Charting the Course: The New LNC's Goals

When Evan McMahon was elected Chair at the 2026 Libertarian National Convention in Grand Rapids this past May, alongside Vice Chair Amanda Griffiths, Secretary Jonathan McGee, and Treasurer Doug Knebel, he framed the term ahead in plain terms:

• Get Libertarians elected
• Grow the next generation of members
• Run an LNC that "functions well and isn't embarrassing."

In the weeks since, the new board has begun the work of turning that synopsis into a concrete agenda. The conversation is now playing out in the open. On the LNC's public discussion list, former Chair and current At-Large member Steven Nekhaila opened a thread simply titled "Goals," inviting every board member to put their priorities on the table so the committee can "surmise our shared goals" and bring them to an email ballot. The responses that followed amount to an early roadmap for the 2026–2028 term and several of these goals are already moving from aspiration to action.

Membership and Fundraising: The Engine of Everything

Nearly every board member who weighed in named membership and fundraising as a foundational priority — and for good reason. A volunteer-and-donor-powered party cannot field candidates or win ballot lines without a healthy base.

The targets are specific and ambitious: $4 million in annual revenue and 66,000 dues-paying members by 2028, along with a return to tangible member benefits like a print newsletter and physical membership cards. McMahon campaigned squarely on this goal, telling supporters the party has "an engagement problem" and pledging to turn passive supporters into active members. His campaign platform named the same figures the board is now coalescing around, and on taking office he reaffirmed the 66,000-member target by 2028.

The case for optimism rests on McMahon's own record. Under his leadership since 2021, the Libertarian Party of Indiana climbed dramatically in national membership rankings, and Indiana candidates have posted some of the strongest Libertarian results in the country. The board is betting that what worked in Indiana can be scaled nationally.

Region 4 Representative Mimi Robson tied membership growth directly to unified membership where state and national rolls align so that joining locally means joining nationally. Region 7's Olivia Hayse and Region 6's Joe Hannoush echoed membership and fundraising as core goals, with Hannoush framing them within the party's "distinct and unique purpose" as a vehicle to run candidates for office.

Ballot Access: The Goal With the Most Momentum

The goal of 50-state ballot access for the 2028 presidential ticket already has wind in its sails. Robson called it "the main thing that sets us apart from the other third parties," and Hayse, Hannoush, and Vice Chair Griffiths all listed it among their top priorities.

This is also where the party can already point to hard progress. According to the LNC's Ballot Access Committee, the Libertarian Party is already on the presidential ballot in 22 states for 2028 and likely to retain access in seven more. The committee has requested up to $115,000 for 2026 petition drives, including a strategic $45,000 push to place auditor candidate Charlie Larkin on the Massachusetts ballot, a campaign that could lock in presidential access there for 2028. The committee is also exploring lobbying and legal options in tough states like Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, New York, and Virginia.

In Minnesota, LPMN volunteers gathered more than 5,000 signatures in just two weeks in late May and early June, securing ballot access for three statewide candidates. The party has a proud history here, having achieved all-50-states-plus-DC presidential access in 1980, 1992, 1996, 2016, and 2020.

Candidate Support: From Recruitment to the Trail

A party on the ballot still needs people on the ballot. The emerging consensus calls for 500 candidates in 2026, backed by a real candidate-training curriculum and in-person training.

Robson connected candidate support to affiliate support, arguing that "politics is local" and that regional training in organization and candidate development is the surest way to maximize the number of Libertarians running in winnable races. Hannoush folded candidates and affiliates into his five-part growth framework: ballot access, candidates, memberships, fundraising, and affiliates. He characterized it as the indivisible core of what the party exists to do.

Vice Chair Griffiths pushed the idea further, calling for a working national policy committee that would partner with affiliates and candidates to develop libertarian policy overviews on issues like surveillance, qualified immunity, school choice, and occupational licensing. The goal is to help candidates carry local office-relevant positions onto the trail, and receive policy guidance once in office.

