Libertarian Party Gets New National Chair After Angela McArdle’s Surprise Resignation
Riding a wave of accolades for her role in convincing Donald Trump to fully pardon Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, Angela McArdle made a surprise announcement late on January 24 that she was resigning from her position as chair of the Libertarian Party’s National Committee (LNC).
McArdle released a farewell video a couple of days before a Sunday night LNC board meeting via Zoom that selected her replacement in which she stressed Ulbricht’s release from prison as the “biggest political victory” the party has ever achieved. She also accused George Phillies, a past L.P. candidate for office from Massachusetts and operator of Third Party Watch, of being a federal operative and called on her supporters to avoid the “demonically possessed.” She hinted without directly stating that she left the L.P. to work for the federal government in Robert Kennedy’s Department of Health and Human Services. In an emailed response to questions, she wrote specifically regarding her next steps: “I am moving to another position very soon where I won’t be able to stay Chair. I’ll be announcing it later this week or early next week, but I can’t say what it is yet.”
Kennedy certainly owes her; under her leadership the L.P. formed a joint fundraising agreement with his campaign, thus helping a candidate opposed to the L.P. raise money (while also keeping a portion of it for the L.P., and indeed the money flowing from McArdle’s decision to ally with Kennedy seems to be keeping the L.P. from running out of money entirely.) Organizations she controls outside the L.P. in turn have received over $750,000 in 2024. The vast bulk went to her nonprofit Rescue the West, some from the Kennedy Joint Fundraising Committee itself and more from other PACs and operations associated with Kennedy’s campaign, such as American Values 2024, MAHA Alliance, and MAHA PAC.
This information was first reported in December by Jake Porter, a former L.P. candidate for governor of Iowa. In response to emailed questions about what that money from the Kennedy operations was used for, McArdle wrote, “The organization that I run with Bret Weinstein held a giant unity event in September called Rescue The Republic. I’m surprised you didn’t hear about it.”
The LNC at Sunday night’s meeting created an investigatory committee to, in its language as voted on, “investigate issues of conflict of interest and business practices of the Libertarian National Committee.”
A live email ballot was in progress regarding forming such a committee that specifically referred to “allegations of misconduct” against McArdle, with votes already cast indicating it would be created, when McArdle suddenly resigned. The language regarding the investigatory committee that was passed Sunday night did not name her. Looming over the proceedings was the allegation that McArdle was funneling party money to her own household, furthered by investigative work from Porter on his Substack.
On January 21, he reported that under McArdle’s leadership the LNC has paid over $45,000 since last February to a company called Freedom Calls for fundraising services. Porter discovered that McArdle’s domestic partner and father of her child, Austin Padgett, was the incorporator of record for that entity. The operation’s website
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