Official Press Release

Former attorney, activist and writer Carla Gericke is named president of the Foundation for New Hampshire Independence. She is president emeritus of the Free State Project, and spent the past eight years attracting liberty activists to New Hampshire to pursue freer lives.

May 25, 2016: The Foundation for New Hampshire Independence, a 501c3 nonprofit whose mission is to promote New Hampshire’s peaceful separation from the United States through educational initiatives, is pleased to welcome Carla Gericke as board member and president.

“Carla brings a powerful combination of executive management skills and digital media expertise,” said outgoing FNHI president, entrepreneur Neal Conner. “Her creativity, charisma and commitment to the future of an independent New Hampshire will help take the Foundation’s educational efforts to the next level.”

Born in South Africa and raised in a diplomatic family, Gericke lived in America, Sweden, and Brazil growing up. She moved to the U.S. in 1996 after winning a green card in the Diversity Visa Lottery, and became a U.S. citizen in 2000. Gericke practiced law in South Africa and at Fortune 500 companies in California before completing her M.F.A. at The City College of New York in 2008.

Soon after, Gericke and her husband, a software executive, moved to New Hampshire as part of the Free State Project, a movement to attract 20,000 liberty activists to the Granite State. She twice organized the Porcupine Freedom Festival, a.k.a. PorcFest, one of the world’s largest liberty gatherings, now in its 13th year. Gericke became the FSP’s president in 2011. Before stepping down in March, she fulfilled the FSP’s goal of getting 20,000 activists to pledge to move to New Hampshire, thereby “triggering the move” two years ahead of projections.

“Now that the Free State Project is on track to bring thousands of activists to New Hampshire, it is the perfect time for me to shift focus,” said Gericke. “I’m excited to help Granite Staters–whether they’re 6th generation or new movers–to better understand the benefits of state autonomy. New Hampshire already has a vibrant civic culture founded on the ideals of freedom, independence, and self-reliance. If people embraced autonomy, New Hampshire could be an independent entity–with a population roughly four times size of Iceland–that would continue to trade and interact with neighboring states. Free of the federal government’s failing policies and debt, life in New Hampshire would grow even more prosperous.”

In 2014, Gericke, acting as plaintiff, won a First Circuit Court of Appeals case affirming the 1st Amendment right to film police encounters. She successfully fought the City of Concord to have fraudulent statements about Free Staters removed from a federal grant proposal for a Ballistic Engineered Armored Response Counter Attack Truck. That year, she was also named one of NH Magazine’s “Remarkable Women”.

“Take the BEARCAT,” said Gericke. “As I warned in 2014, local police forces are being militarized through federal grants. Not only does this add to the unsustainable federal deficit, but this military equipment is now being regularly deployed in peaceful communities. In fact, a few weeks ago, my own Manchester neighborhood was placed in lockdown with a ‘shelter in place’ order for more than 5 hours. Helicopters flew overhead, the BEARCAT was out, law enforcement officers with rifles roamed the streets. While there are still many questions about this situation that will need to be answered, front in my mind is why federal agencies were involved.”

During her first five years in New Hampshire, Gericke also worked at the New Hampshire Writers’ Project, starting as program manager and leaving as acting executive director. She is working on a forthcoming memoir, Chill Don’t Kill, about the her role in the FSP, her arrest for wiretapping, and the landmark decision that followed.

Media inquiries can be directed to Carla Gericke at carla@nhindependence.org