Vance Endorses Claremont Institute's 'Up from Conservatism' at Capitol Hill Event

Senator J.D. Vance spoke at the Claremont Institute’s ‘Up from Conservatism’ book launch on Capitol Hill, praising a controversial essay collection that advocates for a more aggressive conservative approach. Vance emphasized the need for conservatives to ‘wield power’ …

Barre Seid Donates $1.6 Billion to Leonard Leo Dark Money Network

Chicago businessman Barre Seid provided an unprecedented $1.6 billion donation to Leonard Leo’s Marble Freedom Trust through a strategic stock transfer of Tripp Lite to Eaton Corporation. This donation, the largest known to a political advocacy group in U.S. history, potentially avoided …

Leaked Video Exposes Heritage Action's $24 Million Voter Suppression Campaign Coordinating State Legislation

A leaked video obtained by the watchdog group Documented and shared with Mother Jones revealed that Heritage Action for America, the advocacy arm of the Heritage Foundation, was orchestrating a coordinated $24 million campaign to push voter restriction legislation across eight key battleground …

Ginni Thomas Attends "Stop the Steal" Rally Before Capitol Attack, CNP Board Member at Insurrection

Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and board member of the Council for National Policy’s lobbying arm CNP Action, attended the “Stop the Steal” rally in Washington, D.C., on January 6, 2021, before the violent attack on the U.S. …

CNP Attorney Cleta Mitchell Joins Trump Call Pressuring Georgia Officials

On January 2, 2021, Cleta Mitchell - CNP board of governors member and attorney who had been central to the organization’s election denial coordination - represented President Trump on his infamous call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, pressuring him to “find 11,780 …

CNP Leadership Releases Letter Urging State Legislators to Reject 25 Million Votes

On December 10, 2020, the Council for National Policy leadership released a letter drafted by CNP board member and attorney Cleta Mitchell calling on legislators in swing states to throw out over 25 million votes based on false claims of electoral fraud.

The letter represented the execution of the …

CNP Holds Post-Election Strategy Meeting - Planning Electoral College Challenge

The Council for National Policy convened a critical strategy meeting November 12-14, 2020 to coordinate the conservative movement’s response to Trump’s election loss, with strategists laying out a multi-stage plan to challenge the results through claims of election fraud and state …

CNP September 2020 Membership Directory Leaked - Current Network Exposed

A September 2020 Council for National Policy membership directory was obtained and shared by a member, later obtained by Documented in January 2022, exposing the current coordination network two months before the presidential election and three months before January 6, 2021.

The leaked directory …

CNP Coordinates National COVID-19 Anti-Lockdown Protest Movement

In April 2020, CNP Action (the 501(c)(4) affiliate of the Council for National Policy) began hosting weekly conference calls to coordinate conservative response tactics to the COVID-19 pandemic, mobilizing Tea Party-like protests against virus-related public safety lockdowns in swing states.

The …

Groyper War Erupts: Far-Right Activists Disrupt Trump Jr. Event at UCLA

Nick Fuentes and his “Groyper Army” followers disrupted a Turning Point USA promotional event for Donald Trump Jr.’s book “Triggered” at UCLA, forcing the event to end after just 30 minutes instead of the planned two hours. The event, featuring Trump Jr., Charlie Kirk, …

Ed Feulner Returns as Heritage Foundation Interim President After DeMint Ousted for Management Failures

Ed Feulner, who had retired as Heritage Foundation president in 2013 after 36 years of leadership, returned as interim president and CEO on May 2, 2017, after Heritage’s Board of Trustees unanimously forced out Jim DeMint due to “significant and worsening management issues” that …

CNP's Secret 2014 Membership Directory Leaked - 413 Conservative Elite Exposed

The Southern Poverty Law Center obtained and released a leaked copy of the Council for National Policy’s 2014 Membership Directory, exposing 413 members of what it described as a “Who’s Who of the Right” - the first comprehensive membership list made public since 1998.

