Today's Guest: Sharon HarrisSharon was one of the three finalists for the National LP’s “Thomas Paine Award for Outstanding Libertarian Communicator” – selected by members of the party and presented at the 2000 National Convention.
She also has the honor of being one of the most successful Libertarian Party candidates ever -- receiving over 300,000 votes in her race for Georgia Commissioner of Agriculture in 1994.
Prior to being chosen as President of the Advocates, Sharon was owner and manager of a successful book indexing business for 17 years. She also has worked as a free-lance writer, a magazine-article-writing instructor, managing editor of the Journal of the Medical Association of Georgia, and as a team-building trainer for businesses and organizations.
Sharon has been active in the libertarian movement since the early 70s. In 1972, she was a co-founder of the Libertarian Party of Georgia (LPGA) and cast one of a handful of Georgia write-in votes for 1972 Libertarian Party presidential candidate John Hospers. She served the LPGA in many capacities, including being a member of the Executive Committee, editor of the Georgia Libertarian, meetings chair, convention coordinator, Cobb County LP co-founder and chair, and delegate to national conventions.
In 1988, she was Campaign Manager for the LPGA’s three Public Service Commission candidates -- an historic campaign that won state-wide ballot status for the party. In 1990, she served as an aide and consultant for the party’s gubernatorial campaign.
In 1994, she was the party’s candidate for Commissioner of Agriculture, receiving 23% statewide and 34% in 3 metro-Atlanta counties -- a total of over 300,000 votes in a two-way race against Georgia’s most entrenched incumbent. This was the most votes ever received by a Libertarian candidate in Georgia, and the most votes received by any third-party candidate in the state in this century. The campaign’s results was among the best ever for any state-wide LP candidate nationwide.
Also in 1994, she was one of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the state of Georgia which challenged the Constitutionality of Georgia's law which required candidates for office to take a drug test. The case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, where Georgia libertarian attorney Walker Chandler won the case, thus overthrowing the law.
Sharon is the author of "The Invisible Hand Is a Gentle Hand," an article which demonstrates the beauty of a truly libertarian society, and author of "They Pry Them from Our Cold, Dead Fingers."
As Advocates President, she is publisher of The Libertarian Communicator magazine and of the world’s largest libertarian email newsletter, The Liberator Online, with over 65,000 readers in 100+ countries.
The Advocates for Self-Government is also creator, publisher and distributor of the world-famous, eye-opening World's Smallest Political Quiz; creator of Operation Politically Homeless (OPH) booths; sponsor of Lights of Liberty awards for libertarian activism, and much more.
An award-winning speaker, Sharon has presented libertarian ideas on radio talk shows, on TV, to college political science classes, before service clubs, and to Libertarian and Republican gatherings. She has also been interviewed by the editorial boards of several major newspapers.
Topics Sharon has spoken on include: powerful communications skills for libertarians; reasons for optimism about the liberty movement; the future of liberty; what one person can do to further the cause of liberty; what a truly libertarian society would be like; Myers-Briggs Personality Types.
Libertarian groups Sharon has addressed include: state LP conventions in New York, California, Texas, Michigan, Massachusetts, Florida, Pennsylvania, Nevada, New Jersey, Washington State, Georgia, Alabama, Montana, Connecticut; West Virginia, Ohio, Tennessee, The Libertarian Party of Canada’s national convention; The Libertarian Party USA’s national conventions; Success ‘97 & 99’ in Georgia, North Carolina, Maine and Minneapolis; International Society of Individual Liberty 2000 convention in Ontario Canada.
Sharon has a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and a Master’s Degree in Counseling and Educational Psychology. She earned Certification by the Association for Psychological Type for teaching, administering and interpreting the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), the world’s most widely used personality inventory.
She lives with her husband, writer and editor James W. Harris, in Rydal, Georgia. She has one grown daughter and three perfect grandchildren.
