The Free State Project (FSP) is an American political migration movement founded in 2001 by Jason Sorens. In his original article "Announcement: The Free State Project," published in The Libertarian Enterprise (issue #131, "Let's Secede!"), the declared purpose of the movement was to form an independent libertarian nation, or failing that, to gain unspecified "concessions" from the federal government of the United States. By Soren's calculations, a migration of 20,000 libertarians to a single low-population state would be sufficient to transform the state in a libertarian utopia. Another article by Sorens published in the next issue of The Libertarian Enterprise (#132, August 1, 2001) backed away somewhat from the urgency of secession, though taking over the state government remained its stated priority. New Hampshire was selected in 2003 for this purpose.
Participants in the FSP signed a statement of intent declaring that they intended to move to New Hampshire within five years of the drive reaching 20,000 participants. The statement of intent was intended to function as a form of assurance contract. , 20,000 people had signed this statement of intent, completing the original goal, and 1,909 people were listed as "early movers" to New Hampshire on the FSP website, saying they had made their move prior to the 20,000-participant trigger. In the 2017–2018 term of the 400-member New Hampshire House of Representatives, 17 seats were held by Free Staters.
As of May 2022, approximately 6,232 participants have moved to New Hampshire for the Free State Project.
Some early participants have left the movement. Former New Hampshire representative Amanda Bouldin wrote a blistering critique "Why I left the Free State Cult" in 2025, calling it a "comically impotent echo chamber of nonsense."
Eric Brakey is the executive director of the FSP as of 2024.
In September, 2026, a bipartisan group founded "Republicans against the Free State Project." Its goal is to wake up the public "to the negative impact it says the Free State Project has had on the Republican party."
Intent The FSP mission statement, adopted in 2005, states:
"Life, liberty, and property" are rights that were enumerated in the October 1774 Declaration and Resolves of the First Continental Congress and in Article 12 of the New Hampshire Constitution.
To become a participant of the Free State Project, a person is asked to agree to the Statement of Intent (SOI):
The FSP is open to people with a minimum age of 18. United States citizenship is not required. People who promote violence, racial hatred, or bigotry originally were not welcome in the FSP. However, Free Stater Jeremy Kauffman was visited by the FBI for tweeting that 'anyone who murders [Vice President] Harris would be an "American hero."'
History The Free State Project was founded in 2001 by Jason Sorens, then a Ph.D. student at Yale University. Sorens published an article in The Libertarian Enterprise highlighting the failure of libertarians to elect any candidate to federal office and outlining his ideas for a secessionist movement, calling people to respond to him with interest. Sorens soon published a follow-up article noting that he had gotten about 200 responses to his initial article; given the hesitation of many respondents, Sorens backed away from secession somewhat, "and it never played a role in the FSP’s philosophy from then on." Secession from the United States however remains an issue for many Free Staters, including former FSP executive director Carla Gericke, who in 2026 formed a movement called NH Exit Now advocating New Hampshire's secession. The site claims that, in 2022, 42% of New Hampshire voters favored a ballot referendum on secession.
Sorens has stated that the movement continues an American tradition of political migration, which includes groups such as Mormon settlers in Utah, Amish religious communities, and the "Jamestown Seventy", an earlier effort to influence the politics of a particular state through deliberate migration.
The organization began without a specific state in mind. A systematic review started by narrowing potential states to those with a population of less than 1.5 million, and those where the combined spending in 2000 by the Democratic and Republican parties was less than the total national spending by the Libertarian Party in that year, $5.2 million. Hawaii and Rhode Island were eliminated from this list because of their propensity for centralized government.Joseph Spear, "An Experiment in Civic Engagement: The Free State Project" , Oklahoma Policy Studies Review, Vol. 5, No. 1.
In September 2003, a vote was held, and participants voted using the minimax Condorcet method to choose the state that they were to move to. New Hampshire was the winner, with Wyoming coming in second by a 57% to 43% margin. Alaska, Delaware, Idaho, Maine, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Vermont were also on the list. Organizers selected New Hampshire based on its existing political climate and cultural alignment with libertarianism.
Free Staters Form NH Liberty Alliance PAC November 1, 2003, one month after choosing New Hampshire, 40 Free State members organized the New Hampshire Liberty Alliance PAC. The PAC's political role was to "score legislators on how liberty minded they are and make the results public."
As of June, 2026, most Republicans in the New Hampshire legislature voted in alignment with the NH Liberty Alliance's 'Gold Standard' ratings of bills. One hundred twenty-four Democrats were ranked "Constitutional Threat" by the organization because they rarely or never voted in alignment with the Liberty Alliance agenda.
