Leadership
John Pudner
President
John Pudner brings more than two decades of experience winning campaigns and building grassroots operations at the highest levels of American politics. After rising to Senior Vice President of National Grassroots at McGuireWoods Consulting, the government affairs arm of one of the nation’s largest law firms, he resumed a 25-year career running Republican campaigns. Pudner compiled a 185–17 record across campaigns and referendums, including victories on major policy initiatives such as school choice in multiple states.
He directed nationwide faith-based turnout for President George W. Bush’s 2000 campaign and later helped lead efforts that contributed to three separate state legislative takeovers. After stepping away from campaigns for eight years to focus on policy, he returned to politics in Wisconsin in 2022, serving as political director for Tim Michels’ gubernatorial campaign. He has also been credited with building large-scale voter contact programs, including distributing more than 400,000 voter guides in Wisconsin during the 2024 presidential cycle. Pudner’s focus today is on building a lasting grassroots infrastructure capable of sustaining conservative victories in a highly competitive state.
For John’s full bio, go to the Board bio page.
Holly Klucarich
Director of Strategic Engagement & Field Operations
Holly Klucarich leads Wisconsin Faith and Freedom’s field operations and strategic engagement efforts, serving as one of the organization’s most critical operational leaders. She has managed high-impact conservative voter contact programs across battleground states, including serving as Northern Wisconsin Director for Senator Ron Johnson’s re-election campaign and supporting Governor Glenn Youngkin’s 2021 victory in Virginia.
Known for her ability to quickly assemble and deploy effective teams, Holly has built canvassing operations capable of knocking more than 1,000 doors per day within days of launch. Her experience spans Texas, Arizona, the Midwest, and New England, where she has managed state legislative field efforts and contributed to key victories, including a first-time Maine State Senate win.
Holly’s leadership background extends beyond politics. She has served as a mayor, school nurse, commercial real estate professional, and recruiter—building teams and training leaders in each role. Her work in church leadership, including worship and volunteer ministries, naturally evolved into full-time grassroots organizing. Since 2019, she has worked with the Republican National Committee, with targeted assignments on major races. Pudner has said she is the first person he has worked with who could “take over the operation the next day,” reflecting her rare combination of leadership, discipline, and execution.
Kelly Herrell
Executive Director
Kelly Herrell serves as Executive Director of Wisconsin Faith and Freedom Coalition, helping translate strategic vision into statewide impact. With a background in both field operations and event leadership, she has worked on major efforts for U.S. Senator Ron Johnson and Americans for Prosperity before expanding into large-scale event planning and organizational development.
Kelly plays a key role in evaluating and executing major initiatives, including large-scale grassroots events and fundraising efforts modeled after nationally recognized programs. She has also led efforts supporting law enforcement and combating human trafficking, demonstrating a commitment to applying grassroots networks to critical social issues. As a leader of Defend Your Worth, a nonprofit focused on empowering individuals and communities, she brings both organizational discipline and a mission-driven approach to her work. At WIFFC, she ensures that field, outreach, and growth strategies are aligned to expand the coalition’s long-term impact.
Anna Carter
Treasurer
Anna Carter oversees financial management, compliance, and reporting for Wisconsin Faith and Freedom Coalition. With a background at one of Alabama’s top accounting firms, Jackson Thornton, she has managed compliance and financial operations for multiple organizations since 2015.
She is responsible for audits, financial reporting, and ensuring compliance across state and federal regulations, working closely with leadership to maintain transparency and accountability. In addition to her work with WIFFC, Anna serves as Controller for a major roadbuilding network of companies and has spent more than a decade as a financial advisor for Delta Zeta Sorority.
Tori Sorg
Development Director Emeritus (pro bono)
Tori Sorg has provided invaluable pro bono guidance to the Wisconsin Faith and Freedom Coalition for years, since her earlier work with John Pudner for another organization. During that time, she helped advise the organization without compensation while simultaneously raising hundreds of millions of dollars in her professional work for other organizations and causes.
While helping raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for one of Pudner’s previous organizations, Tori quickly identified what she believed was his greatest weakness as a fundraiser — feedback he still remembers today.
As Tori told him:
“John, donors are often convinced within minutes that you have the solution they need and are ready to give. But instead of closing, you get excited and keep explaining more and more about how you get things done. You think it builds confidence, but donors can actually become suspicious when you over-explain, and you keep talking yourself out of the close.”
