Thursday’s event features our two favorite members of Congress, and the month concludes with the largest grassroots gathering of the year—the Faith & Freedom Coalition Road to Majority Conference, June 25-27 at the Washington Hilton. Please reply if you can stop by to meet our team https://wisconsinffc.com/bios/.
WISCONSIN: LIBRE Event Marks Fourth Joint Event
During 2024 our church and door-to-door outreach focused heavily on Wisconsin’s Third Congressional District because Derrick Van Orden faced one of the most competitive races in the country.
This year our focus shifts toward southeastern Wisconsin and Congressman Bryan Steil’s district, where Democrats have recruited a candidate they believe gives them their best opportunity.
Following our efforts that helped Wisconsin move from a Biden victory of roughly 20,000 votes in 2020 to a Trump victory of approximately 29,000 votes in 2024, we are excited about the opportunities ahead.
One of the most encouraging developments has been our continued investment in coalition building.
Under Executive Director Kelly Herrell’s leadership, the Wisconsin Faith and Freedom Coalition has made community partnerships a major priority.
Too often conservative organizations duplicate efforts or compete with one another. We have chosen a different approach.
Following successful events with Faith Wins, Wisconsin Family Council, and Join Our America, Kelly helped organize a fantastic event with The LIBRE Initiative.
The event was emceed by Roel Sanchez of Milwaukee, who introduced Wisconsin Faith and Freedom Coalition President John Pudner, State Senator Rob Hutton, and Pastor Mariano Garcia of Almas Church (photo below).
Sanchez welcomed attendees and helped set the stage for a discussion focused on faith, civic engagement, community leadership, and pride in America’s 250th birthday.
The event also featured leaders from The LIBRE Initiative, a national Latino advocacy organization focused on economic opportunity, education, health care, and community engagement.
LIBRE re-opened its Wisconsin chapter in 2023 under the leadership of Ramon Candelaria, a longtime Milwaukee community leader and nonprofit executive.
Since relaunching in Wisconsin, LIBRE has expanded grassroots outreach throughout the state, engaging Latino families on issues ranging from educational opportunity and economic prosperity to civic participation and community leadership.
With conservative nonprofit grassroots resources very scarce the last year in Wisconsin while progressive organizations continue year-round organizing, this may be the perfect time to focus on strengthening relationships and building communities that last.
See the photo below featuring Pastor Mariano Garcia of Almas Church and Senator Rob Hutton, who continues to embody the original vision of citizen legislators—serving and then returning home to live under the laws they helped create.
News from the Other Regions
- South: Alabama Runoffs, Strong Political and Legislative Responses
- Northeast: Sheriff Shows Why Minogue Can Win Massachusetts
- Virginia/DC: Road to Majority June 25-27; Ten Year Anniversary
- Texas: Wong, New Director, and Former Chair Running for Congress
- Wisconsin: LIBRE Event Marks Fourth Joint Event
SOUTH: Alabama Runoffs, Strong Political and Legislative Responses
Just weeks after many state primaries, Alabama voters have to go back to the polls for runoffs in several statewide and legislative offices. Most of the primaries went well from our perspective, but the fact that a newly created group called Alabama Values PAC, operating from an out-of-state post office box, launched vicious attacks that helped defeat three Alabama officials requires both a political and legislative response.
Politically, there was some naivety by some that simply responding with positive advertising would offset a vicious attack. In the future it is clear that the kind of attacks Alabama Values PAC launched will need to be met by equally hard-hitting counterattacks that are actually true.
Legislatively, we would like to build on the success of passing the ban on ActBlue’s process by also looking at solutions that would prevent a group like that from tricking Alabamians into believing they have any connection to Alabama.
There is a reason three of the most pro-Trump states in the nation—where President Trump received 64% in Idaho, 66% in Oklahoma, and 59% in Utah—are the three states that recently passed American Promise’s For Our Freedom Amendment.
Those states understood, and I believe Alabama voters do as well, that they can continue building on election integrity reforms by giving states the authority to establish transparency rules regarding massive out-of-state political spending.
Alabama passed a dozen election integrity laws during the final days of the legislative session including our ActBlue legislation. The next step may be allowing Alabama voters and legislators to decide whether organizations pretending to be Alabama groups while operating elsewhere should have to meet transparency standards.
Our 501(c)(4), Freedom and Family Action, occasionally calls out public officials. However, voters can easily determine who we are, what we stand for, and our long history in Alabama. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the organization that launched these attacks as you can read in this piece:.
NORTHEAST: Sheriff Shows Why Minogue Can Win Massachusetts
Not everyone believed our previous newsletter when we stated that Mike Minogue is not only one of the strongest gubernatorial candidates in the country, but that he can actually win Massachusetts.
We already pointed out that Republicans have won six of the last nine governor’s races in Massachusetts. Voters in blue states are often willing to elect Republican governors because they are choosing someone who has successfully run something outside politics.
A war hero who later led a company that developed a tiny heart valve which has saved hundreds of thousands of lives certainly fits that description. Mike Minogue’s story is one that can be told effectively at the doors.