Free Town Project
In 2004, following the selection of New Hampshire, a splinter group called the Free Town Project formed to move to the small town of Grafton and advocate for legal changes there. Grafton's appeal as a favorable destination was due to its absence of zoning laws and a very low property tax rate. Additionally, it was the home of John Babiarz, a prominent member of the Libertarian Party who had twice run for Governor. Though no records were kept of the number of Free Town Project participants who moved to Grafton, the town's population grew from 1,138 in 2000 to 1,340 in 2010. Nearly all of the newcomers were men. Project participants fashioned homes out of yurts, recreational vehicles, trailers, tents, and shipping containers. The changes they voted in included a 30% reduction in the town's already-small budget, denying funding to the county's senior-citizens council. The libertarian newcomers additionally increased the city's costs by filing lawsuits against it in an attempt to set legal precedents.
In 2004, during and shortly after the Free Town Project became active in Grafton County, there were three bear attacks. Several media outlets have said that there was a relationship between the Free Town Project and the bear attacks, and a book was written on the subject by local state reporter Matt Hongoltz-Hetling. A single, definitive cause for the abnormal behavior of the bears has not been proven, but it may be due to libertarian residents who refused to buy and use bear-resistant containers, who did not dispose of waste materials (such as feces) safely, or who deliberately put out food to attract the bears to their own yards, but did not feel any responsibility for how their behavior affects their neighbors.
The Free Town Project attracted significant attention from the media after cutting police, road, and fire services, camping in "non-traditional housing" in the woods, and attempting to pass measures to withdraw from the local school district and declare the town a "United Nations free zone". It also saw an increase in crime, the first two murders in the town's history, and an increase in sex offenders living in town.
In 2005, members of the Free Town Project were also briefly involved with Mentone, Texas. Mentone is in Loving County, at the time the least populous county in the United States. Three men, Lawrence Pendarvis, Bobby Emory, and Don Duncan, claimed to have bought 126 acres (51 ha) of land and registered to vote there, although the sheriff determined that the land was not sold to the group, as no deed had been filed at the county courthouse. He contacted the sellers, who said that the land had been sold to other buyers, after which the sheriff filed misdemeanor charges against the three men and threatened to arrest them if they returned.
On February 3, 2016, the Free State Project announced via social media that 20,000 people had signed the Statement of Intent. In a press conference later that day, then FSP president Carla Gericke officially announced that the move had been triggered and that signers were expected to follow up on their pledge. This concluded the Free Town Project, and the Free State Project organization changed focus from recruiting signers to encouraging them to move to New Hampshire, stating "we want 20,000 movers".
Electoral activity The Free State Project is not officially aligned with a political party and as a 501(c)(3) educational non-profit cannot advocate for particular candidates or votes on ballot issues. However, given its founding purpose of "taking over the (state) government," within a month of choosing New Hampshire as its target for migration and libertarian transformation, the organization formed the NH Liberty Alliance, a 501(c)(4) non-profit for political advocacy. Staffed with volunteers aligned with the Free State Project, the NH Liberty Alliance sends a weekly "Gold Standard" advisory to NH legislators on upcoming votes, and at year-end issues a "Liberty Rating" of all legislators based on how well each aligns with its dictates. However, Republican legislators typically earn its highest ratings (on an A+ to F grading scale), while no Democrats in its 2026 annual Liberty Rating earned a score higher than D-, and over 70% were rated worse than F, which is "Constitutional Threat".
That said, however, the Free State Project is defined as a movement that seeks to relocate people of broadly libertarian ideals to New Hampshire, specifically for the purpose of converting it to a libertarian utopia. It receives its funding from individual donors interested in moving as part of the FSP or in attending one of their annual events. The FSP registered as a tax-exempt nonprofit educational organization under category 501(c)(3), on July 9, 2009 which makes donations to it potentially tax-deductible.FSP Newsletter, July 2014, From the President's Desk
Several early movers have been elected to the 400-member New Hampshire House of Representatives. In 2006, Joel Winters became the first known Free Stater to be elected, running as a Democrat. He was re-elected in 2008 but defeated in 2010. In 2010, 12 Free Staters were elected to the New Hampshire House of Representatives, all of them as Republicans. In 2012, 11 more were elected. In 2012, elected participants wrote and passed House Bill 418 which would require state agencies to consider open source software and data formats when making acquisitions; however, the bill died in the State Senate.
In 2014, 17 Free Staters were elected. In 2016, 15 of 32 Free Stater candidates were elected. In 2017, there were 17 Free Staters in the New Hampshire House of Representatives, and, in 2021, the New Hampshire Liberty Alliance, which ranks bills and elected representatives based on their adherence to what they see as libertarian principles, scored 150 representatives as "A−" or above rated representatives.