FreedomWorks and New Hampshire Tea Party Groups to Protest Mitt Romney Speech in Concord, New Hampshire

WASHINGTON, DC- On Sunday, September 4th FreedomWorks will end its participation in the Tea Party Express “Reclaiming America” tour, and instead stand with local New Hampshire tea party leaders to protest Mitt Romney’s participation as the featured speaker in the tour’s Sunday evening event. The decision was made following the announcement of Romney’s headliner speech on the tour, and a speech made earlier in the tour by big-government Utah Senator Orrin Hatch.

“Mitt Romney and Orrin Hatch have actively and consistently supported expanding the role of government through government-run health care, Wall Street bailouts and spending hikes. Those positions are unacceptable to the tea party principles of lower taxes, less government and more freedom,” commented Matt Kibbe, President of FreedomWorks. “For these reasons, we have decided to end our participation in the Reclaiming America tour.”

FreedomWorks will join representatives from local New Hampshire liberty groups for a press conference Sunday, September 4th at 5:30pm ET in Rollins Park, Concord, New Hampshire to protest Mitt Romney’s participation in the Tea Party Express bus tour. The speech will begin at 6pm ET.

“The tea party in New Hampshire is determined to help elect a candidate dedicated to this country’s founding principles of limited government, individual responsibility and individual freedom,” commented Andrew Hemingway, head of the Republican Liberty Caucus of New Hampshire. “Mitt Romney is clearly not that candidate.”

FreedomWorks has consistently heard from its members that Romney is not an acceptable presidential candidate, objecting to his support for government-run healthcare, the TARP bailout, and his cloudy stance on cap and trade. FreedomWorks has also been a leading voice in the movement to retire Senator Orrin Hatch for his decades of bad votes expanding government and seeks to replace him with a principled fiscal conservative.

Kibbe added, “One of the great successes of the decentralized tea party movement has been its ability to self-police. If every political opportunist claiming to be a tea partier is accepted unconditionally, then the tea party brand loses all meaning. Our grassroots activists will be in New Hampshire on Sunday to defend the tea party ideas of small government and fiscal responsibility, and to remind Mitt Romney that when it comes to policy, actions speak louder than words.”

For more information on the Mitt Romney protest, please contact Jackie Bodnar at 202-603-2108 or visit the FreedomConnector event page: http://connect.freedomworks.org/node/174499.