The organization deeply appreciates the wisdom and strategic advice Tori continues to provide,and confident her insights will help new Executive Director Kelly Herrell channel the enthusiasm and trust she builds with supporters into the long-term relationships and financial support needed to sustain and expand the Wisconsin Faith and Freedom Coalition’s mission.
Special Projects for Data & Community Affairs
Natalie Lawrence
Special Projects and Phone Bank Director
Natalie Lawrence brings nearly a decade of experience in grassroots organizing, recruitment, and communications. After eight years as a leading activist with Americans for Prosperity in Wisconsin, she took on key roles in statewide campaigns, including overseeing phone operations for Ron Johnson’s Senate race and Tim Michels’ gubernatorial campaign.
She has recruited, trained, and managed teams responsible for hundreds of thousands of voter contacts, including overseeing operations that generated more than half a million calls in a single election cycle. Known for her communication skills and organizational leadership, Natalie plays a key role in maintaining consistent voter engagement across multiple channels.
Aubreigh Phillips
Youth Director
Like the previous person featured, Natalie, Aubreigh Phillips is often the first canvasser voters see on Southern projects, leading teams into new areas. While Natalie is known for her classic Midwestern voice and has delivered video messages to hundreds of thousands of voters from Arizona to her home state of Wisconsin, Aubreigh typically records a message before leading conservative youth into a Southern district. You can view one of the messages she left for a Southern senator before leading youth teams in door-to-door efforts here:
https://www.youtube.com/@johnpudner3590/shorts
As her teams of young conservative canvassers reached doors, they were often greeted by residents who had seen the video text about canvassing starting by asking, “Are you a friend of Aubreigh’s?” When Aubreigh herself knocked on a door, many voters responded with genuine excitement. Combined with the explanation that the campaign was visiting homes because the senator wanted more information to better serve his constituents, the effort helped produce the best election result of any competitive seat that cycle, with the senator receiving 73 percent of the vote.
The story still circulates that Aubreigh became a “must hire” when John Pudner and a senator visited the Waffle House where she was working while finishing high school. During their visit, she had them—and nearly everyone else in the restaurant—laughing each time she stopped by their table, an immediate sign that she had a natural ability to connect with people and would be highly effective with voters. When the team visited the Capitol many a legislator saw all the members, focused on her and said, “Wait, are you the famous Waffle House girl?”
Chris Lawrence
Coalitions and Special Projects
Since returning to Wisconsin in 2021, John Pudner has frequently described Chris Lawrence as having “the best conservative coalition network in the country.”
Their partnership began almost immediately after Pudner moved back to Wisconsin from Alabama in 2021. After driving a moving truck overnight from Auburn to Milwaukee and finishing unpacking into a temporary apartment, one of the first calls he received was from Chris Lawrence.
Chris introduced himself by saying:
“John Pudner, this is Chris Lawrence. I’ve heard about the conservative battles you’ve won, and I heard you just moved back to Wisconsin. I wanted to invite you to a conservative Christmas party.”
The following year, the two worked together on Tim Michels’ successful upset victory over former Lt. Governor Rebecca Kleefisch in the 2022 Republican gubernatorial primary. Their strategy relied heavily on deep data targeting to identify which Republican primary voters were most likely to support Michels and then focusing voter contact efforts exclusively on those households.
What impressed Pudner most about Chris was his willingness to do whatever the mission required — no task too large or too small.
After one full day of high-level meetings with donors and political leaders, Chris returned to campaign headquarters near midnight, noticed the office needed cleaning, and began sweeping floors because no one else was there to do it. Minutes later, he saw a request for campaign signs that had not been fulfilled, loaded them into his vehicle himself, and personally delivered them.
On another occasion, during a Zoom strategy meeting in Pudner’s office, Chris received a separate call from a volunteer leader requesting a large campaign sign. Realizing there was one remaining in headquarters, he ran into Pudner’s office, grabbed the sign from behind Pudner’s desk mid-meeting, and sprinted out the door to deliver it personally — leaving the people on the Zoom call wondering who had just run through the office.
