Island Spirit Vs. The Machine | Who Were the Hilo Hijackers?
- Abbra Green
- 2 hours ago
- 6 min read
The Libertarian Party of Hawaii’s (LPHI) 2025 State Convention was projected to have around nineteen participants from the state of Hawaii. However, in the last 48 hours before the event, we faced an excessive surge of last-minute membership applications from out of state with no prior history of engagement with our affiliate. The Executive Committee worked very hard to balance these numbers out at the last minute after recognizing the risk of an out-of-state takeover. You could feel the tension building among members in the room after the revelation that this convention had the potential to remove local control of our Hawaii affiliate.
The already overwhelmed credentials committee spent the morning working through the backlog, which delayed the convention by over two hours. When Aaron Toman (LPHI candidate for U.S. House of Representatives in 2024) finally presented the credentials report, the numbers sat at 88 credentialed remote Zoom attendees and 15 members physically present in Hilo. The room in which LPHI's leadership, bylaws, and future would be decided was outnumbered nearly six to one by people attending from laptops across the mainland. Not only was this level of turnout unprecedented for Hawaii, our 2025 convention turned out having more attendees than any prior Libertarian convention that year.
The Operation
Evidence reveals this was a calculated, data-driven operation organized by the LP Alliance. Founded in November 2024, the LP Alliance is a national inter-caucus coalition. They describe themselves as encompassing a wide array of factions. They do not seem to have a single coherent ideology, but appear united by antagonism toward conservative opinions. However, they do have a verifiable and coherent strategy. Their stated goal is to gain enough organizational control of state affiliates to reshape the national party from the inside out.
“From phone banking to candidate consulting to fundraising to coordinating rides and lodging, we do everything in our power to make sure that the right people are at the right conventions to run for and support Ally-backed slates.” ~ LP Alliance
They utilize national networks, phone banking, and candidate consulting to ensure their preferred voters can flood targeted affiliate conventions. As early as December 2024, their organizers were directed to a restricted communications channel to coordinate state-by-state research to document seasoning requirements and bylaw gaps to exploit. On August 30th, their target was Hawaii.
Kelly Nguyen was the on-site organizer for the LP Alliance. She had been an elected At-Large member of the LPHI Executive Committee in 2023 for a few short weeks before abruptly resigning, only to reappear at the 2025 convention in Hilo. The LP Alliance's publication, The Torch, later identified her explicitly as "the Alliance's on-site organizer." Nguyen's role was managing credentialing readmissions for the remote Alliance delegates. A former LPHI Executive Committee member was back in the room, working the floor for the faction trying to take over the party she had abandoned.
The operation had a clear structure. A remote bloc would supply the votes, Nguyen would manage the ground, and Kyle Davis, and other Zoom attendees, would run parliamentary interference and back-end communication channels in order to prevent LPHI from protecting itself from takeover.
Parliamentary Warfare
When Aaron Toman moved to limit voting to Hawaii residents and lifetime members, Davis immediately raised a Point of Order to kill it. The motion died before it could reach a vote. Andrew Chadderdon then cited Robert's Rules of Order on whether remote attendees could legally vote at all, and Chairman Austin Martin called a recess, reviewed the rules, and reversed the ruling to confirm remote participants were ineligible to vote.
The quorum collapsed to the 15 people physically present in Hilo. The ruling was immediately appealed by Daniel Lutz, seconded by Kelly Nguyen. The Chair's ruling was upheld among the in-person delegates. A motion by Nguyen to adjourn for lack of quorum was not well-taken. What followed was a sustained effort to destabilize whatever was left through parliamentary attrition.
"As expected, the MC removed the people in Hawaii, lol." "As we told everyone, the MC planned to violate the members of Hawaii. They did exactly what we said would happen." ~ Kyle Davis, via Zoom chat
This was their manufactured narrative, written before the convention started. Control the vote and win outright, or lose and claim fraud. Either way, they had a story ready to publish for their mainland pals.
