Council for National Policy Founded with Schlafly as Founding Member, Creating Elite Conservative Network

The Council for National Policy (CNP) is founded by Tim LaHaye, Paul Weyrich, Richard Viguerie, Morton Blackwell, Phyllis Schlafly, Nelson Bunker Hunt, Joseph Coors, and approximately 50 other conservatives who begin meeting every Wednesday morning at Viguerie’s Virginia home. The CNP is deliberately modeled after the Council on Foreign Relations, creating a prestigious networking organization with deep connections to conservative power structures. Phyllis Schlafly joins as a founding member, bringing her decade of experience in grassroots organizing and her network of Eagle Forum activists. Other early participants include Cleon Skousen (theologian and law enforcement expert), Robert Grant, and Howard Phillips. The CNP becomes an influential and highly secretive networking group for major conservative donors and activists, right-wing religious extremists, and Republican lawmakers. The organization operates with extraordinary secrecy, with membership lists and meeting agendas closely guarded. Several current Eagle Forum staffers are confirmed to be part of CNP-connected initiatives, demonstrating the overlap between Schlafly’s grassroots infrastructure and elite conservative networks. The CNP’s creation represents the institutionalization of conservative power at the highest levels, providing a coordinated mechanism for wealthy donors, religious leaders, political operatives, and elected officials to develop strategy and coordinate activities away from public scrutiny. Schlafly’s participation as a founding member demonstrates her role bridging grassroots organizing and elite conservative power structures, legitimizing the CNP through her movement credentials while gaining access to donor networks and strategic coordination with other conservative institutions.