The …

Phyllis Schlafly Endorses Trump in Final Political Act, Passing Torch to Populist Movement

Phyllis Schlafly, 91 years old, endorses Donald Trump’s candidacy for president in March 2016, when the GOP primary has narrowed and conservatives are choosing between Trump and Texas Senator Ted Cruz. The endorsement becomes one of Trump’s earliest and most influential endorsements from …

Richard Mellon Scaife Dies After Investing $620 Million in Conservative Movement Infrastructure

Richard Mellon Scaife, the billionaire heir to the Mellon banking and aluminum fortune who became the most important financial architect of the modern conservative movement, died on July 4, 2014, one day after his 82nd birthday, after a battle with cancer. Scaife’s death marked the end of a …

Edwin Feulner Retires as Heritage Foundation President After 36 Years Building Conservative Movement Infrastructure

Edwin J. Feulner Jr. retired as president of the Heritage Foundation on April 3, 2013, after an extraordinary 36-year tenure that transformed Heritage from a small Capitol Hill operation with 9 staff members and a $1 million budget into the most influential conservative think tank in Washington, …

Senate Rejects Robert Bork Supreme Court Nomination 42-58, First Ideological Rejection in Nearly a Century

The United States Senate rejected President Reagan’s nomination of Robert Bork to the Supreme Court by a vote of 42-58 on October 23, 1987, marking the first time in nearly a century that the Senate rejected a Supreme Court nominee primarily on the basis of ideology rather than qualifications …

Council of Conservative Citizens Founded by Former White Citizens' Councils Members to Continue Segregationist Agenda

The Council of Conservative Citizens (CofCC) is founded in 1985 by former White Citizens’ Council members to continue the agendas of the earlier Councils, which had steadily lost members throughout the 1970s and 1980s as white Southerners’ attitudes towards desegregation began to change …

Heritage Foundation Expands to 100+ Staff with $10 Million Budget During Reagan Administration Peak Influence

The Heritage Foundation reached over 100 staff members and a $10 million annual budget by 1983, representing explosive growth during the Reagan administration’s implementation of Heritage policy recommendations. In just six years since Ed Feulner became president in 1977, Heritage had grown …

Equal Rights Amendment Defeated After Schlafly's Decade-Long Campaign, Establishing Conservative Movement Model

The Equal Rights Amendment expires on June 30, 1982, after failing to achieve ratification by 38 states, marking a stunning victory for Phyllis Schlafly’s decade-long STOP ERA campaign and establishing the template for modern conservative movement organizing. Despite 30 of the necessary 38 …

Reagan Appoints Robert Bork to DC Circuit Court of Appeals, Positioning Antitrust Revolution Author for Supreme Court

President Ronald Reagan appointed Robert Bork to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on February 9, 1982, elevating the author of “The Antitrust Paradox” to the federal bench widely considered the nation’s second-most important court. Bork’s …

CNP Completes "Three-Legged Stool" with Heritage and ALEC - Coordination Infrastructure Operational

By the end of 1981, Paul Weyrich had established the three core institutions that would serve as the infrastructure for conservative movement coordination for the next four decades: Heritage Foundation (policy research), ALEC (state legislation), and CNP (coordination hub).

Weyrich co-founded …

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 …

Ronald Reagan Elected President, Conservative Infrastructure Achieves Powell Memo Goals

Ronald Reagan wins the presidency in a 44-state Electoral College landslide, marking the triumph of the conservative infrastructure deliberately built over nine years in response to the Powell Memo blueprint. Reagan’s victory demonstrates the effectiveness of coordinated institutional power …

Schlafly and Falwell Joint Rally Demonstrates Religious Right Coalition Unity

Phyllis Schlafly and Jerry Falwell headline an ‘I Love America—Stop ERA Rally’ in front of the Illinois state capitol, publicly demonstrating the emerging unity of the Religious Right coalition that Schlafly had been building since 1972. The rally symbolizes a historic breakthrough: the …

Manhattan Institute Founded by CIA Director William Casey - Intelligence-Policy Crossover

In 1978, William J. Casey and Antony Fisher established the International Center for Economic Policy Studies (ICEPS) in Manhattan, which would be renamed the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research in 1981. Casey, a neoconservative who would become Reagan’s CIA Director from 1981 to 1987, …

Edwin Feulner Becomes Heritage Foundation President, Beginning 36-Year Tenure Building Conservative Policy Infrastructure

