Nicholas Sarwark
Sarwark in 2016
19th chair of the Libertarian National Committee
In office
June 29, 2014 – July 11, 2020
Preceded byGeoff Neale
Succeeded byJoe Bishop-Henchman
Vice Chair of the Libertarian Party of Colorado
In office
2009–2014
Preceded byWayne Harlos
Succeeded byEric Mulder
Chair of the Libertarian Party of Maryland
In office
2001–2003
Preceded bySteve Boone
Succeeded byChip Spangler
Personal details
Born
Nicholas Joel Sarwark

(1979-08-27) August 27, 1979 (age 44)
Phoenix, Arizona, U.S.
Political partyLibertarian
Other political
affiliations		Democratic (2022)
Spouse
Valerie Sarwark
​
(m. 2009)​
Children4
ResidenceManchester, New Hampshire
EducationWashington Adventist University (BS)
American University (JD)
Signature
WebsiteOfficial website

Nicholas Joel Sarwark[1] (born August 27, 1979) is an American attorney and businessman who served as the 19th chair of the Libertarian National Committee (LNC), the governing body of the Libertarian Party. Prior to his election in 2014,[2] he served on several LP national committees and as chair of the Libertarian Party of Maryland State Committee and vice chair of the Libertarian Party of Colorado State Committee.[3][4] As of 2020, he is the only LP chair to have served three consecutive terms.[5]

Sarwark declined to run for another term as LNC chair in 2020, and was succeeded by Joe Bishop-Henchman.[6]

Early life and education

Sarwark was born on August 27, 1979,[7][8] in Phoenix, Arizona.[9] He graduated from Washington Adventist University in 1998 with a BS in computer science and a minor in philosophy, later receiving his juris doctor from American University Washington College of Law in 2008.[9] While attending law school, Sarwark clerked for the libertarian law firm Institute for Justice.[10]

In the early 1990s, Sarwark's father brought him to Maricopa County Libertarian gatherings, and Sarwark subsequently joined the party in 1999.[9][11]

Political career and campaigns

Sarwark was chairman of the Libertarian Party of Maryland from 2001 to 2003,[12][13] holding numerous LP officer and local-level roles there.[14] Prior to being elected chairman of the Libertarian National Committee in 2014,[2][4] Sarwark served as a deputy public defender in Colorado and as vice-chairman of the Libertarian Party of Colorado.[15] He was re-elected in 2016,[16][17] and again in 2018.[18][19]

While serving as LNC chair, Sarwark made appearances on multiple national media outlets, including MSNBC and NPR, to discuss libertarian perspectives on various topics.[20][21][22][23]

Sarwark ran in the 2018 Phoenix mayoral special election.[24] His campaign platform included opposition to light rail, addressing the city's pension debt, and working with Republicans and Democrats on the city council.[25] He garnered 10.5 percent of the vote, placing fourth among four candidates,[26][27] and did not advance to the 2019 run-off.[28]

After moving to New Hampshire, Sarwark ran for Hillsborough County Attorney in 2020 under the Libertarian Party. His major issues included clearing the criminal case backlog.[29] He received 5.6 percent of the vote, placing third among three candidates.[30] Sarwark ran for the same office in 2022 under both the Libertarian and Democratic parties.[31][32][33] He placed second in a two-candidate race with 45.25 percent of the vote.[34]

Personal life

Sarwark married his wife, Valerie in 2009. After building a family in Denver, he returned to Phoenix in 2014 to join his family's independent car dealership, where he served as vice-president.[35][36] Sarwark and his wife have four children.[8][37] In 2019, Sarwark and his family moved to Manchester, New Hampshire, to become a part of the grassroots libertarian movement the Free State Project.[38]