Defend the Guard: An Ongoing Commitment

Among the most concrete and battle-tested goals is Defend the Guard. The initiative aims to bar National Guard units from being deployed into combat without a congressional declaration of war, as required by Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution. Nekhaila's opening message included the party's commitment to Defend the Guard as a top-three goal, with At-Large Representative Travis Bost as point person.

The LNC adopted its Defend the Guard resolution in 2022, the party launched a dedicated Defend the Guard Committee in late 2024, with Bost among its members. The campaign has drawn 180 new phone-banking volunteers working in collaboration with Bring Our Troops Home. State affiliates have carried the banner into legislatures, from Georgia's SB 62 to Pennsylvania's convention resolutions to Wisconsin's reaffirmed campaign for full state control of its Guard. You can read the party's full position at lp.org/defend-the-guard.

Building the Infrastructure of a Modern Movement

Vice Chair Griffiths offered the most expansive vision in the thread, organized around giving members "greater agency and engagement opportunities at the National and interstate levels." Her priorities included:

• Issue and policy advocacy that brands tangible causes as "libertarian" through action, making the party "unavoidable in the press" and driving single-issue coalitions rather than being co-opted by them.
• A member-based speakers' bureau of issue experts, paired with a push for more and more varied party media hits in outlets reaching untapped audiences.
• An infrastructure overhaul, including a member discussion forum for workshopping ideas and sharing affiliate resources, and a website that links out to affiliate pages with their bylaws, platforms, and key documents.
• Proactive resolutions that conclude with specific, material action items rather than words alone.

The party already runs an array of public committee discussion lists and email archives, giving Griffiths' forum proposal a foundation to build on.

Voices Worth Weighing

Several board members raised goals that, while drawing less back-and-forth on the thread, round out the picture of where the term is headed.

Region 9 Representative Alex Flores proposed establishing First Nations / American Indian affiliates recognized at the "state level," so that Tribes could be represented from their own sovereign jurisdictions rather than the states their reservations fall within. The idea builds on the Libertarian Party First Nations Caucus Flores founded in 2021, and drew supportive replies from both Olivia Hayse and Vice Chair Amanda Griffiths, who offered to help move it forward.

Region 6 Representative Alfa Shaw offered a goal aimed inward: prevent fragmentation. Noting that the committee is weighing sensitive affiliate matters, Shaw urged colleagues to deliberate carefully, avoid unilateral action, and treat holding the party together nationally as a core duty of LNC service.

At-Large Representative Richard Longstreth and Region 4 Alternate Barbara Engelhardt added a note of fiscal stewardship. Longstreth urged a balanced budget, funding programs only when money has been raised or guaranteed, and proposed reviving college and youth outreach programs. Engelhardt agreed emphatically, arguing that "a healthy organization is financially stable and solvent". The consensus is that the party should pursue financial accountability with the same rigor it demands of the government. Longstreth also reminded members that good goals require funding and pointed supporters to lp.org/donate. He paired it with a proposal to revive college and youth outreach programs, possibly consulting Dr. Lark of Virginia, a longtime advisor and prominent figure within Students For Liberty.

Region 1 Representative Austin Martin was focused on safeguarding the party's independence and core principles, calling for the LP to resist capture by outside organizations and agendas that don't share its non-interventionist foundations. Martin has reported extensively on these dynamics, and the concern is an active one at the affiliate levels as well. The Libertarian Party of Hawaii unanimously passed its own Resolution Against International Entanglements, with several other state affiliates reportedly weighing similar measures.

The Road Ahead

As of this writing, Nekhaila has bumped the thread to gather any remaining objectives before compiling them into a motion to adopt. What emerges is a portrait of a board that, for all its individual emphases, is converging on a coherent and forward-looking agenda: grow the membership and the money that powers everything else; lock in 50-state ballot access; field and train a wave of candidates; renew the party's anti-war commitment through Defend the Guard; modernize how the party communicates and engages; open new doors to under-represented communities; keep the books balanced; and hold the movement together while doing it.

The task before the LNC now is to braid these strands into a shared, ratified set of actionable steps.

Have a goal or priority you'd like to see the LNC pursue? The committee's deliberations are public. Follow the conversation on the LNC Public List and support the work at lp.org/donate.