90% and Accelerating — The Free State Project Gets Ready to “Trigger The Move”

The Free State Project is an unprecedented movement — once 20,000 libertarians pledge to participate, it will “Trigger the Move,” and they will make their way to New Hampshire within five years. The organization has now exceeded 90% of its goal with more than 18,000 pledged participants, and almost 2,000 “early movers” have already made New Hampshire their new home with fresh faces coming in every week.

“This is the culmination of a decade of work and we’re just months away from reaching our 20,000 participant goal,” says Carla Gericke, President of the Free State Project. “Early movers have purchased about $40 million in New Hampshire real estate, and many have brought businesses and jobs with them.”

Free State Project early movers have fought for school choice in their communities, organized one of the state’s largest Thanksgiving food drives, and passed life-saving drug reform legislation. There’s been civil disobedience in the form of paying expired parking meters and illegally driving for Uber, and Free Staters have won landmark court cases that affirm the right to film police encounters.

“There’s already so much happening with just a few thousand early movers — dozens have been elected to the New Hampshire state legislature.” says Gericke. “There’s no telling what we can accomplish as more arrive at an accelerated pace.”

The Free State Project hosts two annual events: The Porcupine Freedom Festival (known as PorcFest) and Liberty Forum. Liberty Forum is a more traditional conference that has been attended by several presidential candidates and numerous thought leaders from the liberty community. This year’s Liberty Forum (February 18-21, 2016 in Manchester, NH) features NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden as the headline speaker.

PorcFest brings thousands of attendees to Northern New Hampshire every summer for a week of camping and intentional community with workshops, speakers, and family events. The Washington Post called PorcFest “the Burning Man for libertarians.”

The Free State Project started in 2001 with an essay by Jason Sorens, who was a graduate student of Yale at the time. Sorens, who is now a lecturer at Dartmouth College, theorized that if 20,000 committed activists moved to a single state with a small enough population, they could push policy and culture in a more free, open direction. In 2003, early participants picked New Hampshire.

“I can’t imagine being anywhere but New Hampshire,” says Sorens. “There are the obvious perks like the lack of sales and income tax, and the opportunity to engage with a highly accessible citizen legislature. But it doesn’t hurt that New Hampshire is also one of the healthiest, wealthiest, and most beautiful states in the country.”

To set up an interview with Carla Gericke or Jason Sorens, and to get more information about the Free State Project, contact Brinck Slattery via phone at (603) 703-2846 or email at Brinck@contentfac.com.

About The Free State Project

The Free State Project is an agreement among 20,000 participants to move to NH for ”Liberty in Our Lifetime.”