Electoral history

2014 Libertarian National Committee chair election[39]
Round 1
Candidate Votes %
Nicholas Sarwark 161 40.7
Geoff Neale (incumbent) 135 34.1
Brett Pojunis 66 16.7
None of the above 31 7.8
Starchild (write-in) 3 nil
Total votes 396 100%
Round 2
Nicholas Sarwark 194 51.3
Geoff Neale (incumbent) 144 38.1
None of the above 40 10.6
Total votes 378 100%
2016 Libertarian National Committee chair election[40]
Round 1
Candidate Votes %
Nicholas Sarwark (incumbent) 464 64.7
Brett Pojunis 135 18.8
Mark Rutherford 108 15.1
None of the above (write-in) 5 nil
James Weeks (write-in) 2 nil
Trey Waites (write-in) 1 nil
Brett Bittner (write-in) 1 nil
Vermin Supreme (write-in) 1 nil
Total votes 717 100%
2018 Libertarian National Committee chair election[41]
Round 1
Candidate Votes %
Nicholas Sarwark (incumbent) 517 65.4
Joshua Smith 175 22.2
Christopher Thrasher 46 5.8
None of the above 33 4.2
Matthew Kuehnel 13 1.6
John Keil 4 nil
Matthew Schutter 1 nil
Arvin Hammer (write-in) 1 nil
Dan Behrman 0 nil
Total votes 790 100%
2018–19 Phoenix mayoral special election[26]
1st round
Candidate Votes %
Kate Gallego 171,035 44.5
Daniel Valenzuela 100,998 26.3
Moses Sanchez 71,121 18.5
Nicholas Sarwark 40,218 10.5
Write-in 1,082 nil
Total votes 384,454 100%
2020 Hillsborough County attorney election[30]
Party Candidate Votes %
Republican John Coughlin 105,491 49.4
Democratic Michael Conlon (incumbent) 95,948 44.9
Libertarian Nicholas Sarwark 11,982 5.6
Write-in 105 nil
Total votes 213,526 100%
Republican gain from Democratic
2022 Hillsborough County attorney election[42]
Party Candidate Votes %
Republican John Coughlin (incumbent) 87,004 54.75
Democratic Nicholas Sarwark 71,904 45.25
Total votes 128,908 100%
Republican hold

