By ZACH LAIRD, InDepthNH.org
MANCHESTER — About a dozen people journeyed to The Quill, a libertarian clubhouse in Manchester on Monday to partake in “Welcome Wagon Monday,” a meet-and-greet event in the Free State Project’s PorcFest, a controversial gathering also known as Porcupine Freedom Festival.
“PorcFest XXIII: Spontaneous Order” is the 23rd festival hosted by the Free State Project and will run from June 21-28, with 10 mini festivals scattered throughout the state. The Free State Project began in 2001 with plans for a mass migration of libertarians to one small state to “create a more centralized community,” according to its website, which states that thousands of people have since moved to the Granite State.
But as they gained power in the State House many in New Hampshire have become hostile to their takeover of the Republican party focusing on issues like vaccines, Trans kids and their healthcare, public schools pressing instead for Education Freedom Accounts, and zoning and land use regulations.
So much so that some groups are celebrating PorcFest this week by educating the public about what they see as their real agenda. On Tuesday, former NH state Sen. Jeanne Dietsch “speaks on the corrosive impact of the Free State Project and extreme libertarian ideology on state, county and local politics at the Unitarian Universalist Society of Laconia, June 23, 6:30 pm. The event is sponsored by nonpartisan groups Central NH Indivisible and Citizens for Belknap,” according to a press release for the event.
Brian Beihl, organizer for Citizens for Belknap, said Belknap County is not immune from the grip of Free Staters.
“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,” Beihl said. “Gunstock Ski Area was almost run into the ground, despite providing hundreds of jobs and hundreds of thousands in county revenue,” he said in the release.
In the past PorcFest was held at Roger’s Campground in Lancaster while this year there will be events all of the state.
President Emeritus of the Free State Project Carla Gericke said: “This week at PorcFest, we’re doing it sort of as the onboarding for people…
“The idea is that with the ‘Welcome Wagon’ you get a bag with some swag (like gifts, trinkets or clothing), some pamphlets, and a passport that we made a couple of years ago, which is like a passport to New Hampshire, and it’s all kinds of ‘Free Stater’ things and half just cool things to do in New Hampshire… like, ‘Put your toe in Lake Winnipesaukee,’ and ‘go testify on a bill’ type of thing,”
Gericke responded to claims from critics that the Free State Project aims to dismantle public education or take over the State House and radically change the state: “The Free State Project itself is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, it’s an educational nonprofit that talks about what the advantages are of New Hampshire… We are a group of individuals; we are a movement of rugged, decentralized humans. They choose various projects, and of course many have chosen politics, and it’s been a pretty successful strategy. Jason Osborne, the House Majority Leader, lots of ‘Free Staters’ elected (him).
Gericke refuted claims that this year’s PorcFest will see a smaller attendance than previous years due to her stepping down from the Board of Directors several months ago, but acknowledged that the Free State Project, like other groups, experiences infighting: “There was infighting; of course there was infighting. We’re a community (and) community comes with drama.”
In a previous interview with InDepthNH.org, Executive Director Eric Brakey said the organization expects several hundred participants for this year’s PorcFest versus previous years, which saw attendance reach over a thousand people. He also noted that for people who move to New Hampshire for the Free State Project, the organization does not incur any cost of the individuals moving, and that there are about 100 state legislators who identify with the Free State Project’s principles or moved here to participate in it.
Former State Rep. Amanda Bouldin, D-Manchester first heard of the Free State Project through her then-spouse in 2009 and remained a participant until 2016. She said she initially found the idea of the project exciting and fun, noting that life in Texas had stalled during the 2008 financial crisis. Ultimately, she left the project after a controversy involving libertarian and former Free Stater Ian Freeman over whether children could make informed decisions about consent. In 2023, Freeman was sentenced to eight years in prison for a crypto currency fraud. She chose to step away quietly while fearing potential backlash from her departure, she said.
“So, I’ve been in New Hampshire 17 years at this point, and looking back on the early days, I realize I was never warned about how much vitriol there is locally for Free Staters. Free Staters are not welcome here. New Hampshire is a small-town state. Everyone knows everyone. And politics works differently here. People will vote for a candidate because they’ve known them since elementary school, not because of party. People will vote for a candidate because they came from a good family that that’s been in the area since the 1800s — not because of their political views,” Bouldin said.
Bouldin continued that relationships in New Hampshire are deeply rooted across generations, and that “the core concept of the Free State Project is contrary to the culture of New Hampshire.”
“When people are touring the state and being sold on the supposed successes of the Free State Project, I wonder how they’d feel if they were also told how difficult it will be for them to make friends outside of the Free State Project, or how challenging it will be to explain in a job interview how you ended up here without costing yourself the job. And that’s how you end up with a cult environment – that’s how you end up isolated, dependent upon the group, unable to develop new bonds, expand your horizons, or grow in any new direction.
“If you want to live in New Hampshire, feel free — it’s a beautiful place, rich with history and wonderful people. But it can’t be because of the Free State Project. Find some other reason, I’d say, because the FSP’s reasons are hollow, grasping at straws, and setting people up for disappointment,” Bouldin said.
Brittany Ping moved from Indiana to Manchester in 2014 with her now-husband after connecting with other ‘Free Staters’ and decided they wanted to start a family in the Granite State. She had just graduated college and her husband had a semester left when he signed the Free State Project’s pledge to move to New Hampshire and embrace libertarian ideals. She also noted she now plans to run for State Representative in Manchester.
She recalled how the community they discovered had “such a good energy” when they came to visit Manchester and decided they wanted to settle down in New Hampshire. Within five weeks they both had summer jobs lined up at a summer camp in Hebron, New Hampshire.
“We were able to land securely in Manchester. But it was just because this is the best place to raise children. Remove liberty from the equation, remove the Free State Project… It was like, this is one of the best places to raise your kids, this is one of the best places in regards to things that are interesting to us. We want to be outdoors; we want to be active. We don’t want to be in our beautiful apartment in Indianapolis drinking a six-pack every night. It’s just not the life we wanted for ourselves — and so to make a big shift — this is what we chose,” Ping said.
She said after moving to New Hampshire, her husband started a property management real estate brokerage where she also works. In their free time, they like to spend time with the community of other ‘Free Staters’ by having potlucks, dinners and sing-alongs.
She also responded to criticism against the project regarding seizing political power: “I would say there’s probably people who are Free State Project participants who’ve signed the pledge (and) hold those views, but I would say that they are few and far between, just like there are ‘Free Staters’ who want to build public education.”