Out Of Public Eye, Jason Osborne Helps Lead Historic Push By GOP In N.H. House
By Josh Rogers
June 14, 2021
N.H. House Majority Leader Jason Osborne doesn’t often take to the House floor. But when he does, he tends to stress a basic bottom line: unity among his caucus members.
In his first year as the majority leader, that unity is helping Osborne, 43, get results.
From taxes to gun rights, to school choice, religious liberty, abortion or election law during this session, 2021 is looking to be a historic year for conservative policies in New Hampshire. And Osborne has helped steer that, with a slim majority that leaves little margin for error.
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But his involvement in New Hampshire politics dates back to the Free State Project, a movement that aimed to recruit 20,000 libertarians to move to New Hampshire to expand freedom and shrink government.
If you browse YouTube, you can find plenty of clips of footage of Osborne from before he joined the legislature, from conversations with libertarian videographer Dave Ridley about why he was providing free beer to attendees of Porcfest, the Free State Project’s annual summer camp out from 2008, or as a recurrent guest on an education-themed podcast called the SchoolSucksProject.
He once posted an image on Facebook of himself smiling impishly before an exploding statehouse. It's since been taken down, and for all of this bluster, after Osborne entered elected politics, he appears to have sought to keep a lower media profile. His Twitter account is private, an unusual move for a public official. And by his own admission, he mostly avoids dealing with reporters these days. When NHPR spoke with him for this profile, he made his own recording of the interview (something this reporter has never experienced in two decades covering the New Hampshire House).
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Hope he follows through with the threat... and interestingly the governor Sununu came out today for legalizing cannabis in NH but in a pretty tepid and not very free market way (state-run stores, like they do with alcohol), so we'll see what comes of that.
