From The Chair Re: Election of Lily Wu as Mayor of Wichita, KS

Yesterday the largest city in Kansas elected a new mayor. Lily Wu, a 30 year resident of Wichita, a journalist and reporter, and a registered libertarian. 

I will start by saying that I’m always intrigued when libertarians are brought up in more mainstream media. It gives us the opportunity to shine light on our philosophy and gives us the opportunity to engage with the public and teach that in politics libertarians focus on individual rights, property rights, the free market, justice, and non-aggression. We seek to maximize autonomy and minimize and/or eliminate the state’s encroachment on and violation of liberty. 

Back to Lily. We must also stress that she is registered libertarian, but not a recognized candidate of the Libertarian party of Kansas. The Wichita mayor-elect has been a registered Republican for years and just recently, in late 2022, changed her registration. 

Hey! All for it. But in what has become a very active city for our party in Wichita for the past few years, Lily did not reach out to LPKS, avoided all invites by our district coordinator, and dodged an all but set mayoral debate that our teams in Wichita worked to put together,  including commitments from her challenger in this election.

We wished to discuss with her the platform she put forth including expanding the police state and extensive donations from very large Republican donors that have deep ties to long standing establishment politicians. But the calls from those that wear the libertarian philosophy proud, were ignored. 

So where do we go from here? We will be watching closely and loudly. Lily had no problem using our banner as a stepping stone throughout her campaign. We intend to hold her to that. We hope she wears it proud while adhering to the principles of liberty as she takes the reins. We hope that she reaches out and involves LPKS in helping craft policy that abides by the protection of individuals, property, free markets and non-aggression. We hope she joins us for our annual state convention on April 20th in Kansas City to brief us on her projects to help the libertarian cause. There are hundreds of registered libertarians in Wichita that are willing to help, organize, and campaign. But will Lily be willing to activate libertarian causes worth fighting for? Will she help fundraise for the folks here that are working their tails off? We hope. 

If you are anyone you know has interest in becoming a candidate, would like to volunteer, or donate to furthering liberty in Kansas, please visit us at LPKS.org. A small donation can go a long way in our work. 

In liberty, 
Tim Giblin
Chair, Libertarian Party of Kansas