The 2025 Libertarian Party of Iowa recently held a successful State Convention April 11th – 12th at the Des Moines Downtown Mercy Area Holiday Inn. This year did not include a business meeting, instead allowing the 50+ participants to enjoy a comedy show Friday night and a full day of compelling speakers on Saturday that provided a mix of legislative updates, activism insights, brilliant historical analysis, and a compelling vision for the future of the Libertarian Party.
We would like to thank all of our comedians for making our Friday night such a success. Our headliner was Robbie “The Fire” Bernstein, co-host of the Part of the Problem podcast and host of the Run Your Mouth podcast. Opening for Robbie was comedian Chris Faga from Brooklyn, and we even had a surprise set from the great Scott Horton. The comedy night was a great way to kick off our event and draw in “small l” libertarians that don’t traditionally attend LPIA events. We hope to see them again soon!
According to the unsolicited feedback of one long-time LPIA member, our Saturday event included the best lineup of speakers of any convention in the last 25+ years, and we couldn’t agree more. Our morning started with opening remarks from LPIA Chair Jules Cutler before we welcomed Iowa House representative Eddie Andrews and Iowa Senator Jeff Taylor. Both gave us updates on the most important bills in this legislative session and provided their own insights into the ups and downs of campaigning and serving as elected officials. Closing out the morning session, Jake Heard provided an analysis on the Iowa Supreme court ruling regarding the removal of our candidates from the November 2024 election.
Our next set of speakers were Iowans that challenged our thinking and inspired us with their stories. John Ewing of Bean Tree Homesteading gave a presentation on the importance of building a legacy for our future descendents through becoming producers instead of consumers, with a step-by-step plan of how to get there. Jimmy Morrison of Let Us Disagree Films took us on a journey through his libertarian awakening and the process of creating his documentary films The Housing Bubble and The Fall of 2008.
Finally, we ended the day with our keynote speakers, Scott Horton and Angela McArdle. Mr. Horton is the director of the Libertarian Institute, editorial director of Antiwar.com and host of the Scott Horton Show. He is the author of multiple books, with his latest book Provoked: How Washington Started the New Cold War with Russia and the Catastrophe in Ukraine being the definitive history of the events leading up to the current conflict. Mr. Horton’s speech took us through the most important geo-political events of the past 50 years through the lens of the anti-war, libertarian perspective. Afterwards, Angela McCardle presented on leadership, and what it means to take responsibility for an organization through a recap of the most challenging events during her tenure as the chair of the national Libertarian Party. She ended with a compelling case for why the Libertarian Party is the most powerful voting block in the country, and a strategy for how we can capitalize on that that power to get real wins on the board for liberty.
While future State Conventions will need to return to the important business of electing new leaders and refining our party bylaws, this convention was a welcome break with laughs and learnings. We raised money, brought in new faces, and enjoyed visiting with old friends. Once again, we thank all of our speakers that traveled from across the state and across the country to attend, and we look forward to hosting them for future events. And thank you to our attendees for making this a successful and enjoyable event for the Libertarian Party of Iowa.