References

  1. ^ "122nd Commencement Program, Washington College of Law, Spring 2008". AU Digital Research Archive.
  2. ^ a b Harper, Jennifer (June 30, 2014). "Inside the Beltway: Libertarians shift into aggressive mode". The Washington Times. Retrieved July 3, 2014.
  3. ^ "Libertarians elect new leadership". Westmoreland Times. July 3, 2014. Archived from the original on July 6, 2014. Retrieved July 3, 2014.
  4. ^ a b Doherty, Brian (May 27, 2016) "The Libertarian Party's National Committee Chair Race: Meet the Contenders", Reason.com. Retrieved June 2, 2022.
  5. ^ "Sarwark wins unprecedented 3rd consecutive term as Libertarian national chair". Libertarian Party. 3 July 2018. Retrieved 11 June 2021.
  6. ^ Winger, Richard (July 11, 2020). "Libertarian Party Elects New National Chair". Ballot Access News. Retrieved July 12, 2020.
  7. ^ Libertarian Party [@LPNational] (August 27, 2018). "Happy birthday to our Chairman, @nsarwark" (Tweet). Retrieved 8 September 2021 – via Twitter.
  8. ^ a b "Nicholas Sarwark". Libertarian Party. Archived from the original on 18 June 2019. Retrieved 11 June 2021.
  9. ^ a b c Chartier, Gary (April 17, 2015). "Libertarian Party Chair and WAU Grad TalkS About Freedom". Spectrum. Retrieved June 29, 2019.
  10. ^ Pyeatt, Jill (May 17, 2014). "Nicholas Sarwark: I Would Like to Be the Next Chair of the Libertarian National Committee". Independent Political Report. Retrieved June 29, 2019.
  11. ^ Flaherty, Joseph (February 6, 2018). "Libertarian Candidate for Phoenix Mayor to City Council: Get Out of the Way". Phoenix New Times. Retrieved June 29, 2019.
  12. ^ "Central Committee Minutes, 4 August 2001". Libertarian Party of Maryland. August 4, 2001. Retrieved June 29, 2019.
  13. ^ "Free? State Libertarian: 2003 MdLP Annual Convention", LPMaryland.org. August 2003.
  14. ^ "Free? State Libertarian: MdLP 2007 Convention", LPMaryland.org. November 2007.
  15. ^ VanDyke, Stephen (June 28, 2014). "Nicholas Sarwark elected to lead Libertarian Party". HammerOfTruth.com. Retrieved June 29, 2019.
  16. ^ Weissmueller, Zach (May 31, 2016) "National Committee Chair Nicholas Sarwark on the Libertarian Party's Plan for 2016", Reason.com. Retrieved June 2, 2022.
  17. ^ Peal, Wayne (May 31, 2016). "Libertarian stripper has long Livingston history". Livingston County Daily Press & Argus. Retrieved May 29, 2019.
  18. ^ "Sarwark wins unprecedented 3rd consecutive term as Libertarian national chair". LP.org. July 3, 2018. Retrieved June 29, 2019.
  19. ^ Welch, Matt (July 4, 2018) "Libertarian Party Rebuffs Mises Uprising", Reason.com. Retrieved June 2, 2022.
  20. ^ "Life As A Libertarian", 1A. WAMU, NPR. February 1, 2018. Retrieved June 18, 2022.
  21. ^ "Nicholas Sarwark", Cato Unbound. October 2019. Retrieved June 18, 2022.
  22. ^ "Dem candidates in the home stretch in South Carolina", Morning Joe on MSNBC. February 27, 2020. Retrieved June 18, 2022.
  23. ^ "How to balance public health, civil liberties in time of coronavirus", Morning Joe on MSNBC. March 17, 2020. Retrieved June 18, 2022.
  24. ^ Boehm, Jessica (January 23, 2018). "Libertarian Nicholas Sarwark running for Phoenix mayor". The Arizona Republic. Retrieved June 29, 2019.
  25. ^ Flaherty, Joseph (2018-02-06). "Libertarian Candidate for Phoenix Mayor to City Council: Get Out of the Way". Phoenix New Times. Retrieved 2021-06-29.
  26. ^ a b Maricopa County Elections Department (November 20, 2018). "Final Official Results – November 6, 2018" (PDF). City of Phoenix. Retrieved June 11, 2021.
  27. ^ Welch, Matt (December 12, 2018) "Is the Libertarian Party Glass Half Full or Half Empty?", Reason.com. Retrieved June 2, 2022.
  28. ^ "AP: Phoenix mayor will be a runoff between Kate Gallego and Daniel Valenzuela". The Associated Press. November 6, 2018. Retrieved June 29, 2019.
  29. ^ "Nicholas Sarwark, Hillsborough County Attorney Candidate". Nashua, NH Patch. 2020-10-23. Retrieved 2021-06-29.
  30. ^ a b New Hampshire Secretary of State. "November 3, 2020 General Election – Hillsborough County Offices" (PDF). Retrieved 12 June 2021.
  31. ^ Schinella, Tony (September 1, 2022) "NH Libertarian Candidates For Governor, Senator File Signatures: Watch", MSN.com. "Nicholas Sarwark of Manchester, who is running for Hillsborough County Attorney, who also ran in 2020"
  32. ^ Winger, Richard (September 15, 2022) "Libertarian Nominee for Hillsborough County Attorney Wins Democratic Nomination by Write-ins", Ballot Access News.
  33. ^ Green, Rick (October 17, 2022 ) "Your ballot might list the same candidate under two parties. That's allowed under N.H. law.", The Keene Sentinel via New Hampshire Public Radio. Retrieved November 1, 2022.
  34. ^ Full 2022 New Hampshire county-level general election results#HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY ATTORNEY", WMUR.com. Retrieved November 16, 2022.
  35. ^ "Dealership Information | Sarwark's Consolidated Auto Sales Inc. | Phoenix Arizona". www.consolidatedauto.com.
  36. ^ "Nick Sarwark for Chairman". chair.sarwark.org.
  37. ^ "My husband, Nick". SendPulse.
  38. ^ "There's a new Porcupine in town: Libertarian National Committee chair moves to Manchester from Arizona". Manchester Ink Link. August 26, 2019. Retrieved September 8, 2019.
  39. ^ Blau, David (13 December 2014). "2014 Libertarian Party Convention Minutes" (PDF). LPedia. p. 35. Retrieved 30 August 2021.
  40. ^ Mattson, Alicia (15 April 2017). "2016 Libertarian Party Convention Minutes" (PDF). LPedia. p. 34. Retrieved 30 August 2021.
  41. ^ Mattson, Alicia (29 September 2018). "2018 Libertarian Party Convention Minutes" (PDF). LPedia. p. 30. Retrieved 31 August 2021.
  42. ^ Full 2022 New Hampshire county-level general election results#HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY ATTORNEY", WMUR.com. Retrieved November 16, 2022.

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Party political offices Preceded bySteve Boone Chair of the Libertarian Party of Maryland 2001–2003 Succeeded byChip Spangler Preceded byWayne Harlos Vice Chair of the Libertarian Party of Colorado 2009–2014 Succeeded byEric Mulder Preceded byGeoff Neale Chair of the Libertarian National Committee 2014–2020 Succeeded byJoe Bishop-Henchman
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