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If the main purpose of a political party is to run candidates for office, former Libertarian Party of Virginia Chairwoman Holly Ward says it felt like a violation to keep taking peoples money.

Its clear that we cant function, Ward said in an interview as she explained why the party is dissolving as a corporation and giving back the nearly $30,000 it had in the bank.

Ward provided documents showing the party had dissolved its corporate entity registered in Virginia, but other Libertarians have been questioning the legitimacy of the move and insisting the party will live on.

In an emailed statement, Angela McArdle, the chair of the National Libertarian Committee, said that, as of Tuesday evening, the national body does not acknowledge that a disaffiliation has taken place and we are waiting on the members of the Libertarian Party of Virginia to issue a statement on the matter.

As far as I can tell, the alleged disaffiliation and resolution of the Libertarian Party of Virginia are the actions of a small group of rogue individuals who exploited their positions of power and moved to disaffiliate with no regard for the other members of the party or the bylaws of their organization, McArdle said.

Ward, a 36-year-old Northern Virginia resident who works in tech, said the disarray over the Libertarians status in Virginia is part of a bigger battle over the national partys tone and focus. The resolution to dissolve the state party, which Ward says was approved Sunday in a 7-6-1 vote by the partys central committee, said the national party has become functionally indistinct from other alt-right parties and movements.

Those destructive ideas, the resolution said, include endorsing thinly-veiled antisemitism, explicitly welcoming bigotry into the party, reversing the LPs 50-year legacy of support for LGBTQ+ rights, and openly denouncing womens suffrage, the civil rights act, and democracy itself.

Ward attributed those trends to a Libertarian faction called the Mises Caucus, which she said is taking over the party apparatus and discouraging Libertarian candidates from running in swing states where they could hurt Republican votes and tilt the outcome toward Democrats.

Ward pointed to several social media posts as examples of the types of messages she opposed, including posts from the national party saying Social justice is a Marxist lie created to bully and divide the American people, defining democracy as mob rule that endangers individual rights and replying to the AP Stylebook suggesting the pronoun she could no longer be used since we dont know what a woman is anymore. She also pointed to a deleted Martin Luther King Jr. Day Twitter post by the Libertarian Party of New Hampshire, an account the national party amplifies, that said America isnt in debt to black people, if anything its the other way around. Another post from the New Hampshire account said 6 million dollar minimum wage or youre antisemitic, which many interpreted as a reference to the six million Jews killed in the Holocaust.

Obviously I dont support any of these messages, Ward said. Its bigoted. Its absolutely repugnant.

Asked about the criticisms of the national party, McArdle said those sentiments came from the same group of rogue actors and may not reflect the views of all Virginia Libertarians.

Libertarians dont have a major presence in Virginias elected offices, but they used to have at least some heft in state politics.

In 2013, Libertarian Robert Sarvis earned more than 145,000 votes while running to be Virginias governor, more than the difference between the winner, former Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe, and the loser, former Republican Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli. Around that time, the party was involved in a handful of lawsuits challenging Virginias strict ballot access laws, which many Libertarians feel are designed to make it difficult for any alternative movement to break through and compete with the two dominant parties.

The party has faded in relevance since, running no candidates in recent statewide elections and having little discernible impact on state policy debates. A similar entity could re-emerge in some other form, but the new troubles raise serious questions about the viability of what was once Virginias highest-profile third party.

The Libertarians didnt have a candidate in last years gubernatorial race, but the party defended its right to use L on state ballots to avoid confusion with the Liberation Party, a third-party effort spearheaded by anti-police brutality activist Princess Blanding.

Online records from Virginias State Corporation Commission show the state Libertarian Partys nonstock corporation is in the process of dissolving, and the partys website has already been taken down. But there appears to be a power struggle underway over whether the party is or isnt calling it quits.

Daniel John, the state partys treasurer, emailed the Virginia Department of Elections Sunday night saying a few members of the organization acted inappropriately by attempting to dissolve the party against the wishes of the body and its bylaws.

Due to their choices, they have constructively resigned, John wrote. The rest of our board members and I will continue on with business as normal.

John didnt immediately respond to a request for comment.

A new Twitter account ostensibly representing Virginia Libertarians appeared Sunday and also cast doubt on the validity of the dissolution vote. And local Libertarian chapters around the state have been chiming in to say the partys staying put.

The Libertarian Party of Virginia attempted to dissolve through a childish coup that violated multiple procedures, wrote the Libertarian Party of Northern Virginia.

A spokesman for the Department of Elections said that, as of Monday, the Libertarian Party of Virginias PAC was still considered active and there had been no formal communication apart from Johns email. According to its most recent campaign finance report, the PAC took in a little more than $6,100 between January and March and had $26,984 on hand as of March 31.

Ward, the partys former chair, said she didnt think any notification to state election officials was necessary, because Virginia only treats Democrats and Republicans as officially recognized political parties. A party must have received at least 10% of the vote in one of the last two statewide elections to be recognized to qualify as a political party.

If a different group wants to try to reincorporate a new Libertarian Party of Virginia, Ward said, theyre welcome to do so. But she questioned what the point would be since the party doesnt have candidates to support.

We couldnt run anybody, Ward said. No ones even willing to put their names behind this.

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Libertarian Party of Virginia dissolving after national party's 'bigoted' turn, ex-chair says - Virginia Mercury