Free State Project Libertarians Slash Croydon, New Hampshire School Budget by Half in Coordinated Takeover

At the annual Croydon school district meeting on March 12, 2022, a small group of Free State Project libertarians executes a coordinated takeover of the town’s budget process, voting to slash the school budget from $1.7 million to $800,000—a 53% reduction. The budget cut passes by a vote of just 20 to 14 in a town of approximately 800 residents, with Free State Project member Ian Underwood proposing the motion. Underwood is married to Jody Underwood, chairwoman of the Croydon School Board, raising questions about coordination between board leadership and the libertarian activists. The Free State Project celebrates the vote as “a key victory for their vision of limited government and low taxes,” demonstrating their strategy of targeting small New Hampshire towns where a handful of organized libertarian migrants can capture local government through low-turnout meetings.

The drastic budget cut threatens the viability of Croydon Village School, which serves approximately 86 students. The proposed $800,000 budget would force severe cuts to educational programs, teacher salaries, and basic school operations. Parents and longtime residents express shock at the sudden takeover, describing how a small group of ideologically motivated newcomers hijacked a process that traditionally reflected broad community consensus. The incident exemplifies the Free State Project’s explicit strategy: since 2001, the movement has recruited libertarians to migrate to New Hampshire with the stated goal of achieving “liberty in our lifetime” by concentrating enough activists in one low-population state to fundamentally transform its government and institutions.

The Croydon budget takeover triggers immediate community resistance. Outraged residents organize a petition drive to force a revote, ultimately gathering enough signatures to mandate a special town meeting. On May 7, 2022, nearly 60% of Croydon’s registered voters—377 people filling the dining hall at Camp Coniston to standing-room-only capacity—vote overwhelmingly to restore the original $1.7 million school budget. The massive turnout dwarfs the 34 voters who attended the original March meeting, demonstrating how libertarian capture relies on exploiting low civic engagement. The successful reversal becomes a rallying point for New Hampshire communities confronting Free State Project incursions, but the incident reveals the vulnerability of local democratic institutions to organized ideological takeovers.

By 2022, approximately 10,000 Free State Project members have migrated to New Hampshire, though the movement pledged to recruit 20,000. The organization has successfully fielded candidates for state legislature, with 17 openly identifying Free Staters serving in the 400-member New Hampshire House by 2018. In 2024, oil-industry-funded PACs including Make Liberty Win and Americans for Prosperity donate over $1 million to fund at least 130 Free State Project-aligned candidates for the state legislature. The movement’s communications increasingly adopt what critics describe as “insurgent” and “edgelord” rhetoric, explicitly framing their efforts as seeking “overthrow” of New Hampshire state government to establish a minimalist libertarian state. The Croydon incident illustrates how concentrated ideological migration combined with strategic exploitation of small-town governance creates opportunities for institutional capture that would be impossible in larger jurisdictions with higher civic participation.