Establishment . The party was founded by members of the
Libertarian Party of Pennsylvania who felt the
Libertarian Party was "veering too hard to the right". The party's first chairman was the Chairman of the
York County branch of the Libertarian Party, Gus Tatlas. Instead of building their party on divisive rhetoric, Keystone Party leaders purport to seek to build an inclusive dialogue of political issues Pennsylvanians can agree on like governmental reform, fair elections, social and criminal justice reform, individual rights and taxation. There had previously been a call to form a "Keystone Party" in 1912 among various
Democratic Pennsylvania Representatives for the
1912 United States elections due to the stranglehold that
Political Bosses had over the state party, although, ultimately, the split never occurred.
2022 election in Pennsylvania {{multiple images The party's candidates received ballot access on August 1 for the
2022 Pennsylvania elections by receiving more than 5,000 signatures of registered voters. Their candidates for the
2022 Pennsylvania gubernatorial election were
Joseph P. Soloski for Governor and
Nicole Shultz for Lieutenant Governor. Soloski is an accountant from
Centre County and former Libertarian. He ran for the
Pennsylvania House of Representatives, District 81 in 2016 and in the
2020 Pennsylvania State Treasurer election both as a Libertarian. He initially sought the nomination from the Libertarian party, but withdrew and joined the Keystone party. Shultz is another former Libertarian. She originally ran as a candidate for the Libertarian nominee for Lt. Governor, withdrew, and announced her candidacy for the Libertarian nominee for governor. Upon losing that election she joined the Keystone party and successfully sought their bid for Lt. Governor. She is an auditor from
Windsor Township, York County, Pennsylvania and had been the Pennsylvania Libertarian Party's treasurer from 2021 to 2022. Soloski and Shultz's ticket got 20,036 votes or 0.4% of the electorate. Like Wassmer, this put them in last place for candidates on the ballot. The party also stood two candidates for the
Pennsylvania House of Representatives in
district 93 and
district 104 respectively. In district 93 Keystone candidate
Kristine Cousler-Womack received 888 votes, or 3% of the electorate falling behind both the incumbent
Mike Jones and his
Democratic challenger
Chris Rodkey. In district 104, Keystone candidate
David Kocur received the best showing of the party in terms of percentage. He received 4,838 votes or 29.5% of the electorate, falling behind Democratic candidate
Dave Madsen.
Post 2022 election MarchOnHarrisburg Party founder and leader Gus Tatlas voiced his support for the bi-partisan
MarchOnHarrisburg movement, led by
Rabbi Michael Pollack, on November 27, 2022. The movement seeks to implement legislation that would result in a "gift ban" to outlaw the ability for members of the
Pennsylvania General Assembly to receive "gifts" in exchange for voting a certain way on bills.
Dauphin County lawsuit On January 23, 2023, two members of the Keystone party sued
Dauphin County for violating their first amendment rights. The two members of the party, Dave Kocur, the party's candidate in the 104th district, and
Kevin Gaughen, a former Libertarian who was elected auditor of
Silver Spring Township in 2021 and member of the party board, were told that they must immediately cease collecting signatures and vacate from
Fort Hunter Park by Dauphin County Parks and Recreation director
Anthea Stebbin alongside two security officers in June, 2022. The County stated in their defense that when they purchased the land which would become the park in 1980, one of the clauses of the deed was that no political activities would take place on the property. The pair argued that since it is public parkland, that the clause of the deed is unconstitutional and that the County government shouldn't be allowed restrict
First Amendment rights based on clauses of deeds. The pair's legal team, the
Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), cited a 1966
Supreme Court case,
Evans v. Newton, which states that any local government's property-conveyance restrictions must comport with the Constitution. The county was noted as being unusually confrontational on the issue by the
American Civil Liberties Union. The County called FIRE's legal notice a "threat" and refused to negotiate with either the defendants, their legal team, or the ACLU, forcing the issue to reach litigation. On April 26, 2023, the
United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania found in favor of Gaughen and Kocur and ordered Dauphin County and Stebbin to end the unconstitutional ban on political speech in Fort Hunter Park, as well as pay Gaughen and Kocur $91,000.
Telford John Waldenberger, a perennial candidate best known for his 2018 bid for the
53rd District switched from the Libertarian party after the Mises takeover and has become the Keystone Party's treasurer. Waldenberger, a longtime citizen participant in the
Telford borough council, had been leading an effort to remove Robert Jacobus, a Republican borough councilmen due to his staunchly anti-LGBT policies and is running against him in the 2023 election as a member of the Keystone party. Waldenberger would go on to get last place with 497 votes, however, Jacobus lost his seat to a slate of Republican and Democratic challengers.
National party On April 26, 2023, party chairman Kevin Gaughen announced on
X that the Keystone party would be taking steps to become a nationwide party by "creating bylaws, adopting a platform, selecting our national board of directors, forming new state affiliates, and possibly nominating candidates". Gaughen stated that the new National Keystone Party would not be "Libertarian Party 2.0" and would differ from the Libertarian party in three main ways. Firstly, the party would exclude "kooks" such as
anarchists and
extremists. Secondly, the party will not focus on creating "bold" statements and hosting rallies, instead the goal of the party will be to run candidates. And thirdly, the National Keystone party will be professional with "mature public messaging, competent leadership, and we intend to only nominate candidates who we believe will increase the goodwill of the organization". The national Keystone Party never officially formed, as the party instead chose to affiliate with the Liberal Party USA in 2024 instead. ==Liberal Party==