One day after Faith & Freedom Coalition Chairman Ralph Reed introduced President Donald Trump from the main stage at the Road to Majority Conference, thousands gathered again Saturday evening at the Washington Hilton for another memorable moment.

Just before recent Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard took the stage for her keynote to wrap up the event, Wisconsin Faith & Freedom Coalition’s own Alex Cucchiaro was surprised by an invitation to address the audience after being recognized as the nation’s top canvasser during the 2024 presidential election.

You can watch Alex’s remarks by clicking the photo above or by visiting:
https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1EHvSfD4iF/ 

As noted on our team page (https://wisconsinffc.com/bios/), Cucchiaro serves as Political Director of WIFFCs c4 sister organization. During the 2024 election, he personally knocked on 20,470 doors—the highest total among more than 9,000 canvassers nationwide. Reed later noted that the Wisconsin Faith and Freedom Coalition had risen the bar to inspire canvassers from all over the country to reach new heights before the coming 2026 midterms

In less than a minute on stage, Alex had the ballroom laughing. He first thanked National Faith & Freedom Coalition Executive Director Jon Harbison for correctly pronouncing “Cucchiaro,” then joked that he decided to knock on 20,470 doors because that was about how many votes President Trump had lost Wisconsin by four years earlier, figuring he could personally make up the difference while the rest of the team handled everyone else.

He then concluded by saying all in this fight should keep 2 Timothy 4:7 in mind, referring to Paul stating that he had fought the good fight and finished the race and kept the faith.

The moment captured what makes the Faith & Freedom Coalition unique. Between speeches by national leaders, thousands of attendees were also enthusiastic in their applause for one of the canvassers who had done the hard work of knocking on doors. It was a reminder that elections are ultimately won not only by candidates on a stage, but by faithful men and women willing to spend months talking with voters one home and one church at a time.

As conveyed in several photos below, the conference was filled with memorable moments over four days. Our team met with White House officials including John Hiller, Director of the Office of Presidential Advance, and Lane Jackson, Special Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy, in the most historic room in the Executive Building – the Indian Treaty Room. We also heard inspiring remarks from Tulsi Gabbard and former Auburn and UW-Milwaukee basketball coach Bruce Pearl, who later visited with John Pudner who has lived within a mile of both of those campuses at which Pearl coached.

Perhaps most encouraging of all was seeing so many members of our own team together. A record 26 people joined us in Washington, allowing donors, board members, staff, canvassers, and strategic partners to build plans to be even more effective. Rather than take the $18,879.07 cost of the trip out of Wisconsin Faith and Freedom funds designated for voter outreach, John Pudner told his staff and donors that he personally covered the costs of bringing the team together because he believed the long-term investment in relationships would multiply our effectiveness. He joked that Mother Theresa once turned down a donation on a plane because a business executive said he made so much money that it didn’t even hurt, and Pudner assured the team this one hurt as by far his biggest ever but that he believed God would use it to make other donors’ contributions effective.

We needed donors and Board members asking others for tax-deductible contributions to see the incredible canvass leaders and other team members and how passionate they are about the work we do when we receive a donation, alongside the incredible vision laid out by the Road to Majority conference. If you donate to https://wisconsinffc.com/donate/ your money will go to registering and turning out voters.

The photos below capture many of those moments—from White House meetings to conference sessions—but Alex’s brief appearance between President Trump’s address the previous day and Tulsi Gabbard’s speech on Saturday perfectly illustrated what this movement is all about: recognizing the people who quietly do the work that changes elections.

One of the photos below also features two people who helped launch our effort to stop ActBlue-style unverified political contributions more than a decade ago. Beatrice Shakal, former NRA and Christian Coalition lobbyist Chuck Cunningham, John Pudner, Diane Cullo and one Harvard student visited EVERY congressional office in a 3-day blitz advocating for the reforms that have since become law in Alabama and inspired similar efforts elsewhere. It was fitting to have them with us in Washington as that long effort continues to gain momentum.

On a lighter note, our only concern from the four days is that one of our team members apparently let her daughter slip away from her on the White House porch to issue a few orders from the Oval Office, and we will certainly cooperate with security on how she snuck away from Mom and past authorities. (Just kidding, she is not really in the Oval Office.)