I am a Washington State delegate. I have run twice as a Libertarian in my state; earning 29% and 31% respectively.  I was the founding chair of the Libertarian Party of King County, and Vice chair the next year.

I am the founder and CEO of the Ignite Foundation LLC, a company organized to provide “campaign support services for revolutionary campaigns.” Think “Candidate in a box.”  This year we have 4 candidates signed on, and several more in the funnel.  In addition to our primary goal, our secondary goal is to create a model where talented libertarians working for campaigns can be justly compensated. I came up with this model after realizing that until we have an apparatus to support campaigns in practical and affordable ways we are going to continue to struggle. I also realized that political parties are not the best organization for achieving that because of the regulations and bureaucracy.  Campaigns are like launching startups with no venture capital and running them in to IPO or Bankruptcy in less than a year.  Political parties move slow. Campaigns must move fast.

Based on my experience both in and out of the party, and my careful consideration of all the candidates, I maintain that Jim Gray offers the most value to not only the party but to down ticket candidates.  His message reflects his vast depth of experience and knowledge of how the system works; good or bad.  His policy positions are reasonable and will be perceived as such by those people in the know, outside the party-which is critical to growth of the party.  In a game of number, growth is important.

All of the candidates have worked hard and I can appreciate their passion, principals and positions.  However, Judge Gray has remained the most consistent and has not surrendered to the pressure to simply regurgitate talking points that he knows would persuade Libertarians.  He has offered sound policy positions that will not freak out the average voter.  That is very important.

Further, after speaking to Judge Gray, I know his true heart is for down ticket candidates, who sweat and toil, mostly swimming upstream in a very unforgiving system. These candidates need a candidate at the top of the ticket who will be taken seriously, is articulate, and has the personal and professional experience to truly understand the scope of the job he is running for. Platitudes and LP talking points will fall flat on voters who have become fatigued by both. They want real solutions and someone who will change the conversation.

My last reason for supporting Judge Gray is because of his recognition of what the greatest enemy of justice and freedom in this country is.  While taxation, regulation and other issues are certainly extremely important, there is another issue upon which the other issues are predicated; “legal plunder.” (See the Law, Frederic Bastiat, 1850) This is the foundational issue.  Legal plunder refers to one group manipulating the law, systems and institutions (and even national crisis like COVID!) so as to redistribute wealth, power and property to another group.  In our case it is a handful of multi-national corporations destroying the backbone of America: the middle class.  Judge Gray is the only candidate I have seen that truly addresses that.  His message will resonate with Democrats, Republicans and every one in- between who has been victimized by this legal plunder.

For these reasons, I support Judge Jim Gray as our POTUS Nominee and I encourage all other delegates to please do so as well.  This is not a game and we haven’t much time. . .

BE the change,

Michelle Darnell