA
1	Dick Cheney
1	Alex Flores
1	Milton Friedman
1	Blue-ringed Octopus
1	Klaus Schwab
1	Starchild
1	Gaybrush Threepwood

Fourth Ballot for Vice-Chair

599	Joshua Smith
290	NOTA
8	Erik Roudsep
2	Andy Buckovich
1	Tory Dill
1	Steve Baugon
1	Apollo Pazell
1	Garrett Sheeks
1	Approval Voting

Secretary

694	Caryn Ann Harlos
239	John Wilford
39	NOTA
3	Tyler Danke
2	abstention
1	Donnie Flaherty
1	Jo Jorgensen
1	Tom Woods

Treasurer

731	Todd Hagopian
206	Tim Hagan
13	NOTA
3	Tyler Danke
2	abstain
2	Kate Prather
1	Cher
1	Danhausen
1	Christopher Darnell
1	Adam Kokesh

Candidates for LNC At-Large

• Whitney Bilyeu
• Dustin Blankenship (elected)
• Feena Bonoan
• Richard Bowen (elected)
• Bryan Elliot (elected)
• Pietro S Geraci
• Dru Heaton
• Rex Lawhorn
• Patty Malowney
• Rachel Danner McCauley
• Steven Nekhaila (elected)
• James Ogle
• John Phillips
• Omar Recuero
• Michael Rufo (elected)
• John Wilford

Candidates for Judicial Committee

• Rufus Holt Craig
• Tyler Danke
• Ryan Graham
• Michael Kielski
• Stephan Kinsella (elected)
• Ken Krawchuk (elected)
• Rob Latham (elected)
• Evan McMahon
• Marc Montoni (elected)
• Mike Seebeck (elected)
• Tricia Sprankle
• Robert Stratton (elected)
• Blay Tarnoff (elected)
• Jim Turney
• Ken Willey

Committees

• Platform Committee
  • Chair: Caryn Ann Harlos
  • Report (info)

• Bylaws Committee
  • Chair: Steve Scheetz
  • Report (info)

• Credentials Committee
  • Chair: Susan Hogarth
  • Second Minority Report (info)

Awards

• Hall of Liberty: Don Ernsberger, Geoff Neale, Dave Walter
• Thomas Jefferson Leadership Award: Mark Hinkle

(There may have been others, but announcement of awards was pushed off the schedule by other business.)

Delegate Allocations

Delegate lists

Alabama	Delaware	Indiana	Massachusetts	Nevada	Ohio	Tennessee	Wisconsin
Alaska	District of Columbia	Iowa	Michigan	New Hampshire	Oklahoma	Texas	Wyoming
Arizona	Florida	Kansas	Minnesota	New Jersey	Oregon	Utah
Arkansas	Georgia	Kentucky	Mississippi	New Mexico	Pennsylvania	Vermont
California	Hawaii	Louisiana	Missouri	New York	Rhode Island	Virginia
Colorado	Idaho	Maine	Montana	North Carolina	South Carolina	Washington
Connecticut	Illinois	Maryland	Nebraska	North Dakota	South Dakota	West Virginia

Delegate Allocation Source Documents

• Presidential Vote Totals Used for Delegate Allocations
• 2020 Census Information
• National Membership Numbers Used for Delegate Allocations
• Official Delegate List
• Letter from AZLP Chair regarding potential delegation challenge

LNC Candidates

The following were, prior to the convention, declared candidates for the Libertarian National Committee. (None of the Above (NOTA) is also a valid voting choice for all positions.)

National Chair

Name	Background	State
Tony D'Orazio	Libertarian Party of New York 1st Vice-Chair	New York
Steve Dasbach	Greenville County Libertarian Party Chair	South Carolina
Chris Ehmling		New Mexico
Angela McArdle	Libertarian Party of California Secretary	California

National Vice-Chair

Name	Background	State
Joe Hauptmann	Libertarian National Committee At-Large	Indiana
Erik Raudsep	Libertarian National Committee At-Large	North Carolina
Joshua Smith	Libertarian National Committee At-Large	California

National Secretary

Name	Background	State
Caryn Ann Harlos	Libertarian National Committee Secretary (2018—2021)	Colorado
Tyler Smith	Pickens County (SC) Libertarian Party Chair	South Carolina