Chris’s relentless work ethic, coalition-building ability, and servant leadership have made him one of the most trusted grassroots organizers in Wisconsin conservative causes, in particular School Choice policy battles.
Chris O’Brien
Church Outreach (ex-ED of CT Right to Life and WIFFC)
Chris directs church outreach for WisconsinFFC as well as back in his native New England where he ran CT Right to Life. In addition, he currently leads Life Cards, a Wisconsin-based nonprofit combating abortion misinformation through targeted postcard mailings that provide education and connect families with pregnancy resources. He took on the duties of of WIFFC ED on a temporary basis where he set the organization up to mobilize pastors, congregations, and volunteers to distribute large quantities of candidate comparison guides. WIFFC was the only organization responsible for an area that shifted 10 points more conservative during that election, as reported by Restoration News.
Their partnership beg
Chris is a longtime pro-life leader and faith-based organizer, with experience that includes:
- Executive Director of Connecticut Right to Life (past role)
- Founder/Leader of Life Cards, a Wisconsin nonprofit delivering pro-life education and pregnancy resources via mailed postcards
- Paramedic and campaign veteran, saving lives professionally while serving in offices ranging from local town council to national campaigns (e.g., Mike Huckabee, 2016)
He has now been promoted to Executive Director & Church Outreach, overseeing organizational leadership and year-round church engagement efforts, with a primary focus on voter registration. Chris is known for combining principled conviction with practical strategy, translating faith into sustained civic engagement that delivers measurable results.
Darren Brady Nelson
Policy Advisor
Darren Brady Nelson is an independent economist and policy expert with international experience across the United States and Australia. His work focuses on fiscal, monetary, and regulatory policy, drawing from Austrian, Chicago, and Christian economic traditions.
He is the author of The Ten Principles of Regulation and Reform and has contributed policy innovations including adapting Australian CPI-X regulatory models to government budgeting. Darren provides strategic policy guidance to WIFFC, helping align grassroots priorities with broader reform efforts. He was unanimously selected for a key leadership role in Milwaukee GOP caucus efforts, reflecting his strong reputation and expertise.
Wisconsin Faith & Freedom Coalition Congressional District Leaders
James Roskopf
1st CD – Wisconsin Regional Director
James Roskopf came to Wisconsin from the Chicago suburbs to attend Carthage College in Kenosha County—the key county in what may be Wisconsin’s most important congressional district in 2026. Four years after graduating, he remains deeply rooted in the area and committed to advancing the conservative movement. Having dedicated more than half a decade to conservative causes, he shows no signs of slowing down.
This district is among the most likely to benefit from voter education efforts similar to the Trump-Harris comparisons distributed in 2024, which provided faith-based voters with background information on candidate positions. Following the National Faith and Freedom Coalition’s practice of sending questionnaires to both major-party nominees, voters would receive issue comparisons between Republican incumbent Bryan Steil and the winner of the August 11 Democratic primary between Michell Berman and Peter Burgelis.
Justin Holt
3rd CD – Wisconsin Regional Director
Justin Holt canvassed Wisconsin’s crucial 3rd Congressional District for both U.S. Senator Ron Johnson and congressional candidate Derrick Van Orden. Van Orden improved from a 10,000-vote loss in 2020 to a 12,000-vote victory in 2022, while Johnson held onto his Senate seat by fewer than 30,000 votes statewide. Interestingly, Justin was leading teams knocking on doors with Faith and Freedom materials for these two pivotal victories before the Wisconsin Faith & Freedom Coalition even existed.
Justin and his family split their time between Wisconsin and North Carolina for several years. During the critical 2022 campaign, the North Carolina Faith & Freedom Coalition produced the voter comparison pieces used in Wisconsin for both races and distributed by grassroots volunteers.
Having already played a key role, alongside Holly Klucarnich, in both victories, Justin returned in 2024 to focus on the Trump-Harris race. He took the lead in distributing bilingual literature that helped reach Wisconsin’s growing Spanish-speaking electorate. Trump’s support among Spanish-speaking voters in Wisconsin increased from approximately 47,000 voters in 2020 to 85,000 in 2024—an increase larger than his statewide margin of victory.
When recounting his canvassing experiences, Justin often leaves audiences in stitches. Drawing on his Hispanic heritage, he jokes that some voters initially greet him assuming he is there to offer lawn services. He then turns the awkward moment into a meaningful conversation about the importance of conservative policies to all Americans, usually after the voter has recovered from the embarrassment of stereotyping him.
