Defender of Liberty Award – Nick Somberg

Nomination Speech by Trevor Step

This evening I have the distinct honor and pleasure to present the 2024 Defender
of Liberty Award for Spokesperson for Liberty – A member of the community (non-party member) whose patriotism and conviction have inspired contributions
to the cause of liberty. The 2024 Libby Award goes to Nick Somberg.

I first became aware of Nick Somberg at the 2021 Libertarian Party of Michigan
annual convention where he was a guest speaker. While I would definitely
consider Nick a libertarian, he’s not a party member. He’s the founder of Somberg
Law, PLLC, he specializes in criminal defense, personal injury, and other legal
services, focusing on defending individual freedoms and upholding constitutional
rights. At the podium in 2021 he spent his time sharing stories of corrupt judges,
dirty cops, and generally badmouthing the criminal justice system in Michigan,
which I greatly enjoyed. Since then I have been loosely following some of his more
newsworthy cases, most notably his defense of one of the alleged kidnappers of
Governor Whitmer in 2020 and a Free Speech case in which he defended a man’s
right to play the NWA song “F the Police” in public.

Last May Nick reached out to me about the LP’s candidate for the 11th
Congressional district. We had a short call where he informed me that he was
running for the seat as a Republican and understood that the Libertarian Party
wouldn’t formally endorse him but he would love any support we could give. He
later stopped in to a LPOC meeting to hand out Yard signs and many members
were eager to support a Liberty focused candidate since the LP ended up not
fielding a candidate in that district.

Throughout the campaign season I kept an eye on his campaign and it did not
disappoint. Nick was active in his community attending events, knocking doors,
and speaking to constituents. I was especially impressed with how I saw him
taking the time to educate the voters on how the law works and shining light on
the injustices of our corrupt legal system.

Nick’s campaign website calls him a a “Tenacious Advocate for Liberty and Justice”
and it quotes him saying,

As an attorney I work hard to do what’s right. I often feel like I’m not defending criminals, but defending those who are innocent and
wrongfully accused of things due to corruption and challenges from our
government.

While I could continue to go on for awhile about his campaign, it might be best to
just summarize how I felt about his campaign as “A truly Liberty focused effort.”
Outside of his recent campaign Nick has continually been a true Spokesperson for
Liberty. A minute ago I mentioned some of his more noteworthy cases but the
truth is that you could probably pick any of his cases and find his commitment to
individual liberties and the US constitution at the heart of his arguments. I highly
recommend that you check out Nick on his podcast “Liberty Lawyer.” I have no
doubt that Nick will continue on fighting for whats right and Defending Liberty.

Promoter of Liberty Award – Trevor Step

Nomination Speech by Leah Dailey

Promoter of Liberty: To a Libertarian whose efforts have done the most to promote the LP and
Libertarian principles.

Promoting the Libertarian Party in 2024, during a wild Presidential Campaign cycle
is no easy task. I have the pleasure of presenting this award to the person I believe
has done the most fantastic job, working tirelessly to promote, encourage, and
support our candidates. Implementing Zoom calls for candidates, helping with
filing of paperwork, rallying support for candidate events. Our very own Political
Director, Trevor Step. The purpose of our party is to work to elect candidates to
political office, this award goes to the hardest working Political Director this party
has had in years. Thank you Mr. Step for all your efforts, they have not gone
unnoticed.

Initially Liberty Festival Banquets were held as distinct events near the end of calendar years during which award winners earned them. However, it was often a challenge for activists to organize a festival while campaigning on even years, so Defender of Liberty Awards were eventually bestowed upon winners during the early spring convention of the following year. So if an award was handed out in the spring, it was for the previous year. But since the 2023 event was so late in the year, the award committee considered activists based on their work in late 2022 or 2023.

Producer of Liberty – Carley Baker

Nomination Speech by Lawrence M. Ludlow

I’m delighted to award Carley Baker this year’s title as Producer of Liberty.
If you look at this evening’s agenda, you’ll see that the award for Carley reads as
follows:

To a dedicated, behind-the-scenes libertarian whose quiet labors over the years
exemplify the backbone of the Libertarian Party.

The key phrase here is “behind the scenes.” It captures Carley’s contribution
perfectly—working quietly in the background doing what had to be done.
If you think back on the events of the past year, it was Carley who was
coordinating and arranging access to all of the materials we used to support our
candidates for office:

• There were Excel spreadsheets with the phone number and names of the
  people we called—along with places to indicate their response and opportunities
  for following up.
• And there were the instructions on how to make these calls and how to use
  the data sheets she provided.
• She arranged for and displayed the scripts we used during our calls—asking
  for texts and refinements and making sure it all got done.
• And she answered the questions of call volunteers—over and over the same
  questions–posed on our Signal channel and other communication media. If you’ve
  ever done it, it requires lots of patience.

And that’s just one example of her work. Throughout the year, she supported
participation in other events and initiatives, coordinating them, making sure
important details were addressed, and ensuring that step-by-step instructions
were available for volunteers to provide the support needed. During online group
meetings, she would be the one to ask pertinent questions like, “How will this happen?” so we could develop realistic plans that worked. She even spent the
end-of-the-year holiday season thinking about what we need to do in 2025 to
keep things going.

And the whole time, she was caring for her newborn baby. I have a mental image
of Carley holding her daughter in one hand while texting and working on a project
for us with the other.

That’s multi-tasking!
And it worked.
So, let’s all show our appreciation for Carley’s behind-the-scenes work for the
party!

A list of past Libby Award Winners is available In the historical archives:

http://old.michiganlp.org/news-and-events/liberty-festivals