National Treasurer

Name	Background	State
Tim Hagan	Nevada Libertarian Party Former Treasurer	Nevada
Todd Hagopian	Oklahoma Libertarian Party Treasurer	Oklahoma

LNC At-Large

Name	Background	State
Feena Bonoan	Candidate for Hawaii State Senate	Hawaii
Craig Bowden	2018 Candidate for US Senate	Utah
Pietro Geraci	Libertarian Party of New York Executive Committee Member-At-Large	New York

Regional Representatives

Regional representatives may or may not be elected during the convention, depending on the method chosen by the affiliate parties making up the region. The regions themselves can also be redefined during the time leading up to the convention.

California (currently identified as Region 4):

Elected at the state convention in February: Carrie Eiler (representative), Joshua Clark (alternate)

Pre-Convention Controversies

Disputed/Controversial Material This page (National Convention 2022) may contain disputed or controversial material because there are strong and differing opinions on some aspect of this topic. LPedia is an archive and takes no sides. The main article on a topic should focus on undisputed facts. Material that represents subjective opinions should be presented as such by one of the following methods: reference to another document that has a clearly identified author or source, a footnote that identifies the source along with the opinion, a brief summary in the main text of the nature of the dispute and the positions of each side. Authors should refrain from language that shows bias, e.g., praise of one side or slurs against another. Extended presentations of a particular viewpoint are best provided as separate documents or articles labeled as such; this allows readers to make their own judgments and arrive at their own conclusions. Thank you for respecting the purpose of LPedia. For more information see LPedia:Disputed or Controversial Material.

Unofficial Documents

Caryn Ann Harlos has continued to prepare documents that would typically be provided by the National Secretary in protest of what she believed was her removal for allegedly whistleblowing regarding New Hampshire and dereliction of duty regarding the lack of response to the COVID Regime as follows:

• Unofficial Delegate Allocations Manual (info)

With the voiding of her removal, the status of this document is uncertain, but when it was published, it was unofficial.

Logo

Many members were perturbed by the official logo for the convention as some members made the claim that it was officially confirmed that the artist was told to specifically make it NOT about mandates but much more open to interpretation. There is reported to be a Facebook post to this effect in a delegates group but until this post is linked, that claim should be taken as disputed. There has been no official denial of this claim found. This has been viewed as incredibly tone deaf and against the wishes of the people who put monies towards this theme.

In response multiple alternate logos were proposed. Below is one, but there have been several others.

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Branded Items

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Electronic and Absentee Voting

On March 31, 2022, less than two months prior to the convention, LNC Region 4 Representative TJ Ferreira issued an email which seemed to many to indicate that a decision had been made by the Convention Oversight Committee 2020-2022 to implement electronic voting using his own Porcupine Voting software and seemed to argue that nothing in the Party governing documents prevented absentee voting. Caryn Ann Harlos immediately issued a series of critical personal opinion videos on his assertions and apparent proposal. Later, TJ Ferreira appeared to walk back many of the perceived assertions in the original email that this was a certain plan but framed the idea as the beginning of a discussion. The complete email chain can be viewed here.

The Libertarian Transparency Caucus issued a letter of concern on the issue, taking issue with the lack of transparency in development and the apparent lack of following software engineering best practices in development and rollout.

A source which wishes to remain anonymous has reported that after the public outcry the item (using the Porcupine software) died in Committee for several reasons. Using it for speaker lists was not desired by National Party Chair Whitney Bilyeu and the motion by Alex Flores to use it for credentialing and voting died for lack of second.

Tom Woods

On April 10, 2022, a website published an article containing allegations regarding convention speaker Tom Woods and age differences and the time frame concerning his relationship with his now ex-wife. The article had originally appeared on Being Libertarian, where it was removed by Eric July. This issue has been hotly contested amongst Party members with people coming to different conclusions. All sides have proponents firmly convinced they are correct.

Following publication, a number of Libertarian National Committee members and Libertarian Party members denounced Woods, and a petition on Change.org began circulating to remove him as the breakfast speaker at the convention, with over 100 signatures in half an hour. There is presently an LNC email ballot to remove him as a speaker. Other Party members have just as zealously denounced this as a political hit job. Tom Woods has publicly repudiated the allegations.