Edwin J. Feulner Jr., co-founder of the Heritage Foundation in 1973, assumed the presidency of the conservative think tank in 1977, beginning what would become a transformative 36-year tenure that built Heritage from a modest Capitol Hill operation with 9 staff members into the preeminent …

Richard Viguerie Perfects Direct Mail Fundraising - Conservative Grassroots Infrastructure

By the mid-1970s, Richard Viguerie had revolutionized conservative political fundraising through direct mail campaigns, building a massive donor network that would finance the New Right movement and create the infrastructure for corporate-funded “grassroots” activism. Dubbed the …

Heritage Foundation Organizational Profile: Conservative Policy Infrastructure and Corporate Capture Mechanism

Comprehensive organizational analysis reveals the Heritage Foundation’s structure as a systematic corporate capture mechanism. Founded by Paul Weyrich, Edwin Feulner, and funded with Joseph Coors’ $250,000 seed money, Heritage grew from startup to $100M+ annual revenue by 2010s, reaching …

ALEC Founded to Coordinate Corporate Model Legislation Across State Legislatures

Conservative activist Paul Weyrich, with Representatives Henry Hyde and others, founds the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) in Chicago—the same year Weyrich co-founds the Heritage Foundation with financial backing from beer magnate Joseph Coors. ALEC is established specifically to …

Eagle Forum Founded as Permanent Conservative Infrastructure for 'Pro-Family' Organizing

Phyllis Schlafly founds Eagle Forum in Alton, Illinois, creating permanent institutional infrastructure for conservative social activism that will last for decades. Initially created to coordinate the STOP ERA campaign, Eagle Forum quickly grows into a comprehensive conservative advocacy …

Phyllis Schlafly Launches STOP ERA Campaign, Pioneering Anti-Feminist Infrastructure

Phyllis Schlafly launches her STOP ERA campaign with an article titled ‘What’s Wrong with Equal Rights for Women?’ published in her February 1972 newsletter, fundamentally reshaping American conservative politics and pioneering the anti-feminist movement. After being asked to …

Richard Scaife Acquires Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Building Conservative Media Infrastructure

Richard Mellon Scaife, heir to the Mellon banking and aluminum fortune, purchased the Tribune-Review newspaper in Greensburg, Pennsylvania for approximately $5 million in 1970, marking his entry into media ownership as part of a broader strategy to build conservative infrastructure across multiple …

Phyllis Schlafly Launches Monthly Newsletter, Building Conservative Communications Network

After losing a divisive fight for the presidency of the National Federation of Republican Women (for which she had served as first vice president since 1965), Phyllis Schlafly begins publishing The Phyllis Schlafly Report, a monthly newsletter intended to mobilize her supporters and inform them …

Phyllis Schlafly Publishes 'A Choice Not an Echo,' Launching Conservative Movement Infrastructure

Phyllis Schlafly self-publishes ‘A Choice Not an Echo,’ a 128-page polemic attacking the Republican establishment and supporting Barry Goldwater’s presidential campaign. The book becomes an instant phenomenon, selling over three million copies by summer 1964 and bringing Schlafly …

Goldwater Presidential Campaign Mobilizes Business Coalition and Establishes Conservative Infrastructure

The 1964 Barry Goldwater presidential campaign galvanizes a grassroots coalition of businesspeople, Southerners, Midwesterners, and libertarians who feel sidelined by the Republican establishment, establishing political infrastructure and strategies that become standard tenets of Republican politics …

NAM Executive VP Charles Sligh Calls for Business Political Mobilization to Build Conservative Coalition

National Association of Manufacturers Executive Vice President Charles R. Sligh Jr. delivers speeches in late 1958 calling for businessmen to become more involved in politics to build a “conservative coalition,” including presentations titled “This Is Public Affairs for the …

American Enterprise Association Moves to Washington to Oppose New Deal, Precursor to AEI Think Tank

The American Enterprise Association (AEA) moves its main offices from New York City to Washington, D.C. in 1943 to more effectively oppose the New Deal and capitalize on Congress’s need for help making sense of its vastly increased wartime portfolio. AEA was founded in 1938 by a group of New …