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Are you passionate about the future of our state and eager to make a difference through public service? The Libertarian Party of Hawaii is now recruiting candidates to represent our values and priorities on the 2026 ballot. As a candidate endorsed by our party, you'll have access to a wealth of resources, expertise, and support to help you run a successful campaign.  This includes: Guidance on campaign finance compliance and financial management Strategic messaging and communications assistance  Voter outreach, field organizing, and get-out-the-vote efforts Networking opportunities with party leaders and fellow candidates Don't Wait Until the Last Minute! Start planning your campaign today! The next election cycle may seem far away, but successful candidacies require careful long-term preparation. The sooner you engage with our party's Candidate Committee, the more time we'll have to work together on building a winning strategy. From developing your policy platform to coordinating grassroots outreach, an early start is crucial to making the most of your candidacy. Remember, the decisions made in this off-season can make all the difference when voters head to the polls. If you're ready to take the first step towards elected office, reach out to us now, and let's get to work! Fill out our volunteer questionnaire to get started.

Summary : 2024 was a strong and transformative year for the LPHI, despite initial difficulties inherited from prior years.  Background :  2024 had a rough start. At this time last year, our board was still contending with extensive infighting, recovering missing infrastructure, adjusting to changes in board composition, and preparing our ship to enter an election season with no experienced sailors on deck. The new LPHI Executive Committee had to rapidly build much of the party infrastructure as if from the ground up, and train themselves to coordinate elections statewide. In short, our starting position was isolated, ignored, unprepared, and irrelevant; we were lacking both experience & money. It was not ideal. However, even in the face of these difficulties, we banded together, rising to overcome this challenge in 2024 by quickly acquiring talent, training, and experience before and during the election season. A few dedicated executives put in 60-hour weeks, working day and night as volunteers to stand in the gap for our party. During this time, we transformed the LPHI to become truly competitive in the new political landscape of 2024, despite only starting with a skeleton crew, and having virtually no assets or funding. But the most valuable resource in politics isn’t money, power, or even influence; it’s our people - effective activists. This year, I am pleased to report that the LPHI has exponentially increased its fundraising ability, rebuilt its broken or missing infrastructure, fostered strong strategic partnerships with allies in the Liberty Movement, and now has the power to make waves & even shape Hawaii’s political discourse. We now have a plan, a vision, direction, hope of real success, and the resources to realize & manifest these outcomes. There is good reason to be excited about the direction of the LPHI, and our power to make Liberty win in the coming elections.  Our biggest challenges yet The biggest problem currently facing all of Hawaii’s political institutions & parties is a lack of public participation. The current political climate has been defined by difficulty in finding volunteers and a general atmosphere of fear of getting “involved in politics”. This, coupled with the lack of support, contact, or turnover from previous boards had put our people in a very difficult position leading into the 2024 legislative session and election season. In addition to this, our board was contending with overt acts of sabotage and infiltration by non-friendly organizations, with some even going so far as targeting our new executives and party infrastructure in a hostile takeover attempt by outsiders. Despite all this, Hawaii Libertarians rallied to overcome these challenges and made an unexpectedly powerful impact throughout 2024. We were able to secure some truly excellent new talent and together found a way forward for liberty.  2024 Legislative Session   During the legislative session, we began training our members on how to make a difference in the state house and senate, how to provide effective public testimony, and how to generally track bills of interest. For instance, the results of our efforts were manifest in our opposition to bills like HB 2079, which ostensibly claimed to protect “Trans Rights”, but in reality, explicitly legalized private and public acts of interstate kidnapping of minor children from their biological parents (including by non-parents), so long as the acts were ostensibly taken as a means to provide “gender-affirming care” to the victim. The LPHI’s efforts in opposing this radical bill were instrumental in preventing its passage and put us back on the map of political influence & significance. Our combined content about HB 2079 ultimately reached nearly half a million people . Even though our messaging was ultimately censored and suppressed, we were nevertheless successful in our campaign to promote Libertarian influence in the legislature. We also strongly articulated Hawaii’s need for localism, free-market economics, less taxation, restoration of due process, respect for private property rights, and legalizing individual freedom & self-responsibility. We will continue ramping up our efforts to make your voices heard in the Hawaii legislature in the coming year, with even more resources and experience to bring to bear on the 2025 fight for freedom & independence in Hawaii. This includes the fight to introduce & pass the Defend the Guard Act - among other libertarian bills & initiatives.  2024 Election This year, we fielded three federal-level candidates, and two state house candidates, with several other members or aligned persons running as non-partisan candidates. We ensured that our LNC-nominated Presidential & Vice Presidential candidates were included on Hawaii’s ballot. Overall, the 2024 season outcomes were in line with prior years, despite the extreme difficulties we faced at the beginning of the year. Over the season, our new executives took extensive notes and carefully studied what it would take to win seats: our results are exciting and encouraging. Hawaii is winnable for us, and we are going to realize those gains in the next election cycle.  Systematic Improvements  Over 2024, we took proactive steps to ensure the next election season would see our first Libertarian victory in the State Legislature and beyond, including: Developing a viable, actionable plan and strategy for coordinating victory in the next state-level election season Developing detailed training manual guides for executives, volunteers, candidates, & their committees Creating strategic partnerships that will provide for: Pipelines for new member recruitment & engagement  Training & empowering candidates, volunteers, & activists Training for upcoming party leaders  Materials & support for activism & grassroots campaigns, including importing experienced volunteers  Improved fundraising  Developing executive guidebooks and manuals for our executives  Adopting a “ Cost-Commission Fundraising ” model, which allows us to pay activists who can source donations for the LPHI.  Expanding party infrastructure across the board, including for larger-scale political fundraising - which has enabled a 10x increase in our fundraising numbers  Empowering & training effective activists to influence legislative sessions for the LPHI to score wins & increase our overall influence in Hawaii’s political culture. The future is looking bright for the LPHI. We want to invite you to be a part of the coming victories. Moving forward, we will be placing a stronger emphasis on campus activism across Hawaii, fighting the ideological and cultural battle for the hearts of Hawaii’s students, and training the next generation of leaders in the Liberty movement - to prepare them for leadership & real-world public administration.  Cheers to 2025. May the coming year be blessed for all who stand with us for Liberty.   ~ Austin Martin