But that leaves the obvious question: How does a Republican win a state that Kamala Harris carried by twenty-five points?
That is where the feature photo comes in.
Kelly Herrell and John Pudner recently spent time in Massachusetts with former Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson, who faced the same skepticism.
When Hodgson first decided to run for sheriff, Republicans had just lost Bristol County by 25.6 points in the presidential election. Political observers told him he was crazy to run.
He focused relentlessly on crime and immigration.
Despite Republicans losing the presidential race in the county by 25.6 points, Hodgson won.
Then George W. Bush lost Bristol County by 23.9 points and Hodgson won again.
Then came one of the most remarkable election results in modern New England politics.
On November 2, 2004, while John Kerry carried Bristol County by 28.1 points and George W. Bush received only 35% of the vote, Republican Sheriff Thomas Hodgson won reelection with 58% of the vote on the very same ballot.
By focusing relentlessly on crime and immigration, Hodgson built a coalition that transcended party labels and helped move Bristol County steadily to the right over the next two decades.
He ultimately served as sheriff for twenty-five years.
Even more significantly, he helped reshape the political conversation in the county. By 2024, Donald Trump lost Bristol County by only one point.
While approval ratings for parties and presidents fluctuate based on inflation, gas prices, and current events, there remain three issues that consistently move voters toward Democrats and three issues that consistently move voters toward Republicans.
The strongest issue for conservatives remains keeping men out of women’s sports. Right behind it are the very issues Hodgson emphasized for decades: crime and immigration.
We talk to hundreds of thousands of voters at doors, and regardless of where we are in the country, the old rule still applies:
Never talk about your fourth-best issue when knocking on a door.
| Americans more liberal/anti-Trump | Worse than ave. | Americans more conservative/pro-Trump | Better than ave. | |
| Trade | -7 | Men out of Women’s Sports | 28 | |
| Economy | -13 | Crime | 11 | |
| Inflation | -27 | Immigration | 8 |
VIRGINIA/DC: Road to Majority June 25-27
Following the encouraging developments in Virginia’s redistricting fight and the continued work highlighted at StopTheGerrymander.com, our attention now shifts to the biggest event of the year.
The Road to Majority Conference begins June 25 at 2 pm in the Congressional Cannon Office Building and continues through June 27 at the Washington Hilton.
More information is available at:
https://www.ffcoalition.com/about/road-to-majority/
As someone who spent many years working in Virginia grassroots politics, I sincerely hope many of you will join us and reconnect.
Preparing to return to Capitol Hill brought back memories of one of the most ambitious projects our team ever undertook.
Almost exactly ten years ago, four members of our team—including a conservative Harvard student, former board member Diane Cullo, Beau Tshakal, and with invaluable support from Chuck Cunningham—visited all 535 congressional offices in three days.
In every office, we delivered the original white paper explaining why ActBlue’s contribution processing system created vulnerabilities that could allow billions of dollars in unverified political contributions to enter American elections.
That effort generated 83 congressional cosponsors and secured support from a majority of the committee responsible for advancing the legislation.
One of those meetings took place on May 25 with Congressman Jim Jordan.
Another memorable meeting was with Congressman Paul Gosar, who instructed his staff that he could not meet with a senior Obama administration official waiting outside because he had committed time to continue our conversation.
The votes were there as we had a majority of the key committee committed to vote for it, but concerns about acting too close to the 2016 election caused congressional leadership to postpone the meeting itself at the end of 2016.
Thank you to Congressman Jordan, Congressman Bryan Steil, and the many state legislators from Wisconsin to Alabama who have continued carrying this effort forward over the past decade as investigations by the two Congressman that Kelly Herrell and John Pudner will see Thursday – our two favorites – also led investigations leading to seven top ActBlue officials taking the 5th and resigning.
TEXAS: Wong, New Director, and Former Chair Running for Congress
One reason Texas serves as our western regional hub is that the first chairman of Freedom and Family Action is expected to be elected to Congress this November.
Trevor Nehls won his primary, and the district remains strongly Republican. We look forward to celebrating what we hope will be a major victory.
The only downside is that his congressional campaign required him to step away from serving as chairman.
Another major figure in the effort to stop ActBlue has been Attorney General Ken Paxton. While we were not involved in that race, a close mutual friend of both and I did speak with him several months ago at length.
Interestingly, media coverage recently created the impression that Paxton was losing ground. One headline proclaimed that his Democratic opponent was “within striking distance.”
What many readers missed is that Paxton had actually improved substantially.
A week earlier another poll showed Paxton trailing 47-44.
By the weekend, he had gained five points.
Texas also features important local races, including Daniel Wong’s effort in Fort Bend County, a county approaching one million residents.
With so many important races underway, we are thrilled that one of our top canvassing leaders, Logan Scott, has committed to leading our Texas efforts.
For years Logan had to leave Texas to manage major canvassing projects elsewhere. We are excited that he will now have the opportunity to focus much of that energy on Texas itself. He is not on our website as well:
https://wisconsinffc.com/bios/