Parliamentarian and former LNC Secretary, Caryn Ann Harlos was on speakerphone with Nguyen throughout the proceedings, participating as a non-voting "observer." When Aaron Toman asked Harlos for clarification, she acknowledged a conflict of interest on the record. She could not fully respond because she had "other clients in this event," which was not disclosed from the onset.
With the remote delegates properly excluded and the disruption finally exhausted, the convention held its elections. LPHI lifetime member Feena Bonoan suggested the nomination of Austin Martin for Chair. The man they came to remove was re-elected unanimously by every in-person delegate who cast a vote. The convention then passed a unanimous motion to authorize a Special Convention within 12 months to cover the agenda item that remained, the Bylaws and Platform revisions. .
The Organization
The LP Alliance is a broad inter-caucus structure founded in November 2024. Their goal is to gain enough organizational control of state affiliates and the LNC to reshape the party from the inside out. Their publication, The Torch, is their ideological platform edited by Amanda Griffiths. They have published a piece titled "The NAP is Woefully Outdated" and have authored work challenging the Non-Aggression Principle's prohibition on offensive political violence. Her co-organizer, Kyle Davis, sits beside her on the national Bylaws & Rules Committee, despite being openly opposed to the party’s Non-Aggression Principle.
The Alliance acts as a domestic arm of a high-stakes internationalist network. Their leadership maintains a close relationship with international political figure Pierre-Alexandre Crevaux, a high-level LP insider, advisor to former foreign head of state, and the the Regional Coordinator for France’s Renaissance party. He oversees Macron’s ruling party’s presence and activities in Florida, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. He serves as the Regional Vice-chair for Eastern Europe and Central Asia for the International Alliance of Libertarian Parties. He is also associated with the Georgian party, “Girchi – More Freedom”, a splinter from the original libertarian Girchi Party who aligned with NATO powers in an apparent effort to undermine and subvert the sovereignty of the nation of Georgia.
While Crevaux manages foreign political principals, the LP Alliance acts as the domestic vehicle to integrate these internationalist agendas into U.S. party operations. Internal communications show Kyle Davis describing the Alliance as "effectively a refounding" of the International Alliance of Libertarian Parties to focus on international messaging. All of this may present a significant legal risk under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).
Data Acquisition
Months after the August 30th convention, Kyle Davis sent a formal demand to LPHI for their complete membership list. He demanded every member's name, address, and voting weight, citing HRS Chapter 414D, Hawaii's Nonprofit Corporations Act. He threatened lawsuits and court-ordered inspections against the Hawaii affiliate for noncompliance to his demands.
This was part of a documented pattern of data acquisition for the LP Alliance. Kyle Davis reportedly admitted in direct communications that he had already downloaded the national LP membership and voter database. In those conversations and even on the LP Allies podcast, Davis made statements seemingly indicating that this data was shared or used in ways inconsistent with authorized LP data-sharing policies.
LPHI blocked the targeted attempt to integrate Hawaii’s data into an unauthorized national list. HRS Chapter 414D does not apply to LPHI. The Libertarian Party of Hawaii is a qualified political party organized under HRS Chapter 11, Part V, His demand was legally invalid and imposed no obligation on LPHI whatsoever.
“Because LPHI is not subject to Chapter 414D, the record-inspection provisions you invoke simply do not apply. Your demand is therefore legally invalid and imposes no obligation on LPHI." ~ Chairman Austin Martin
Since the threat lacked legal merit, Davis could not publicly complain about their "legal rights" being violated without exposing the flaw in their own argument.
The Island Spirit Remains
The Bylaws & Platform Committee has been meeting monthly since the convention. Every meeting is recorded and publicly available. Our bylaws are being rebuilt in public, with our members and for our members.
LPHI is active, growing, and doing the work that brought most of us into this party in the first place. We are tracking and testifying on over 200 measures this legislative session. The Defend Hawaii Act has glided through hearings. Our candidates are preparing for campaign season.
Real relationships, real candidates, real legislative impact, real aloha is ground that no outside operation can take from us. It was built here, by people who live here and love this place. Our island spirit has preserved the libertarian heart of LPHI.