Candidates & Endorsements Libertarian Candidates:  Aaron Toman ran for Congress in District 2. Austin Martin Ran For House Representative in District 3. Fred Fogel ran for House Representative in District 5. Chase Oliver ran for President with Mike Ter Maat as his running mate.  Endorsements: Candidates who filled out our survey with a high score in liberty-centric responses were placed on a list of endorsed candidates. This list, along with the survey results, can be found here: Hawaii State Congress Election 2024 Liberty Survey 2024 Hawaii Election Results  Libertarian Candidates: Aaron Toman Received 1.7% of votes at 4,475 Austin Martin Received 2.9% of votes at 276 Fred Fogel received 2.9% at 300 Chase Oliver & Mike Ter Maat received .5% at 2,719  Endorsements: Out of the list of endorsements, one candidate succeeded in his race. We intend on setting up a meet and greet with him and keeping an eye on his actions in the office. Additionally, we have endorsed Thomas Massie for our choice as head of the Agricultural Department in the 2025 Trump administration.

Hawaii has not had a culture of freedom since its illegal occupation  started in 1893 with the overthrow of the Hawaiian Monarchy. While a monarchy is far from the ideal level of freedom Libertarians seek, the people and culture under that rule lived much closer to true freedom than what is found in Hawaii today. Hawaii currently ranks #49 in front of only New York as the least free state in the nation according to the CATO Institute's yearly “Freedom in the 50 States” index . The voters have been raised in a culture that doesn't embody freedom and it shows by their electing of representatives who continually take away their rights. If the Libertarian Party ever wants to be successful at changing the politics in Hawaii, we must first change the culture of its citizens to embrace the freedom that has long been lost. The Libertarian Party needs to lead the return towards liberty by creating and growing a community around shared values. We must practice what we preach in our everyday lives to show others what a culture of freedom is truly about. Due to the current one party regime and the engrained culture, it is highly unlikely that the LP will be able to gain majority control of politics across the state, like the “ Free State Project ” in New Hampshire has done. However, if we focus solely on changing the culture of one island, this would allow liberty minded representatives to control all branches of government for the county and up to ⅓ of the state legislature (depending on population growth). At which point, succession as a new state or independent country becomes a possibility, creating a quicker pathway to true freedom, rather than convincing the entire state. With enough farmland, 2 sea ports, 2 airports, and a relatively small population, the Big Island has what it needs to operate independently from the rest of the state if it desires. If the LP leads the way of changing the culture and lays down the initial infrastructure needed, the Big Island has the opportunity to attract those who are unwilling to move to New Hampshire’s climate, to create an island home for Libertarians, Voluntarist, AnCaps, and Hawaiian Nationals. The Big Island, while having the cheapest land and housing in Hawaii, simultaneously has the highest population of current liberty minded individuals, including the majority of the current Libertarian Party of Hawaii statewide membership, making it the most likely island for an overall culture shift to be successful. If you were already considering a move to New Hampshire, I encourage you to do it. New Hampshire has a 2 decade head start with a proven track record, more Libertarians moving there will only increase the success. However, if you've considered the Free State and have come to the decision that you will not be moving there for whatever reason, the Free Island Project may be your next best option. Unlike NH, there will be no coordinated “mass migration”. In Hawaii, the best time to buy land is always “today”. Hawaii County (Big Island) is the last island with affordable housing and history has shown us that the prices continually rise and never come back down.  Whether you live on another island or on the mainland, if the Free Island Project sounds like a goal that you would like to be a part of making a reality, buy your property on the Big Island and contact the Libertarian Party of Hawaii! The Free State Project started with one person writing an article and it grew from there. Well, the Free Island Project letter has been written, let's see what it grows into.  Aloha! ~ Aaron Toman

General Membership meetings are held on the first Monday of every month at 7pm HST. Join us for our next General Membership Meeting with guest speaker James Ostrowski on January 6, 2025.  The Liberty Movement is a rapidly growing grassroots effort to uphold individual liberty as the guiding principle in politics and economics, both in America and globally. This concept stretches back through human history, but its modern resurgence has been gaining traction since around 1970. The movement's primary focus has historically been working within the narrow framework of the electoral process. However, this approach has largely fallen short. This is where James Ostrowski comes in. His book titled “ Direct Citizen Action:  How We Can Win the Second American Revolution Without Firing a Shot ” is a concise strategy manual for those who want America to be a free country again. Ostrowski explains what you can do right now to restore American liberty. He will be addressing how the Liberty Movement can be applied in Hawaii to shift its focus towards more direct, citizen-led strategies and tactics to advance the cause of liberty.  We encourage everyone to attend this upcoming event and learn how Hawaii can take meaningful, actionable steps to secure the liberties that are the birthright of all people.  Learn More Here Virtual Meetings Link For your convenience, all of the above-mentioned online meetings have been set with the same Zoom ID: ZOOM LINK:    https://us06web.zoom.us/j/8088081776?omn=85799680314 Meeting ID:   808 808 1776