Free Staters

Anchor 2

A primer on the NH Free State Project

FSP!

-- by Jeff Kennedy, published in the Keene Sentinel June 17, 2026

The “Free State Project” (FSP) is a “targeted political migration” (TPM) movement.

The FSP is the brainchild of Jason Sorens a political scientist, conservative libertarian activist and senior research fellow at The American Institute for Economic Research, a conservative libertarian think tank.

In 2001, Sorens authored an essay, “Announcement: The Free State Project,” and planted the seed for what has become an urgent problem for New Hampshire and democracy itself.

In 2003 New Hampshire was “targeted” as the Free State Project’s “Libertarian Homeland” for the following reasons:

Its geographically small size and relatively small population of approximately 1.4 million.
The short two-year election cycle of the state legislative and executive branches.
Relatively low per capita tax burden with regressive property taxes being the largest source of revenue in the state when you include local towns and municipalities.
Existing libertarian culture.
Even New Hampshire’s state motto “Live Free or Die” may have been a factor.

The basic strategy of a TPM and in New Hampshire’s case the Free State Project is as follows:

Select a state that meets the criteria listed above: New Hampshire.
Fund and move libertarian-minded people (“movers”) into the state to join with libertarians and right-wing Republicans already living in New Hampshire.
Run for elected legislative office on the state, city and local town levels (including school boards) in order to gain a majority voting bloc which can dictate policy and pass legislation that furthers the FSP’s aims.

Considering these strategy points, here’s how things look in New Hampshire today:

With a goal of 20,000, the FSP has managed to gather around 9,000 people to their cause. Nine thousand people comprise approximately 0.0064 percent of New Hampshire’s population (even their goal of 20,000 would comprise only 0.0143 percent), and yet (along with Republicans that don’t identify as Free Staters) they hold a majority in both the state House and Senate.

The N.H. House Majority Leader, Jason Osborne moved to New Hampshire from Ohio in 2010 as part of the Free State Project. Gov. Kelly Ayotte was a board member of Blackstone, a backer of the FSP’s agenda.

It has to be acknowledged that the FSP has done a pretty good job infiltrating our state’s governing systems.

More on the Free State Project's agenda for NH

FSP2

-- by Jeff Kennedy, published in the Keene Sentinel July 7, 2026

Here are the key legislative and policy aims of the Free State Project and their effects:

Reduce taxation

Ongoing reductions in business tax rates, combined with other declining revenue sources (such as the tobacco tax and the Liquor Commission profits) and the elimination of the Interest and Dividends Tax, have reduced state revenues by hundreds of millions of dollars.

Most New Hampshire business tax revenue does not come from small businesses. In fact, about 5 percent of filers pay approximately 80 percent of the Business Enterprise and Business Profits Taxes. That 5 percent is comprised predominantly of large national corporations. Consequently, New Hampshire’s unrealized tax revenue is contributing to historically high corporate profit margins.

Deregulation

This calls for limiting state mandates and government oversight across industries and reduced licensing and permitting requirements, including opposition to:

Taxes — business taxes and efforts to introduce broad-based income or sales taxes;
State mandates — car safety inspections, public health restrictions and seatbelt laws for adults;
Licensing and permitting — occupational licensing, permitting requirements for carrying of concealed weapons and commonsense gun safety legislation;
Public utility rules — such as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative;
Local zoning.
Privatization of state-owned enterprises, public facilities and government-run programs (For sale — New Hampshire!).
Decentralization/downshifting:
Shifting government costs and control down to the local level (town meetings and local property taxpayers).
This, along with declining state revenue (from other sources), places a heavier burden on local property tax payers to fund public education. New Hampshire’s state funding of public education is the lowest in the U.S.
Education freedom:
What this boils down to is “Education Freedom Accounts” (EFAs). An EFA is basically a voucher program, funded by the state, that subsidizes the education of students who opt out of the public school system to attend private and or religious schools, or for homeschooling.
The EFA program was originally touted as an opportunity for low-income parents to find alternative educational programs for their children.
Now, with the enrollment cap increasing by 25 percent yearly (if 90 percent of the current cap of is reached) and the family income cap being removed entirely, it is estimated that 80 percent of enrollees never attended public schools, but were already enrolled at private or religious schools or homeschooled.
The cost of EFAs have exceeded the budgeted amount and accounting has been incomplete. For example, in the 2025-26 school year, $39.3 million was budgeted, but projected costs are $51.6 million, a shortfall of $12.3 million.