Caryn Ann Harlos
Caryn Ann Harlos is an American politician and paralegal from Colorado who was the secretary of the Libertarian National Committee—the governing body of the Libertarian Party—from 2018 until she was removed from office in 2021. Prior to her election in 2018, she served in various positions within the Libertarian Party of Colorado, and as the Region 1 representative to the LNC. Career. Before entering politics, Harlos was a paralegal for twenty years, working in document management and remains employed in that field. Harlos joined the Libertarian Party and the state affiliate in Colorado in 2014 . She later served as the Communications Director for the affiliate, Region 1 Representative for the LNC, Historical Preservation Committee Chair, and on the National Platform Committee for the 2018 Libertarian National Convention. She became involved in the Radical Caucus in 2016. On 3 July 2018, at the 2018 convention, Harlos was elected as the LNC Secretary with 372 votes, 56.6 percent of the delegates. The incumbent secretary, Alicia Mattson, received 36 percent of the vote. A month after her election as Secretary, she denounced what she saw as socialists entering the party, asserting that Libertarianism is distinctly separate from both  the left and the right of the political spectrum. This occurred about a year after the party had denounced a similar issue with people on the alt-right becoming interested in Libertarianism. Harlos also advocates for an anti-abortion stance within the Libertarian party. In the July 2020 Libertarian National Convention, Harlos was re-elected as Secretary with 51% of the vote. She is known for her bright pink hair, and wearing a crown in the style of the Statue of Liberty to events. She describes herself as an anarchist. In June 2021, the Libertarian Party of New Hampshire made  a series of highly controversial tweets which were criticized on Twitter by former presidential nominee Gary Johnson, including calls to "legalize child labor", repeal the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and keep the Guantanamo Bay detention camp open "so that Anthony Fauci and every governor that locked their state down can be sent there". Harlos fervently defended the LPNH's tweets from criticism by LNC Chair Joe Bishop-Henchman and other prominent Libertarians, dismissing them as "mean tweets". On June 12, LPNH Chair Jilletta Jarvis, who opposed the tweets, seized control of her affiliate's assets and attempted to form  a new affiliate, claiming support from Bishop-Henchman based on a letter he wrote her on June 7 affirming her status as Chair. Harlos strongly criticized Bishop-Henchman, accusing him of conspiring with Jarvis to usurp the elected New Hampshire Executive Commmittee. On June 13, Harlos interviewed Jarvis and published a video recording of the interview online, in which Jarvis claimed Bishop-Henchman was aware of her intentions when writing the letter. After a Bishop-Henchman-sponsored motion to disaffiliate the recognized New Hampshire affiliate failed, Jarvis returned control of the affiliate's assets to the elected Executive Committee and  Bishop-Henchman resigned as LNC Chair. For allegedly disrupting the LNC's response to the New Hampshire controversy, Harlos was subject to two suspension motions, both of which were ruled out of order. Harlos claimed she was the victim of whistleblower retaliation for attempting to expose corruption on the LNC. On September 5, 2021, Harlos was suspended by the LNC by a vote of 11 to 2, plus one abstention. She appealed her suspension to the party's judicial committee on September 10. The appeal was declined on November 13, resulting in her permanent removal from office. Harlos ran in  the December 2021 special election to fill the vacancy created by her removal, but lost to John Wilford by an LNC vote of 9–6 in the first round of instant-runoff voting. She has announced she is running for a new term as Secretary at the 2022 Libertarian National Convention. Ballot-selfie lawsuit. In October 2016, Harlos challenged the Colorado "ballot selfie" law in a lawsuit against Colorado Secretary of State Wayne W. Williams, Attorney General of Colorado Cynthia Coffman, and District Attorney of Denver Mitchell R. Morrissey over its constitutionality. Prior to filing the suit, she had petitioned Coffman  and Morrissey to declare the law unconstitutional, to which they declined. In the suit, she argued that it is her constitutional right to post a picture of her voting for the Libertarian candidate in an effort to promote the party. Two other plaintiffs were involved in the lawsuit, both of whom had violated the law by taking and sharing pictures of their ballot, and thus were at risk of prosecution. This was the second suit filed against that law, the first being filed by Owen Hill, a Colorado state representative. In November 2016, a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction , preventing the state from prosecuting people for violations of the law, and in March 2017 Governor Hickenlooper signed into law a bill permitting ballot selfies. 2016 election. In 2016, the Libertarian Party's nominee for president was Gary Johnson, who promoted Bill Weld to be the vice presidential nominee. Harlos opposed Weld, arguing for a member of the Radical Caucus to be on the ticket to balance with some of Johnson's views that did not conform to typical Libertarian positions. At the 2016 Libertarian National Convention, she made a nominating speech for vice presidential candidate Will Coley, who lost  to Weld. In her capacity as a spokeswoman for the Libertarian Party of Colorado, she heavily criticized the candidates for the two major parties, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, describing them as "the two most disliked candidates since ancient Rome" and predicting "the death of the two-party political system as we know it." After the election, when membership for the Libertarian Party dropped, Harlos contacted people who let their membership expire in an attempt to retain dues-paying members. Although there were significant ideological conflicts within the party, Harlos heard mostly reasons unrelated to those. Most members contacted were  entirely unfamiliar with the names of the party's chair and vice chair. 2020 election. Harlos stood in District 45 at the 2020 Colorado House of Representatives election but came in 3rd place behind Democrat Katie Barrett. Historical Preservation. In 2017, while the representative of Region 1 Libertarian National Committee, Harlos worked to establish the Historical Preservation Committee. It was tasked with maintaining the party's history, and given a $10,000 budget to do so. She collected documents, tape recordings, bumper stickers, buttons, fliers, and other items from the party's past. The documents were then organized and digitized  in the committee's MediaWiki-based community-driven project, LPedia. In 2018, Harlos and others recovered the Libertarian Party's founding document, the original "Statement of Principles", which was found on eBay. Parliamentary Procedure. Harlos co-hosts, with Mike Seebeck, a YouTube video series called "The Cult of RONR" based on questions from the registration examination given by the National Association of Parliamentarians (NAP). Harlos is a member of the NAP and holds the certification of Registered Parliamentarian from that organization. The videos received a favorable review in the NAP's "National Parliamentarian," which called it "... an exceptionally good series  of educational videos, especially for people studying for the NAP registration examination, or for people that want an in-depth education in RONR," and "This discussion of both the daily and Sunday questions is in depth, often delving deeply into the text to determine why an answer is correct, not merely if an answer is correct. This is the true educational value of 'The Cult of RONR.'” It also noted "These videos are not for everyone, however. Someone offended by language that could not be used in debate (which is an understatement), should not watch these videos. The language is  salty, risqué, and filled with double entendres, such as the oft repeated phrase 'That’s what she said.'” Drug advocacy. In early 2018, Harlos announced her opposition to a ban on kratom, a plant-based pain reliever and stimulant, instituted by Denver Environmental Health. At the time, she was the communications director for the Libertarian Party of Colorado. In agreement with Libertarian Party views, she argued that the government does not have a right to regulate whether the drug can be used. Harlos used the drug herself to help with a degenerative back disorder and spinal stenosis. Personal life. She  is married to Wayne Harlos, who is also active in the Libertarian Party and serves as the chair of the Libertarian Party of Colorado. She was also elected secretary of the Colorado Party in 2021, but did not seek reelection to the post in 2022. Harlos is secretary of her county Party, the Libertarian Party of Douglas County.