Dr. Virginia Pratt
Director, Community Outreach
Dr. Virginia Pratt leads community outreach efforts, focusing on building relationships in Milwaukee and engaging faith-based networks. She brings a lifetime of service dedicated to restoring hope and providing opportunity, particularly for at-risk youth and individuals impacted by the justice system.
A former Probation and Parole Agent for the State of Wisconsin, Dr. Pratt has worked extensively on issues related to youth violence and domestic violence. She collaborates with former gang members and returning citizens to mentor young people and promote conflict resolution through programs like those at the Alma Center and EXPO Wisconsin. Her work reflects a deep commitment to breaking cycles of violence and strengthening communities through faith and personal engagement.
Joe Meleski
5th and 2nd CD – Wisconsin Regional Director
Joe Meleski built his reputation through strong personal engagement and a natural ability to connect with people. Beginning his career in the service industry, he developed interpersonal skills that later translated into highly effective voter outreach.
He became one of the top canvassers in Wisconsin during the 2024 presidential cycle with WIFFC and was the first to be promoted into a Regional Field Director role. In Waukesha County, one of the state’s most critical regions, Joe leads field teams focused on direct voter contact, ensuring consistent engagement and turnout efforts at the local level.
Jacob Immel
6th CD – Wisconsin
Jacob Immel brings both grassroots organizing experience and a record of electoral success. At age 25, he defeated a ten-year incumbent to win a seat on the Sheboygan County Board during the height of the pandemic, later earning re-election with strong conservative support.
His background includes service on the Sheboygan Falls City Council, the County Traffic Safety Committee, and the Joint County Library Planning Committee. Trained through American Majority, Jacob has developed strong voter outreach and organizing skills, which he now applies to expanding WIFFC’s presence across Northeast Wisconsin. He emphasizes persistence, relationships, and encouraging others—especially younger leaders—to get involved in public service.
WIFFC is not currently operating in Wisconsin's 7th Congressional District
Wendy and Randy Johnson
8th CD – Wisconsin
Randy and Wendy Johnson lead a highly effective, family-driven grassroots operation in the Green Bay region. Their team has reached thousands of voters across Northeast Wisconsin while building a sustainable volunteer network spanning multiple counties.
Originally launched by Randy decades ago, the operation has evolved into a multi-generational effort, with family members actively engaged in organizing, training volunteers, and expanding outreach. Their model emphasizes consistency, community relationships, and long-term engagement, with the next generation already participating and learning the fundamentals of grassroots organizing.
Spencer LaVerde
Immediate Past State Director
Spencer LaVerde oversees statewide operations, volunteer coordination, and grassroots strategy execution across Wisconsin. An emerging conservative leader, he combines hands-on canvassing experience with a background in logistics to maximize voter contact and efficiency in the field.
Spencer entered politics after a career in the transportation industry, where he developed operational discipline and systems thinking that now inform his approach to grassroots organizing. He quickly distinguished himself through direct voter engagement, coordinating canvass teams, and identifying high-impact target areas. Based in Southeast Wisconsin—the state’s most competitive region—he leads volunteer recruitment, field deployment, and day-to-day execution of WIFFC’s programs. Known for his work ethic and adaptability, Spencer plays a central role in ensuring operations remain data-informed and results-driven.
The Corporation shall be operated exclusively for charitable and educational purposes within the meaning of section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as now in effect or as may hereafter by amended (“the Code”), including, but not limited to, charitable, religious and educational activities to inform, equip, and mobilize people of faith and like-minded individuals to be effective citizens of the State of Wisconsin, including encouraging principles that strengthen families, promote time-honored values, protect the dignity of life and marriage, lower the tax burden on small business and families, and require government to tighten its belt and live within its means. The Corporation shall also engage in and support other charitable, social, and educational initiatives as the Board may determine from time to time, consistent with and in accordance with section 501(c)(3) of the Code.
Wisconsin Faith and Freedom Coalition
MAILING ADDRESS
Wisconsin Faith and Freedom Coalition
1433 N. Water Street, Suite 400
Milwaukee, WI 53202
(404) 606-3163
jpudner@wisconsinffc.com
