What Is a "Free Stater"?
If you live in New Hampshire and you think the government should leave people alone, someone has probably called you a Free Stater.
If you oppose an income tax, you're a Free Stater. If you support constitutional carry, Free Stater. If you think the state budget is too big, or that parents should pick their kids' schools, or that adults don't need the government to tell them to wear a seatbelt, you're a Free Stater. If you vote Republican in a swing district, you might be a Free Stater. If you win, you're definitely one.
The label has become the New Hampshire left's all-purpose slur for anyone who defends the policies that make this state work. And the irony behind it is staggering.
The Numbers They Don't Want You to Think About
U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2023; UNH Carsey School
Census ACS, IRS migration data
The Free State Project asked liberty-minded Americans to move to New Hampshire and get involved. More than 6,000 did. They ran for office. They showed up at town meeting. They started businesses, coached Little League, and fought for the same policies that made New Hampshire the freest state in the country long before they arrived.
Forty-six thousand people move to New Hampshire every year. The left doesn't have a problem with migration. The left has a problem with people who successfully stop them.
What They Actually Say
This is not an exaggeration. These are direct quotes from elected officials, party leaders, and progressive organizations in New Hampshire.
“Free Staters are the single biggest threat the state is facing today. What we can do is to make the environment here so unwelcoming that some will choose not to come, and some may actually leave.”Rep. Cynthia Chase (D-Keene), December 2012. Born in Providence, RI. Moved to Keene in 2006. (source)
A transplant from Rhode Island calling for the state to be made "unwelcoming" to other transplants who happen to disagree with her politically. That's the entire movement in one quote.
“The Free State Project is deliberately targeting unsuspecting small communities where they can outnumber the local voting population with people who are brought in to disrupt political outcomes.”Mohammad Saleh, Chair of Cheshire County Democrats, September 2022 (Boston Globe)
“The growing dominance of the Free State Project and its political allies has shifted the focus of state government away from governing. This is no longer a philosophical debate. It is a governing crisis.”Rep. Wendy Thomas (D-Merrimack), February 2026 (Concord Monitor)
A "governing crisis." Because the legislature is passing laws that the minority party doesn't like. That used to be called democracy.
The Language
The words they use tell you everything about what this is really about.
| Term Used | Who Said It | Source |
|---|---|---|
| "Invasive extremists" | Jean Lewandowski, Nashua | Concord Monitor, Aug 2025 |
| "Jihad" | Garry Rayno, InDepthNH | InDepthNH, March 2026 |
| "Colonizers-cum-liberators" | Washington Monthly | November 2021 |
| "Outside agitators" | Washington Monthly | November 2021 |
| "Parasites" | InDepthNH op-ed | September 2022 |
| "Ultra-extreme group" | Granite State Progress | freestateprojectwatch.org |
| "Antidemocratic organization" | Mohammad Saleh, Cheshire Dems | Boston Globe, Sept 2022 |
| "Infiltrated" government | DemocracyNH | June 2025 |
| 165 legislators labeled "extremists" | Jeanne Dietsch via DemocracyNH | June 2025 |
Invasive extremists. Parasites. Jihad. Colonizers. These are not words you use about political opponents you disagree with. These are words you use to dehumanize people. To frame their very existence in your state as a threat that needs to be removed.
And who is doing the labeling? An op-ed writer in Nashua compared Free Staters to invasive plant species that "smother and kill trees and shrubs" and need to be "rooted out." A columnist at InDepthNH described the House Majority Leader's legislative agenda as a "jihad." A national magazine called liberty activists "colonizers." An organization called DemocracyNH published a list naming 165 House members and 11 Senators as "extremists."
One hundred and seventy-six elected legislators were labeled extremists because they voted the way their constituents elected them to vote.
The People Throwing Stones
Here is the part that makes the whole thing fall apart.
The loudest voices attacking "outsiders" for moving to New Hampshire are themselves outsiders who moved to New Hampshire.
A woman from Ohio who moved to New Hampshire is running a statewide campaign to label other people who moved to New Hampshire as threats to democracy. A woman from Rhode Island who moved to New Hampshire proposed making the state "unwelcoming" to other people who moved to New Hampshire. Missouri-born Jeanne Shaheen has represented the state for decades without anyone questioning whether she belongs here.
The difference? Shaheen, Dietsch, and Chase support bigger government. The people they're attacking support smaller government. That's it. That's the entire distinction between a respected public servant and an "invasive extremist."
What a "Free Stater" Actually Is
The Free State Project was founded in 2001 by Jason Sorens, then a Yale graduate student. The idea was straightforward: if 20,000 liberty-minded people moved to a small state, they could actually influence policy in the direction of more freedom. New Hampshire was chosen in 2003. The pledge was reached in 2016. More than 6,000 people have moved so far.
More than six thousand people. In a state where 716,000 residents were born somewhere else. In a state where 46,000 new people arrive every single year. The Free State Project is less than 1% of New Hampshire's transplant population.
But the label "Free Stater" has expanded far beyond those people. As House Majority Leader Jason Osborne put it: "Opponents will call anyone they don't like a 'Free Stater.' It's terminology that has become almost meaningless, except as a pejorative."
He's right. The label now applies to anyone who defends the New Hampshire advantage. No income tax? Free Stater. No sales tax? Free Stater. Constitutional carry? Education Freedom Accounts? Opposition to an expanded state budget? All Free Stater positions. Never mind that these policies existed long before the FSP was founded and are supported by a majority of New Hampshire voters.
What This Is Really About
New Hampshire is the freest state in the nation. Ranked #1 by the Cato Institute. Ranked #3 for business tax climate by the Tax Foundation. The safest state in America. The lowest poverty rate. The 3rd highest median household income. No income tax. No sales tax. Constitutional carry. The results speak for themselves.
The New Hampshire left wants to change all of that. They want an income tax. They want gun control. They want mandatory paid leave, higher minimum wages, and more regulation. They've introduced these bills every session for years. And they keep losing, because voters keep electing people who say no.
So they've settled on a different strategy. Instead of winning the argument, they attack the people making it. If you can convince voters that the other side is made up of dangerous outsiders who don't belong here, you don't have to explain why an income tax is a good idea. You just have to make people afraid of the alternative.
"Free Stater" is a tool for doing exactly that. It turns a policy disagreement into an identity accusation. You're not a neighbor with a different opinion about tax policy. You're an invader. An extremist. A parasite. Someone who needs to be "rooted out."
Everyone Lives Here Now
Two-thirds of New Hampshire's adult population was born somewhere else. The state has had negative natural population growth since 2017. More people die here than are born here every year. Every bit of population growth, every new worker, every new taxpayer, comes from someone who chose to move here.
People move to New Hampshire because New Hampshire is worth moving to. Low taxes. Safe communities. Good schools. A government that mostly stays out of the way. They come from Massachusetts, from Connecticut, from New York, from California. They come because the states they left stopped working, and New Hampshire still works.
Some of those people signed a pledge on a website before they moved. Most didn't. All of them live here now. All of them pay taxes, serve on school boards, coach Little League, and vote in town meeting. All of them are Granite Staters.
The question isn't who moved here first or why they came. The question is whether we're going to keep what makes New Hampshire worth moving to. The people who get called "Free Staters" are the ones fighting to keep it. The people throwing the label around are the ones trying to change it.
That's what a "Free Stater" is. Someone who thinks New Hampshire got it right and wants to keep it that way. If that makes you an extremist, the word has lost all meaning.
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